Ups And Downs of Parents in the Park Service!

Hello, my name is Brandee. Both my parents are in the National Park Service. They both currently work for the maintenance division of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Having parents in the National Park Service has its ups and downs. It is nice being able to volunteer at the parks. When my parents worked for Assateague Island National Seashore, on the days I didn't have school, I would go to work with my mom and help out with anything I could. Also I like being able to see all the other national parks and states.

It does, however, have its bad turns also. When either of my parents gets promoted, that usually means that we have to move. It is hard being a teenager and having to say goodbye to all my friends that I grew to love. And when I see best friends that have been together since kindergarten I think to myself I will never be able to have that close of a relationship with my friends because I move so much. I have learned throughout the years that never give up a good opportunity because you might not be there the next year. You just never know!

Brandee (Age 13)
Great Smoky National Park
Tennessee

Living in a National Park

Living in a park can be easy and hard but it all depends on where you live. If there are kids in the neighborhood it can be easy to find things to do, but if there are none in the park you have to find things to do, like where I live at, there are no kids for at least nine miles. One of the advantages of living in a park is that you can get a backcountry orientation before the other people who live outside of parks, so you can be the first person to camp.

I live in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. It's one of the largest parks in United States of America with an outstanding marine environment. In my neighborhood there are no kids living on my street. There are only seven people who live here year round. The other kids and their families live in Gustavus, which is nine miles away. Gustavus has about five hundred people living year around, and about 1000 during the summer. If you don't live in a park you would probably think it would be boring but that is not always the case. I was able to volunteer on a park boat, the Serac, as a deck hand. This boat transfers Park Rangers onto the cruise ships that come into Glacier Bay. This kind of experience will be important if I want to work at a park!

I lived in three other parks: Yosemite National Park, Big Bend National Park, and Padre National Seashore. I lived in the city of Corpus Christi at Padre National Seashore and really the only Park I can remember. There I saw sea turtles being released as hatchlings and also got to see full grown Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtles. All these parks were fun to live in and I am wondering what other parks that I'm going to see in the near future!

Sol (Age 15)
Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve
Alaska

Yosemite is a Great Place to Grow Up

Yosemite National Park is a fantastic place to be a kid! Our dad is a park ranger in Yosemite and living where millions of people come for vacation is pretty cool. Our school is in the park and we get to do a lot of amazing field trips to see Giant Sequoia trees, hike to Yosemite Falls (the highest in North America!!), go cross country skiing, climb granite domes, see and learn about black bears, and lots of other stuff. Sometimes we get to go backpacking with our dad when he has to go to a High Sierra Camp for work. Even though we have to drive two hours round-trip for groceries, doctor appointments, soccer, church and other “normal” things, it is WAY worth it!

Probably our favorite thing right now is being on the Yosemite Ski Team which our dad coaches. It's gotta be the only ski team representing a national park and we get to race teams from all over California. Having a ski resort in Yosemite is awesome and we spend tons of time there in winter, even our school goes there all day on Wednesdays for PE! Hopefully our dad will be a ranger here for a long time because we can't imagine a more fun place to live than Yosemite National Park!

David (Age 12) and Anna (Age 10)
Yosemite National Park
California

Playing in My Backyard

I play in my backyard and look up to see fawn twins or Mommy points out a bobcat hunting in the front yard. Sometimes I get to talk with coyotes that sit in my driveway.

When Mommy told me I was finally old enough to hike 6 miles to the High Peaks, I was really excited. As we climbed through the rocks, my Mommy grabbed my arm and told me to run. I looked up to where we ran and saw the biggest birds I'd ever seen. I looked around and saw that we were on top of the Pinnacles and these birds were coming at us really fast. California Condors. I sat on the rocks and watched birds bigger than me, play, dive, and soar all around me. I counted twelve condors that day. My Mommy and me talk about a lot of things together. Here is what we talk about.

“Conversations with Betsey”

Betsey: “I saw ANOTHER condor today, Mommy!”

Dana: “Really?!”

Betsey: “Yes, Daddy heard a noise and my brother and I turned around. Coming through the trees, just above our fence, was a HUGE bird. Joseph (age 2 1/2) squealed and pointed as I yelled CONDOR! I showed Joseph the red head, eyeballs, feet, and front white parts of the wings.”

“Mommy?”

Dana: “Yes.”

Betsey: “I don't think it was a noise. It was the music of wind over the wings.”

