After nine episodes of stories, insight, and earned perspective — one question remains.
 
In the Season 1 finale of the Ranger PamPaw Podcast, host Mark Tezel gives the honest, specific answer to the question that has been building all season: given everything it cost, everything it asked — would you do it all again?
 
You'll hear the story of the third day that redirected an entire career, what government shutdowns taught him about working within a system that doesn't always make sense, the school class that sent thank-you notes he still has, a son who proposed in Glacier Bay, and the parks — Emory Peak, Katmai, the Grand Canyon at dawn — that left marks that never faded.
 
The National Park Service is not perfect. But the parks are worth it. And they belong to all of us.
 
Ranger PamPaw Podcast is hosted by Mark Tezel — known to his grandkids as Ranger PamPaw — after nearly four decades with the National Park Service. Part of the Tezels on the Road family.

Support the show

Thanks for joining me on the trail today.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who loves our national parks as much as you do.

If you have a question, a story, or a park memory you’d like to share, I’d love to hear from you.

Visit www.tezelsontheroad.com/rangerpampaw or email me at [email protected].

Thanks for walking the trail with me.

I’ll see you in the park.

The three most common wildlife mistakes visitors make in national parks are feeding, rescuing, and getting too close. Most people who make them think they're doing something harmless. Some think they're helping.

In this episode, Ranger PamPaw draws on nearly four decades of National Park Service experience to explain what actually happens when wildlife gets conditioned to human food, when a well-meaning visitor picks up a fawn, and when a visitor closes the distance for a selfie with a bison.

You'll hear about bear school at Katmai, the remarkable return of black bears to Big Bend National Park, the baby squirrel call at San Antonio Missions, and a close encounter with a mother bear and her cubs on the Basin Loop Trail — an encounter that worked because a ranger knew when to step aside.

This episode is about the chain of good decisions that makes wild places stay wild — and your role in it.

 CHAPTERS:

0:00 — Cold Open: The Kid at the Wall — Rainbow Curve

02:04 — Segment 1: Feeding Wildlife — Why It Matters

08:20 — Segment 2: The "Rescue" Instinct

13:06 — Segment 3: Proximity, Phones, and the Selfie Problem

16:37 — Segment 4: What Respectful Wildlife Observation Looks Like

20:57 — Closing: The Chain of Good Decisions

Ranger PamPaw Podcast is hosted by Mark Tezel — known to his grandkids as Ranger PamPaw — after nearly four decades with the National Park Service. New episodes drop every other Wednesday. Part of the Tezels on the Road family.

Support the show

Thanks for joining me on the trail today.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who loves our national parks as much as you do.

If you have a question, a story, or a park memory you’d like to share, I’d love to hear from you.

Visit www.tezelsontheroad.com/rangerpampaw or email me at [email protected].

Thanks for walking the trail with me.

I’ll see you in the park.

What does a park on fire look like? Or a river reclaiming its floodplain after a century of dams? Or a glacier you could touch in 2010 that's now out of sight up the mountain?  In this episode of the Ranger PamPaw Podcast, host Mark Tezel talks about fire, flood, and ecological change the way a ranger who lived it would — through direct field experience, specific stories, and the long view that only a career in the parks can give you.  You'll hear the story of a sand hill in Boquillas Canyon that was there in 2005 and mostly gone twenty years later, why Smokey Bear's motto overachieved and what it cost the science, how the Elwha River reclaimed its floodplain after two dams came out, what a ranger notices about cherry blossoms over a decade of trips to Washington, and why "unimpaired for future generations" doesn't mean what most people think it means.  This isn't a doom episode. It's not cheerful denial either. It's the informed calm of someone who has watched these places change — and still believes they're worth protecting.  Ranger PamPaw Podcast is hosted by Mark Tezel — known to his grandkids as Ranger PamPaw — after nearly four decades with the National Park Service. New episodes drop every other Wednesday.  Part of the Tezels on the Road family.

Support the show

Thanks for joining me on the trail today.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who loves our national parks as much as you do.

