Once at a ranger program, said ranger asked what we think of when we hear the words “park ranger”?  I yelled out of the darkness, “overeducated and underpaid”.  The ranger doffed her hat and yelled back, “Thank you, Slim!”.

Go online to any hiking chat site and it is said that Rangers just want to keep anyone from having fun.  Park Rangers care about animals and plants more than people.  Rangers spend all their time in offices and don’t appreciate those who are Really Trying to Enjoy the Parks.  

This from the Park Service Website:  The National Park Service preserves unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations. The Park Service cooperates with partners to extend the benefits of natural and cultural resource conservation and outdoor recreation throughout this country and the world.

Preserve unimpaired.  So no gondolas, no condos, no cog railways.  Also no rock bolts, no permanent rock-climbing slings, no hunting.

Rangers want to keep us from having fun?  I have never confronted a person who was throwing rocks over the edge, carving his name on a tree, or cutting switchbacks and, coincidentally, starting rock slides on those below, who has not claimed that he was just “having fun”.  We once spoke rather sternly to some Boy Scouts who were building a concrete monument atop a mountain in the Superstition Wilderness (true!) and were informed that we were stopping some “red-blooded American fun”.  

I once went on a tour which involved flying to Page, trucking to Antelope Canyon, and a flat water river trip.  Participants on the tour spent a lot of time complaining about “#$^%& park rangers and the fact that they were: 

1) trying to eliminate Canyon overflight (not so: just trying to rein them in)

2) interfere with Antelope Canyon tours (not even close: that is the Navajo Nation)

3) not allow day tours on the river below Lee’s Ferry (guilty: no way to get out for at least 89 miles once you leave Lee’s).

At which point the river boat guide asked me what I do for a living, and I said, I work for the Grand Canyon Association.  She then announced, “Hey, this lady works for the Park Service!”.  

Of course, I don’t.  We work in cooperation with same.  But I would be proud to.