Betsey (Age 6)
Pinnacles National Monument
California

Matthew: Park Ranger Kid

My name is Matthew, I am 10 years old and live in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. I have had fun growing up here since I was three years old near the Mississippi River in a great old house that is just a few miles away from the park. My dad works across the river in Iowa in Effigy Mounds National Monument. They have lots of really old Indian mounds there and some of them look like huge bears and birds. When we first moved here I remember how fun it was to play on the grass. We did not have grass at our other house in Grand Canyon National Park. I spend lots of time with my two brothers and three sisters at Effigy Mounds hiking trails and doing lots of activities that the rangers offer kids. My favorite thing in the park is learning about birds, bugs, spiders, and snakes, and hiking to Fire Point to watch the sun come up. I like to look out at the Mississippi River from way above the water because it reminds me of a beautiful place I can remember when I was really little.

My mom, dad and older brother Andrew tell me stories about when we lived in Grand Canyon National Park when I was just born. Sarah, James, Hannah and Rachel never actually lived inside a National Park — they were all born in Wisconsin. Dad says my mom took me and Andrew walking or hiking just about every day with some friends no matter how warm or cold it was! Those friends live in Alaska now; I have only seen pictures of Alaska. I can still remember the beautiful colors of the sky and all of the rocks at Grand Canyon. We have lots of pictures of living there and Andrew talks about playing together in the back yard of our house and how close it was to walk and see the canyon. I don't remember much about playing, but I do remember one thing about the back yard - tarantulas! I remember them crawling all over the yard, watching them and not being scared at all. Dad asked me not to pick them up and bother them — but he did say if one crawled onto me that it would be alright if I did not move fast and scare it. Tarantulas don't want to bite you and once you get used to them, they don't look so scary.

We are going back to see the Grand Canyon this summer. I can't wait to see it again and I hope I can see some tarantulas too. Wisconsin and Iowa have lots of neat things, but no tarantulas.

Mathew (Age 10)
Effigy Mounds National Monument
Iowa

How Does It Feel to Have a Park Ranger as a Parent?

My mom is a park ranger so it's pretty cool. Sometime I come to work with my mom and volunteer. My mom is always busy talking to groups of people and going to meetings. But when she gets home she is still very busy. My mom goes to work 5 days a week. When mom gets home she cooks and irons her clothes for the next day. My mom took me to Oshkosh, Wisconsin on a business trip to the Experimental Aircraft Association Air Show. We had a wonderful time.

And that is why I love having a parent that is a Park Ranger.

Arcacia (Age 9)
Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site
Alabama

Life for a Southeast District of Columbia (DC) 10 year old in Grand Canyon National Park

For me, spending weekends and summer breaks in Greater Washington's national parks was as natural as welcoming the change of seasons, however, when my mom announced that she was headed off to Grand Canyon, AZ (with my sister and I in tow) for 12 weeks of training….wow, what a shock that was for us!

As a child of a park ranger, I always considered myself the lucky one as I was always going with my mom to work. If mom worked a large festival on the National Mall or a weekend detail in Glen Echo Park, I could definitely count on sharing some great stories with my friends at my elementary school.

I fondly remember becoming totally interested in the history of Washington, D.C. interpreted by my mom and other rangers from the terrace of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. I also remember with fondness the anticipation of meeting new friends from the Washington, D.C. area, who participated in the Fort Dupont Park Summer Day Camps. I remember the weekly field trips to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens and the Air & Space Museum. However, after 4 weeks of the same trips I quickly realized that life as a ranger's child had its drawbacks too!

As for my experience in the Grand Canyon, Arizona, at 10, I was dragged from my comfort zone of family and friends. But, the experience helped me develop and gain an appreciation for reading and learning more about history. I remember reading just about every age appropriate book in the Grand Canyon Elementary School's library. Yes, I did attend school for those 12 weeks while my mom insisted that my school teacher here in D.C. send work out there as well.

I remember the closeness of my mom's Ranger Skills class, their meetings over at the Albright Training Center and the weekly grocery store trips into Flagstaff, Arizona! I learned that other rangers also brought their children to their jobs and training. While my mom and her class spent a week hiking the Grand Canyon, my sister and I stayed with a wife and children of a ranger from Hawaii!

As an adult, the Grand Canyon experience is one I will treasure forever, although, as that 10 yr old from Southeast, DC, I initially thought my mom had simply thought up the worst possible punishment to ever issue a child. Today, I am a proud 20 year NPS employee, who vividly remembers stating that I would never subject my kids to visiting me at work; however, my two boys have had the pleasure of “enjoying and learning” about the significance and resources of several national parks here in the area and throughout the service!

P.S. My mom, Ms. Tina Satterwhite-Short, recently retired after 41 years with the National Park Service.

Kym Elder
Clara Barton NHS and Glen Echo Park
Maryland