A Rookie’s Perspective: Why don’t you love this?!

Editor's note: Alexa is a first-time NPS intern at Devil's Tower National Monument. We hope to have her chronicle her first season as a parallel to the "Postcards from Alaska" series. Her author bio is available at our Contributors page.



As the third full week of my internship comes to a close and my life feels less like a vacation, I’m still struggling to understand the tourist mentality.

“Let’s hit as many of these national parks in a single day as we can! If we leave Yellowstone by 8 a.m., we can hit Devil's Tower and Badlands before the closing ceremony at Rushmore!”

What? Why? Why won’t you stay for sunset? Why not just camp here tonight, watch the sunrise, and then go to Mount Rushmore? Hell, spend a few days here!

Every day, I see families, groups, couples, lone travelers stop for an hour or two to look at the tower before speeding off down the twisting exit road to the interstate.  Park.  Snap a photo.  Walk up to the base.  Retreat.  Leave.  Like clockwork.   How can you love this place if you’re only here for seconds?  How am I supposed to help you understand this place if you can’t even experience these beautiful Wyoming nights?  How will you ever appreciate this place (“in your own way”) if you don’t even know what a full day here feels like?  How will you ever know what the other side of the tower looks like?!

I try so, so hard to encourage people to stay longer. “You know, we have a really cool evening program tonight at the amphitheater.  It’s the perfect vantage point for the sunset!”

“Sorry, we’re trying to get to Rushmore by sunset.”

“Sorry, we’ve got a full day of traveling to Yellowstone ahead of us.”

“Sorry, we can’t.”

During my walks and programs and informal talks with visitors, I try my best to “give them the information so they can learn to appreciate this place in their own way.”  I try to talk about whatever they're interested in so they, too, can see how amazing this place is.  I try to show them all the cool, secret rock ledges to sit on.  I try.  But still, somehow, I encounter those who just can’t enjoy themselves here.

Normally, I would think that’s okay.  The geographer in me knows that everyone will appreciate places in their own way – positive or not.  But I just can’t help but blame the person spewing those horrible accusations (especially after I’ve shown them the cool rock ledges).

You’re never going to love this place if you’re only here for an hour, mid-day.  I know you just want to talk about the tower right in front of you, but turn around!  Look at the view! Look at the plains and the Black Hills!  If you don’t love it, I’m keeping these rock ledges for myself.

Before this internship began, I thought I’d be sharing cool stories with curious visitors.  I thought I would be talking about geology to people who are truly interested in learning.  I thought I would be encouraging people to step off the nicely-paved tower trail to go explore the red beds or Joyner ridge or one of the many wilderness areas that speckle my map with green.  It’s not that I don’t try; I do.  Maybe it’s because I’m at a smaller park/pit stop for those going between Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone.  Maybe it’s because these people have schedules to keep up with or itineraries to follow.  Maybe I just don’t share enough of my enthusiasm (I think if I try to share any more enthusiasm I will be numb).

I guess it just takes patience and practice to make it through the day listening to people rush rush rush when the land is telling you to relax and stay for a while. Or maybe it’s just me, no one else seems as bothered by it. Whatever the case may be, I have an incredible amount of respect for park rangers now after seeing the amount of people they have to interact with on a daily basis, especially those who insult our park.

A Rookie’s Perspective: My Life is Still a Vacation

Editor's note: This is Alexa's first post. She is a first-time NPS intern at Devil's Tower National Monument. We hope to have her chronicle her first season as a parallel to the "Postcards from Alaska" series. Her author bio is available at our Contributors page.

“...so one day my mother sat me down and explained that I couldn't become an explorer because everything in the world had already been discovered. I'd been born in the wrong century, and I felt cheated.”  – Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

I’ve always been an explorer, whether or not I use the term formally.  One year ago, I sat in an environmental history class with a professor and former National Park Ranger who thoughtfully and enthusiastically shared her knowledge of, in part, the history of the National Park Service.  Her enthusiasm matched my interest, and I am now interning at America’s first national monument.

Just a week ago, I arrived in Wyoming after a long, miserable trip from upstate New York.  My roommate picked me up at a small county airport about an hour away from Devils Tower National Monument.  I was exhausted and it was the middle of the night, but I still managed to gasp when I saw the shadow of the tower against the purple-y night sky.  My roommate probably thought my excitement was a little ridiculous, but I couldn’t hide how cool I thought the view was.

I still think the tower at night is better than in the daytime.  During the day, you see what you expect.  It looks just like what you see in the pictures (actually, it’s much better, but the details are the same).  But, when you visit the tower at night, you just see this mass of darkness against the best view of the Milky Way ever.  It’s something you can’t photograph and expect to be the same.

The best part of it all is that you can see the tower at night.   Not just the rangers.  Not just the raccoons that freak me out.  Not just me.  Anyone can see it or any national park because it’s not just my tower or the state of Wyoming’s tower. It’s public land.  I am still getting over the fact that we can all be here whenever we want because it is all ours.

--

I’ve only been here a week, so I kind of am still in vacation mode.  Every morning while I’m opening the Visitor Center, I see the tourists sleepily emerge from their warm cars and gasp at the height of the tower.  If I didn’t walk to work, I would be doing the exact same thing.  I just can’t believe that something so amazing can actually exist.  When I take the trail home from work, I can’t believe the red rocks and winding river are actually there.  The only thing tethering me down to the real world is the massive amount of paperwork I’ve had to do this week.

Which leads me to the actual work part of this: there is a lot of it.  I intern 8-hour days like a real adult and have lots of paperwork.  I have to cook my own food (help, mom and dad!).  I give (and plan) tower walks and short talks and evening programs just like the Rangers. I work in the Visitor Center. I rove the trails. But, still, it doesn’t feel like any job I’m used to.  It may be because it’s the first week, or it may be because I’m in one of America’s amazing parks and monuments.

Whatever the case, I could never have imagined this is what I would be doing for the summer.  I never want to stop exploring the boulder field and the red beds and the prairie grass fields.  I never want to stop the alertness I have while hiking to watch for rattle snakes.  I never want to stop telling people about the geology and history and culture of the Black Hills and the high plains.  It may be the new job high, but I feel like I’m on a vacation, and I never want it to end.

-Alexa.