Ranger Confidential

Living, Working, and Dying in the National Parks

By: Andrea Lankford

Narrated by: Julia Motyka

Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

The real stories behind the scenery of America’s national parks.

For 12 years, Andrea Lankford lived in the biggest, most impressive national parks in the world, working a job she loved. She chaperoned baby sea turtles on their journey to sea. She pursued bad guys on her galloping patrol horse. She jumped into rescue helicopters bound for the heart of the Grand Canyon. She won arguments with bears. She slept with a few too many rattlesnakes.

Hell yeah, it was the best job in the world! Fortunately, Andrea survived it.

In this graphic and yet surprisingly funny account of her and others’ extraordinary careers, Lankford unveils a world in which park rangers struggle to maintain their idealism in the face of death, disillusionment, and the loss of a comrade killed while holding that thin green line between protecting the park from the people, the people from the park, and the people from each other. Ranger Confidential is the story behind the scenery of the nation’s crown jewels - Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Great Smokies, Denali. In these iconic landscapes, where nature and humanity constantly collide, scenery can be as cruel as it is redemptive.

©2010 Andrea Lankford (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Entertaining and Real

A de-romanticized account of the heroism, grit, and harsh realities of park rangers and their profession. Entertaining humor and cynicism.

And you thought working in a park was easy....

A behind the scenes look at what our dedicated parks professionals have to deal with - the good, the bad and the very unfortunate. Like it or not, when millions of people visit anywhere, sometimes things don’t always go as planned. Next time you’re visiting your favorite park; remember that the staff there might have just dealt with a serious issue so you could enjoy your picnic. Certainly makes one feel our valuable park systems are under resourced across the country. Support your federal, state and local parks!

Interesting content but................

Interesting content but the narration made me want to repeatedly jump off of Half Dome.

Very entertaining and wonderfully written.

I purchased this book on Kindle and Audible and listened to the entire audiobook in one sitting--it was that entertaining! Owing in no small part, to Julia Motyka's deeply gifted narration I was instantly immersed in the world being presented and I never tired or wanted to stop and take a break. I highly recommend this book as entertainment for people who are fascinated with wilderness subjects. It is a heartfelt first-hand account of what life as a forest ranger was like for a woman in the 90s penned by a gifted writer. You won't be disappointed.

Read and loved by a ranger

Start to finish Lankford's story telling is as gripping as one would cling to a ledge awaiting a rescue.

Wow.

I enjoyed the many adventures and learned the hardship of being a ranger. Many respects.

Excellent Account of Life as a Ranger

This was a superb book about life in the National Park See as a ranger. Many people who love the outdoors often join to work in beautiful places, help in conservation efforts, protect wildlife and people. The ability to work in amazing locales is a plus for a while. The pay and living conditions are far less than ideal and competition for full time jobs with benefits is tough. Besides the author, we follow several other rangers, both male and female and learn of the rigors of a very hazardous workplace. For women, they are often not treated well, the old boys club mentality can be strong in many places. We also learn of the rescued and lives lost, how annoying, funny, terrifying dealing with the public can be. It was hard for me to put down and I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It was read using Immersion Reading, while listening to the audiobook. The narrator did a wonderful job of imparting the stories and observations within. You will never look at a ranger again.

breath taking

this book was harsher than I expected but the truth and honesty was welcome in the end.

Should have read the book.

If you could sum up Ranger Confidential in three words, what would they be?

I liked it.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Ranger Confidential?

All of the stories she tells are memorable, moving, and interesting. I was captivated by the stories themselves.

Would you be willing to try another one of Julia Motyka’s performances?

Absolutely not. This narrator was by far the worst that I have heard. She sounds like she should be making overhead announcements in an airport. She made exciting, captivating stories seem bland. The author of the book swears, uses slang, and is sarcastic. The narrator, by contrast, is stiff and over-enunciates. Her tone and dictation detracted from enjoyment of the book significantly.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The ending, certainly. But I really enjoyed hearing most of the rescue stories and even some of the sillier ranger moments.

Exciting backstory

I really like the inside story of the Park Rangers life. There is so much more than you think about as you wander around
the National Parks seeing the good looking Ranges in their neat uniforms, smiling at you. They do keep the underbelly of
the parks out of the news. Nice to visit thinking it is so serene, but also a disservice to the visitor when they don't know to be on guard. Dangers lurk everywhere, just like walking through any downtown big city late at night.
I found the reader to have an odd inflection, that left me not hearing all the words as she raised and lowered the tone of her voice while reading.