Our job as campground hosts at Echo Park was something that neither Jon nor I had ever imagined doing. Everyone at Dinosaur National Monument told us how lucky we were to be placed at Echo Park; it was a favored section of the park for almost every employee. After only a few days, we agreed with them. Our job was to take care of the campground and campers who stayed there as well as being available for any river rafters or day-trippers who needed help. This didn’t require much in terms of hours worked but did necessitate us being on-site and available nearly all day, every day. Since the nearest cities were about a two-hour drive, it wasn’t a hardship to stay at Echo Park and enjoy what it had to offer.
The campground at Echo Park has 17 regular sites, available for tents, small RVs, vans, or truck campers. There were also four walk-in sites available, for the tent campers who wanted to stay a bit further back from the road around the campground. In addition, there was a group site near the entrance to the river which could hold up to 25, although this only happened three or four times during our stay. There were three bathrooms, which consisted of vault toilets and hand sanitizer, as well as spigots from which people could drink. Our cabin was situated at the very end of the road leading into Echo Park, giving us a bit of privacy from the campers and rafters.
One of our projects was to line the road with rocks to prevent people from driving in the field.
Jon and I would walk the loop of the campground twice per day. Late morning, we would walk around and tidy up from the campers who had departed from the night before. Picking up any stray litter and refilling toilet paper was usually the extent of our chores for the morning visit. Either before or during our morning walk, we would test the water supply. The water available at Echo Park comes from an underground spring and is untreated with any chemicals. To ensure that it is safe to drink, we tested it every morning and recorded any variances that we observed. In the evening before dusk, we would take another walk around to introduce ourselves to the new campers and explain a little bit about the campground and surrounding area. This took longer than our morning visit, as many people were eager to chat and learn about trails nearby or the petroglyphs on the rocks. We took our time and would visit with people as we went, making sure that everyone was comfortable and happy.
We received volunteer t-shirts and hats to wear when working at the campground.
That was the extent of our formal duties as campground hosts. Informally, we were available at any time of day to answer questions, help people find where they were going in the park, or liaison in case of emergencies. A majority of the informal job came from day-trippers who would drive down to Echo Park, stop at our cabin to ask questions, and continue on. Aside from our trips to town every couple weeks for groceries, we stationed ourselves at or near our cabin most days to meet with visitors. In between this, Jon would chop wood or tidy the trails.
A camper found a cache of illegal antlers hidden near our campground. Jon alerted the rangers, who met him on the river and broke up the cache. He then carried a pair back to our cabin so that we could drop them off at headquarters for evidence.
We did have a couple of more critical situations occur in which we helped those at the campground and communicated with the rangers. In one instance, a girl had heat stroke and kept throwing up. Her husband brought her to our cabin at 11:00pm on a Saturday evening when it appeared that she wasn’t getting any better. Since we had the only shower available at Echo Park, she took a shower to cool off and then sat in our living room by the fan and drank water with electrolytes until she was feeling better. In another instance, a group coming down the river stopped for medical attention. A raft had flipped over on one of the rapids and the oar lock had punctured a man’s thigh. We coordinated with a ranger to arrange an ambulance to meet us at the top of our dirt road (the closest that they could drive) and Jon drove the man up to meet the ambulance. Both situations ended satisfactorily, with the girl feeling better and getting some sleep in her tent and the man getting to the hospital to have his would sutured. We felt happy to have been there to help those in need, although were also happy that we weren’t needed in emergency situations very often.
The work that we did at Dinosaur National Monument was not very strenuous or taxing, rather it was immensely enjoyable and relaxing. Echo Park is a beautiful slice of the park and while we did venture out to explore some of the other areas, we were always happy to return to our temporary home in the canyon.
The wildlife was not afraid of us! The bighorn sheep and deer would regularly come to graze and hang out in our yard.