My name's Katie Muszkiewicz,
and I'm an Interpretive Ranger at Mesa Verde National Park.
One thing that I find really interesting about rangers is that
not all of us, but a lot of us tend to be introverted.
A lot of us tend to want to go into nature -
whether it's a historical or cultural site or whether it's a true natural site -
a lot of want to go there and sit and be quiet.
But that quietness, for most of us, fills us with so much excitement
we have to be able to share it with somebody.
And that's what makes us good rangers.
There's something about the power of the parks that just consume us.
It's what nourishes us.
There's so much in talking to someone where you see that lightbulb go in
Where they make that connection on their own,
where they go, "[GASP] Wow!"
I mean, of course you see that in kids, but you also see that in adults
and in parents. Very often you'll hear parents go, "Wow, I learned something, too!"
And that's the goal, it's to get everybody to learn something.
You get older folks that come back and they've been touring the parks for years upon years
It's asking them, "Why do you keep coming back?"
It's a nurturing of the soul.
And we do that not only for ourselves in the parks, but
as we interact with people. Because watching them
is just as nurturing as being in the middle of the forest for us.
As to the Centennial, you're talking to a history nerd; I love this stuff!
I think it's great that we started to regulate the rangers.
Because then people were getting more of the sense of this is park
and this is what should be happening there.
But what we also see is because of that, because there's a concentration,
over the years we're able to improve how rangers interact,
as well as protect their sites. And that's really an important part
of rangering and why we do it.