Home on the Range

It’s up hills and into caves—all while wearing a famous hat—for this Utah teacher.

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Every summer, Jody Kyburz used to hike through Utah’s Timpanogos Cave National Monument just for fun. But in the summer of 2001, the elementary school science teacher had an idea. “On my way down it suddenly hit me—maybe I should volunteer here,” she recalls. “So I did.”

The National Park Service assigned her to trail patrol, where she helped visitors and occasionally accompanied rangers on tours. She enjoyed volunteering so much that she applied to become a ranger. Since getting the job, she’s worked every summer since 2003, interpreting the cave for people “so that they can make sense of what they’re seeing.”

Last summer Kyburz took her fifth-grade students on a hike to the cave, a field trip she plans on repeating. “It’s one thing to show them videos and make them read articles about erosion or faults,” she says. “But when they actually see it and go ‘Oh, that’s what a fault is,’ that’s when they really get it.”

Students are also impressed to see her as a ranger, Kyburz says. “I think that rangers make excellent role models for children and more importantly, I think it opens their eyes to the fact that women can be rangers, too.” What else impresses them? “My uniform, the badge, and the Smokey the Bear hat.”

—MISHRI SOMESHWAR