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DO WHAT YOU LOVE AND THE ADVENTURES WILL FOLLOW

Parker, a guided tour leader, stands on one of the many trails at Zion National Park overlooking the beautiful scenery

They say when you do what you love, you’ll never “work” a day in your life. Parker S. knew he wanted to incorporate his love for the outdoors into his hospitality management studies. During a career fair at school in 2017, he was introduced to Zion Ponderosa Ranch Resort and decided to apply as a marketing intern. Shortly after he was accepted, he was excited to add Recreation Guide to his resume.

The highlight of Parker’s summer job at Zion Ponderosa was leading tours, and he made it his goal to guide as many as possible. “There’s nothing like zooming around trails with panoramic views of Zion National Park! I loved…seeing {guests’} confidence rise,” he recalls. These days, Zion Ponderosa’s ATV tours have been replaced with East Zion Adventures guided Jeep tours, to allow even more guests to experience an even wider expanse of East Zion’s backcountry.

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No matter how things evolve over the years, Parker recalls his summer at Zion Ponderosa with the fondest memories. “I now consider Zion National Park my second home,” he says. The friends I made at Zion Ponderosa are friends for life.”

Working as an East Zion Adventures guide is an exciting and rewarding job, which varies from day to day. One day you can be leading a group of advanced hikers, another day can mean guiding first-timers on a canyoneering adventure or a group Jeep tour. Every day means providing recreation guests with great customer service, educating adventurers about the local flora, fauna, geology and human history of the Zion National Park region, and safely guiding guests on canyoneering, Jeep, horseback and hiking adventures.

The perks? Your days off look a lot like this:

All East Zion Adventure guides are CPR and First Aid certified, and must be great with people, flexible, and able to handle advanced problem-solving. Most of all, our guides have a love for the great outdoors and especially East Zion.

Want to work at Zion Ponderosa Ranch Resort on the east side of Zion National Park? Click here to learn more!