What are we doing?

When we retired over 4 years ago, we bought a 5^th wheel RV and a nice big truck to haul it around the USA traveling through the lens of the National Park system. We continually met active retired folks who worked the Visitor Center at many of the parks, monuments and historical sights. We discovered if you are willing to volunteer 32 hours/week for the national park system, they often will provide you an RV pad with full hook-ups or even a cabin or an apartment to live in. You get to live in the national park of your choice for 3 – 6 months for free by just getting to talk to folks about the park, the history, things to do in the area as well as helping with small maintenance projects, collecting the recycling or providing light security with walks around the area checking that buildings are locked for the night. At least, those were our responsibilities. Other Park jobs differ based on their needs.

How did we find out about this job?

Most of the parks in the National Park system have a link to the types of volunteer jobs they offer through the “Get Involved” link (https://www.nps.gov/acad/getinvolved/index.htm). This link will eventually take you to the Federal government volunteer job site for mostly seasonal jobs (https://www.volunteer.gov/s/ ). This site is a volunteer job warehouse for federal jobs that include the National Parks, BLM, Fish and Wildlife and Army Corp of Engineers. The bottom line, it is just like applying for a real job—you need a resume, you fill out a job application, provide references and are willing to have a background check. It helps tremendously if you have visited the park and had a chance to communicate or meet with their volunteer coordinator. That last note is totally how we got our job at Acadia NP.

It’s fun to search the site periodically to see what parks are looking for. I’ve seen opportunities for bicycle rangers, maintaining climbing areas in Joshua Tree NP, bird watching tour guides, visitor center guides for fish hatcheries, wild life refuges and national monuments and of course, campground hosts everywhere. On a side note, many state parks and other publically funded sites have similar volunteer opportunities.