If you have a question, a story, or a park memory you’d like to share, I’d love to hear from you.

Visit www.tezelsontheroad.com/rangerpampaw or email me at [email protected].

Thanks for walking the trail with me.

I’ll see you in the park.

Every national park has an official story — the one on the signs, the plaques, the brochures.

This episode tells the other stories.

After five episodes building context and credibility, Ranger PamPaw steps back from explaining how parks work and does something different: he sits down and tells stories. The funny ones — including the number one question asked at every park in America, a visitor who needed directions to El Paso and didn’t quite grasp the size of Texas, and a patch of prickly pear cactus that grew on a ranger office roof and became an impromptu natural history lesson. The quiet ones — including 1,700-year-old Bristlecone pines at Cedar Breaks National Monument and a story that didn’t finish until thirteen years after the hike that started it. The meaningful ones — a perfect interpretive moment on the San Antonio River with a school group, and the release of Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle hatchlings at Padre Island, one of conservation’s quiet success stories.

And the one that stays: a story about former students spread across the National Park System — from Alaska to Indiana, from the National Mall to the canyon country of Utah — and what their work says about the future of the NPS.

It all starts with a grandmother, a backpack, and a kid who wanted to be a ranger.

Ranger PamPaw Podcast is hosted by Mark Tezel — known to his grandkids as Ranger PamPaw — after nearly four decades with the National Park Service. New episodes drop every other Wednesday.

Part of the Tezels on the Road family. www.tezelsontheroad.com

Support the show

Thanks for joining me on the trail today.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who loves our national parks as much as you do.

If you have a question, a story, or a park memory you’d like to share, I’d love to hear from you.

Visit www.tezelsontheroad.com/rangerpampaw or email me at [email protected].

Thanks for walking the trail with me.

I’ll see you in the park.

Most park visitors want to do the right thing. But wanting to and knowing how aren’t always the same.
 
In this episode, host Mark Tezel — Ranger PamPaw — delivers the practical, honest advice that rangers wish they could give every visitor: what Leave No Trace actually means beyond the slogan, the real stories behind the rules that seem arbitrary, and why some of the most obvious-seeming rules are the hardest to enforce.
 
You’ll hear about the three visitor behaviors rangers deal with most — the wildlife selfie, the trail shortcut, and the feeding of wildlife — and what rangers genuinely understand about why they happen. You’ll also learn how visitors can actively help parks survive, and what Ranger PamPaw truly wishes he could say to every person who walks through the gate.
 
This is Episode 5 of Season 1 — the episode where Ranger PamPaw has earned the right to give some real advice. And he does.
 
Ranger PamPaw Podcast is hosted by Mark Tezel — known to his grandkids as Ranger PamPaw — after nearly four decades with the National Park Service. New episodes drop every other Wednesday.

Part of the Tezels on the Road family. 

www.tezelsontheroad.com

Support the show

Thanks for joining me on the trail today.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who loves our national parks as much as you do.

If you have a question, a story, or a park memory you’d like to share, I’d love to hear from you.

Visit www.tezelsontheroad.com/rangerpampaw or email me at [email protected].

Thanks for walking the trail with me.

I’ll see you in the park.

Ask ten people to describe a park ranger, and you'll get ten different answers. A tour guide. A law enforcement officer. Someone who fixes trails. Someone who works in the visitor center.
 
Here's the thing — they're all right.
 
In this episode of the Ranger PamPaw Podcast, host Mark Tezel brings you inside a full day in the life of the National Park Service: the early mornings, the public-facing work, the invisible planning, and the flexibility that holds it all together.
 
You'll hear about opening an eighteenth-century mission church before the visitors arrive, what the NPS Organic Act actually says and why it still drives every decision, the story of 14 miles of historic acequia and the seven-year plan to maintain them, and why there is truly no such thing as a typical day — or a typical park.
 
Whether you've visited a dozen national parks or you're just curious how they actually work, this episode will change the way you see the ranger hat.
 
