If you’re tired of city life and long for a job where the scenery is breathtaking and the air crisp and clean, you’ll have to give up your confining cubicle. We’ve found five careers for you to investigate that will let you live up in the mountains, far from the madding crowd.
Ski Instructor
Powder lovers can live the good life by taking a job as ski instructor at a winter resort. Of course, you need expert skiing skills yourself, but once you get past that hurdle you just need to be willing to do the hard work of job hunting. The down side: the work is seasonal, so you’ll need to have something lined up for the other half of the year.
Trail Ride Guide/Wrangler
Do you have experience with horses? Do you like working with people? Dude ranches abound in the mountains and they always need crews for the summer season. The pay isn’t great, but these jobs come with all the horseback riding you could hope for, and room and board are generally included.
Wildlife Biologist
If you have the time, inclination, and money to head back to college for a biology degree, you can parlay that into a coveted spot with a government agency or private industry as a wildlife research biologist. Remember all those television programs where the guy darts the cougar and then tags it and collects laboratory specimens before releasing it back into the wild? That could be you. The pay is fair, the benefits package is good, and your office most days is out in the field.
Park/Forest Ranger
Yosemite. Yellowstone. The Great Smoky Mountains. The national parks of the U.S. are beckoning. But if you want a position as park or forest ranger, be prepared for stiff competition. You’ll generally need a college degree, though some people come up through the ranks. The work is year-round, but budget cuts are always a concern. Regardless of whether you work for the National Park Service/Department of the Interior or the Forest Service/Department of Agriculture, you’ll have administrative work in addition to roaming the trails and meadows in search of vacationers with questions about wildlife and general park information.
Nature Photographer
For those who love the visual arts, nature and mountain scenery are naturally appealing. You need to be self-motivated and have the skills to run your own business, but for the right person, this can be highly rewarding and lucrative.
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