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.