Ranger PamPaw Podcast is hosted by Mark Tezel — known to his grandkids as Ranger PamPaw — after nearly four decades with the National Park Service. New episodes drop every other Wednesday.
 
Part of the Tezels on the Road family. www.tezelsontheroad.com

Support the show

Thanks for joining me on the trail today.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who loves our national parks as much as you do.

If you have a question, a story, or a park memory you’d like to share, I’d love to hear from you.

Visit www.tezelsontheroad.com/rangerpampaw or email me at [email protected].

Thanks for walking the trail with me.

I’ll see you in the park.

Ranger PamPaw takes listeners behind the scenes of the National Park Service to explain how America’s parks really work. Drawing on decades of experience, Mark Tezel explores why parks operate so differently under the same mission, who actually works in a park, and why planning, compliance, and limited budgets often make change slower than visitors expect.

This episode helps visitors better understand what goes into protecting park resources while still welcoming millions of people each year.

Learn more at https://www.tezelsontheroad.com

Questions or comments: [email protected]

Support the show

Thanks for joining me on the trail today.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who loves our national parks as much as you do.

If you have a question, a story, or a park memory you’d like to share, I’d love to hear from you.

Visit www.tezelsontheroad.com/rangerpampaw or email me at [email protected].

Thanks for walking the trail with me.

I’ll see you in the park.

In Episode 2 of the Ranger PamPaw Podcast, Mark Tezel (Ranger PamPaw) shares how a lifetime connected to America’s national parks changes the way you see them—and the responsibility that comes with that perspective.
This episode is story‑forward (not a résumé): from growing up around the San Antonio Missions to serving in the National Park Service, traveling across the system, and discovering how ‘deep time’ reshapes what matters.

In this episode:
• 01:16 - Before the Uniform
• 03:17 - Entering the National Park Service
• 05:03 - Seeing More of the System
• 07:24 - How Perspective Changes Over Time
• 12:53 - What Parks Teach Us
• 18:11 - Coming Up

Ask a question for a future episode: [email protected]
Podcast hub + resources: https://www.tezelsontheroad.com/rangerpampaw/

#RangerPamPawPodcast #NationalParks #ParkRanger #PublicLands

Support the show

Thanks for joining me on the trail today.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who loves our national parks as much as you do.

If you have a question, a story, or a park memory you’d like to share, I’d love to hear from you.

Visit www.tezelsontheroad.com/rangerpampaw or email me at [email protected].

Thanks for walking the trail with me.

I’ll see you in the park.

In this opening episode of the Ranger PamPaw Podcast, retired National Park Service ranger Mark Tezel introduces the journey ahead—one shaped by a lifetime in America’s national parks.From a first visit to Big Bend National Park at just one year old to a career that began in 1989, Ranger PamPaw reflects on how these places shaped his values, perspective, and sense of stewardship. Now retired, he shares why stepping out of the uniform doesn’t mean stepping away from the parks.This podcast is about stories, context, and hard-earned wisdom—not hype or travel checklists. Season 1 will explore how parks really work, ranger experiences, fire and wildlife, change over time, and why America’s national parks remain one of our greatest shared ideas.If you care about national parks, public lands, and the stories they preserve, this podcast is for you.

Support the show

Thanks for joining me on the trail today.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who loves our national parks as much as you do.

If you have a question, a story, or a park memory you’d like to share, I’d love to hear from you.

Visit www.tezelsontheroad.com/rangerpampaw or email me at [email protected].

Thanks for walking the trail with me.

I’ll see you in the park.

Welcome to the Ranger PamPaw Podcast—a storytelling podcast about America’s national parks, told from a lifetime of experience. Hosted by retired National Park Service ranger Mark Tezel, this show shares park stories, behind‑the‑scenes perspective, and the kind of wisdom you only gain after years on the trail.

Support the show

Thanks for joining me on the trail today.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who loves our national parks as much as you do.

If you have a question, a story, or a park memory you’d like to share, I’d love to hear from you.

Visit www.tezelsontheroad.com/rangerpampaw or email me at [email protected].

Thanks for walking the trail with me.

I’ll see you in the park.