Ranger Confidential: Living, Working, And Dying In The National Parks

by Andrea Lankford

Overview

For twelve years, Andrea Lankford lived in the biggest, most impressive national parks in the world, working a job she loved. She chaperoned baby sea turtles on their journey to sea. She pursued bad guys on her galloping patrol horse. She jumped into rescue helicopters bound for the heart of the Grand Canyon. She won arguments with bears. She slept with a few too many rattlesnakes.

Hell yeah, it was the best job in the world! Fortunately, Andrea survived it.

In this graphic and yet surprisingly funny account of her and others’ extraordinary careers, Lankford unveils a world in which park rangers struggle to maintain their idealism in the face of death, disillusionment, and the loss of a comrade killed while holding that thin green line between protecting the park from the people, the people from the park, and the people from each other. Ranger Confidential is the story behind the scenery of the nation’s crown jewels—Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Great Smokies, Denali. In these iconic landscapes, where nature and humanity constantly collide, scenery can be as cruel as it is redemptive.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780762752638
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/02/2010
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	81,395
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Andrea Lankford is a former national park ranger and the author of three books, including Haunted Hikes: Spine-Tingling Tales and Trails from North America's National Parks, which was featured in USA Today, chosen by People as a 2006 Travel Pick, and described by Newsday as “spell-binding.” Her articles have appeared in USA Today, Arizona Highways, and Backpacker.

Table of Contents

Introduction vi

1 This Is Your Brain on the Grand Canyon 1

2 Plover Patrol 7

3 Faint at Heart 16

4 As Yosemite Falls 23

5 Our First Summers in the Sierra 31

6 Dead Bear Walking 42

7 The Ranger Olympics 49

8 A Girl in Boys Town 58

9 The Partner 68

10 The Tell-Tale Backpack 74

11 Mary, the Split-Tail Clerk-Typist 79

Gateway to the Underworld 91

13 Scorpion Karma 94

14 Predator-Prey Relationships 103

15 Cruel World 113

16 Crash 119

17 A Cold Wet One 125

18 Dry Heat 136

19 The Devil's Corkscrew 146

20 Friday the Thirteenth 150

21 The Gut of Darkness 154

22 Thunder and Lightning 157

23 Pine Pigs 165

24 Dangerous Types 170

25 Thanksgiving Ledge 180

26 Stuck in the Fee Booth 191

27 What's So Wonderful about Wonder Lake? 197

28 Separation Canyon 204

29 Place of Emergence 212

30 On the Mountain 217

31 The Ranger's Burden 226

32 The Last Call 233

Epilogue 235

Acknowledgments 239

Index 241

About the Author 246