One's Duty

Aw, now then I know what you're thinking, so you're a ranger at Yellowstone but what do you do?

I am glad you ask. As I am about to head into my weekend, I have had the opportunity to taste each of the different shifts we have here at the East Entrance. There is the 7-16:00 shift in which one is repsonsible for opening. When this is me, I get to check the meter that shows how many people have passed through our gate. I record this number after opening up the station. My next job is to put up the flag, get my money and open a booth, this way I can get more money! :D
I have to check the weather, print up the reports, make sure there is one in all three booths, then I need to check the tempuratures for the day, recording the high, the low and the observation temperature as well as what kind of percipitation we have gotten over the day as well as what kind of percipitation it was. We report this daily. At 13:00 we do the fire weather. We have what are called the 10 hour logs that mimick the "fuel" on the ground. We record how much moisture it has. And then we check the high and low humidity, the high and low temperature (something we have already done in the morning, as well as how much percipitation we have (two different measurements). This is followed by wind speed and direction. We write all of this down and report our numbers. On Monday we do the 1100 hour logs. We weigh them and report how much they weighed.

And then there is closing where we do several reports, take down the flag, turn on lights, close up shop and hope we don't have to come in early the next day.

So yes, it is more than just taking people's money.

Love you all

E