My First Week in Yosemite National Park

My First Week in Yosemite National Park

View of Yosemite Valley from the Yosemite Falls Trail

Hello ProRangers and Park People! My first full week in Yosemite started with my arrival to the historic Rangers' Club on Friday afternoon. After nearly a week of driving, I was thrilled to finally arrive in my new home for the next six months. After unpacking and getting settled, I met with my supervisor and Yosemite Emergency Services Coordinator, Jack Hoelfich, to take a tour of the park and meet some of the people I will be working with over the next few months. Eager to go on a hike and enjoy some of the scenic beauty the park has to offer, I got up early on Saturday for a day hike up the Yosemite Falls Trail. Although the hike was more challenging than anticipated, it was well worth the view once I made it to the top ( I even saw a bobcat along the way!). The rest of my week was split between the Yosemite Medical Clinic where I processed paperwork to receive my "white card" and the Search and Rescue (SAR) cache where I helped organize gear and started working on a long term project. While I'm excited to share all of my experiences from this first week, I want to start by discussing my housing arrangement in the historic Rangers' Club.

The Rangers' Club

View of the Rangers' Club

Have you ever wondered where park service employees and park rangers live? While most park employees are able to live outside park boundaries, the vast expanse and remoteness of Yosemite necessitates housing within the park for a wide array of park employees. Understanding the need to house park employees, the first director of the National Park Service, Stephen Mather, hired architect Charles Sumner to build a place for new rangers to live. Construction of the Rangers' Club began in 1920 and was completed in 1924. The Rangers' Club features a rustic design using natural materials that Mather sought to use as an example for future buildings within Yosemite Valley. The Rangers' Club was originally used as a home for new rangers who were transitioning from their role in the military to work for the newly established National Park Service. Today, the Rangers' Club is recognized as a National Historic Landmark and houses seasonal and permanent employees. I am so thrilled to have the opportunity to live in such a beautiful building with ties to the establishment of the National Park Service!

Inside view of the Rangers' Club. The dining tables are made from Giant Sequoia trees and lined by bookcases featuring books that date back to the 1800's. 

To learn more about the Rangers' Club and see what its like, check out this great NPS video!

Yosemite Medical Clinic & Emergency Services

Yosemite Medical Clinic with Sierra Point in the background. 

 While most park visitors spend a few hours or even days in the park, there are those who live in the park long term. While no one wants to end their trip with a visit to the clinic, the Yosemite Medical Clinic offers medical care for both visitors and long term residents as well as emergency medical services (EMS). Having a medical clinic inside of a National Park is truly unique. While the medical clinic is overseen by the NPS, the clinic is staffed by U.S. Public Health Service Officers. I started my week inside the medical clinic where I met with providers that are part of the EMS program. Given the high level of visitation (4.5 million visitors in 2019) and number of long term residents in the park, Yosemite has a number of ambulances and trained healthcare providers on hand to respond to medical emergencies within the park. As part of my time in Yosemite, I am working as an EMT and responding to emergency calls in one of the park ambulances. However, in order to serve as a medical responder I first had to get my "white card". For those of you who are unfamiliar with this term, a white card is the park service's equivalent to a state issued certification.

In addition to applying for my white card, I underwent a variety of training to learn new skills and reinforce prior knowledge. Although some of what I learned included actions that are above my scope of practice as an EMT, I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to learn from such skilled providers and look forward to continuing my education and furthering my goal of becoming a parkmedic. In the meantime, I am preparing to serve as a driver on one of the park ambulances. To get acquainted with the ambulance and the surrounding service area, I spent some of my time driving around the park. Although it will take some time until I can comfortably navigate the park, I look forward to working with the highly skilled paramedics and responding to emergency calls. 

Yosemite EMS Ambulance E3

One of the paramedics teaching me how to perform an endotracheal intubation. 

Yosemite Search and Rescue 

After spending some time during the beginning of the week in the medical clinic, I went over to the SAR cache where I helped organize rescue equipment and started working on a long term project. In order to ensure members of Yosemite's Search and Rescue Team are prepared for an emergency, I conducted an inventory of all the rope, climbing equipment, and other rescue gear within the SAR cache. During this process, I looked for any gear that showed signs of wear or damage and made notes on missing items. Conducting an inventory was a great way for me to see some of the equipment within the SAR cache while also ensuring that all the gear is ready for use during an emergency or rescue situation. As part of a more long term project, I am currently inputting data from all of last years SAR missions. This process will organize the data by incident type and map the locations of each rescue. Once finished, this information will help inform park staff of areas where rescues most often occur and influence decisions to temporarily close off sections of the park during inclement weather.

Organizing gear from one of the high angle rescue kits

One section of the "SAR Cache"

Although this first week was spent doing a lot of administrative paper work and getting settled, I have already learned an immense amount of new information and made plenty of great friends. I look forward to a weekend full of hiking and a productive week ahead!

Until next time,

ProRanger Caruso