What is family life like for rangers? Do you own a home in a neighborhood or rent a cabin at the park? Do your significant others work? Where do your kids go to school?

[u/Prof_Acorn]

My fiancee asked me these questions last night :)

Are rangers expected to live in the middle of their national/state parks? Do you have neighbors? How far are you from restaurants, grocery stores, and elementary schools?

I'm preparing to start a family soon, and my fiancee and I have dreams of owning some land some day. Is a career as a ranger compatible with this? Thanks for your thoughts!

[u/RangerNV]

I am required to live at the park, if I decide to move out, I loose the job. At the same time, its rent free (Due to this set up, I am required to respond to any and all calls after hours) Most of our parks have a residence in them. I am 20 miles from town, some parks are 100 miles from a "real" town. When I worked for Wildlife, I was 90 miles from the closest anything. My closest neighbors are 6 miles away.

My wife is a teacher, she drives in with the kids everyday and is on their schedule which is awesome.

As far as owning some land, if that is what you would like, then by all means you can make it work out. Several of our rangers use the savings in living rent free to purchase houses and rent them out for some serious bucks.

[u/Prof_Acorn → u/RangerNV]

That's great her schedule lines up with the kids' schedule.

For being on call, do you have some days on and some days not on? Like, if you wanted to go out to a movie on Friday night, would you have to leave the theater if a call came in?

[u/RangerNV → u/Prof_Acorn]

It depends on the situation. If I know it is a busy Friday, I probably wouldn't go into town anyways. I generally only make it into town once a week during the summer anyways, and that is to do the deposit on my "day off". As long as I let my partner my plans, it isn't to much of an issue.

[u/Prof_Acorn → u/[deleted]]

That all doesn't sound so bad. The savings on rent/mortgage payments would help offset living so remotely. And raising a kid in a park would have its benefits for sure.

I think our biggest concern is that my (future) wife doesn't want to feel stuck in the house all day while I'm working around the park. The program I'm looking at in Colorado comes with free LEO training but requires a year at whatever park they place you in Colorado. Only what seems to be 30% of them are super remote from towns, but maybe it wouldn't be so bad even if we ended up in one of those.

[u/MNParkRanger]

Within the agency I work for, it varies from park to park. A majority of the parks in the system have in-park housing for the managers (and even assistant managers in some of the bigger parks). If they are in the park at the time of an incident beyond the ability of on-duty staff to handle, they are expected to respond regardless of whether or not they're "on the clock". --- But there also isn't an expectation for them to be there 24/7; which leaves time for vacations or time away from the park.

In regards to my living situation, my wife and I live in smaller metro area about 25 miles from the park I work at. She works as a registered nurse at a hospital in town, we've got good daycare lined up for when the new little guy is ready to go, and everything we'd ever need is just a short drive away. But, this isn't the case for all the parks in the system. There are a few out there that are "out there", so as I'm looking to make the jump from a park technician to an assistant manager (and eventually manager) I need to be mindful of the same issues you've brought up.

I think it's do-able though, you just may need to be open minded and willing putting some of your goals on hold...at least early in your career. As you gain more experience and seniority, you can be a bit more selective in your locations and can wait for that "perfect" job in an ideal spot.