Table of Contents

Author’s Note

Prologue: Return of Spontaneous Circulation

Part I: Yellowstone

1: The Definition of Insanity

2: Land of Large Carnivores

3: The World’s First National Park

4: Onboarding

5: A Call in the Wild

6: Alone on the Ambulance

7: Concessionaire Craziness

8: Bucket List

9: Job Security

10: Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health

11: Be on the Lookout

12: Sink or Swim

Part II: Yosemite

13: The Other “Y” Park

14: Lug Nut Rule

15: Thinking Outside the Box

16: Scope of Practice

17: Frequent Flyers

18: Meditation at Gunpoint

19: Somebody’s Worst Day

20: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

21: Swiss Cheese and Silver Linings

Part III: Grand Teton

22: The Wildland-Urban Interface

23: Good Medicine in Bad Places

24: Gone Too Soon

25: My Darkest Hour

26: Something for the Pain

27: The Call of the Summer

About the Author

Kevin Grange is a firefighter paramedic in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He is the award-winning author of Lights and Sirens: The Education of a Paramedic and Beneath Blossom Rain:Discovering Bhutan on the Toughest Trek in the World. He has written for Journal of Emergency Medical Services, National Parks, Backpacker, Utne Reader, Yoga Journal, and the Orange County Register. He has worked as a park ranger and paramedic at Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Grand Teton National Parks.

Reviews

"There are thousands of ways to die in the Great Outdoors, but an elite group of park rangers and paramedics mind the gap. One of them has finally brought us their riveting stories of rescue in this quick and interesting book full of drama and real-life heroism." Ben Montgomery, author of Grandma Gatewood's Walk

" Wild Rescues is a book you want to read, not be featured in. But if you did have the bad luck to be the subject of one of these entertaining and occasionally scary stories, you'd be eternally grateful for Kevin Grange and his fellow Rangers. A paramedic with more than a decade of experience rescuing people, Grange talks of tumbles, heart attacks, freak storms, wild animals, and suicides in the National Parks with the steady voice of one who's seen it all, and then some. Whatever the emergency, specially trained National Park Rangers respond again and again in his pages, risking their necks to save lives. Written with a deep appreciation of the Wild and the awesome beauty of our National Parks, Wild Rescues lives up to its title. Armchair travelers will thrill to the hair-raising rescues, and seasoned trekkers will be reminded of the inherent dangers of their pastime. All will be grateful that people like Grange are on the job." Jim DeFelice, bestselling author of American Sniper

"Kevin Grange details nearly everything that possibly could go wrong in a national park and yet still manages to make you more excited than ever to hit the trail." Conor Knighton, New York Times bestselling author of Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park

"Writing at the intersection of medicine and adventure, Grange gives us a fascinating glimpse into rescues that would scare the pants off most of us. He writes with empathy, intelligence, humor and humanity. A captivating memoir. I couldn't put it down." Kate Siber, correspondent for Outside magazine and author of National Parks of the USA

"National parks bring together visitors accustomed to more controlled circumstances with heat, cold, cliffs, whitewater, wild animals, and thin air that challenges aging hearts. Anyone who suffers misfortune under these conditions can only hope that Kevin Grange is on duty. This man loves his job." Jordan Fisher Smith, author of Engineering Eden and Nature Noir

"This is one helluva book. Grange somehow manages to combine the madness of life on an ambulance with the serenity and awe of America's most beautiful places. Rangers, medics, tourists, adventurers (Alex Honnold makes a brief appearance), the fauna of Yellowstoneit's all here. And you should be too. Wild Rescues is unlike anything you've read." Kevin Hazzard, author of A Thousand Naked Strangers

"This book shares experiences, insights, learning from an experienced paramedic and wilderness rescue provider who tells it like it is about the challenges of patient care in remote environments, and the sometimes complex decisions that need to be made when 911 is not at your beck and call. There is honesty in the descriptions of team dynamics and the lives of those dedicated to serving others. And those who appreciate our national parks will take renewed pride at the dedication of those who care for those lands and those who visit them, the NPS rangers, who wear many hatsrescuer, resource caretaker, firefighter, visitor welcome, law enforcerall to preserve this great American idea, our national parks." Tod Schimelpfenig, author of NOLS Wilderness First Aid