Yosemite Bob: The Plugged-In Park Ranger

Meet Yosemite Bob, a Yosemite park ranger who shares his love of nature through Twitter and other modern technology.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on August 10 2009

Yosemite National Park. Image: Ba'Gamnan

If you’ve tried Twitter, you might get turned off by reading random acquaintances’ posts about what they’re eating for lunch, or their complaints about delayed flights. Wouldn’t you rather read messages like this one?

Giant white blossoms of Washington Lilies raise their heads on spindly stalks 4 feet above ground between Crane Flat and Hodgdon Meadow.

That tweet, and many others focused on the natural beauty of the world, comes courtesy of Bob Roney, a Yosemite Park ranger. (Twitter handle: @YosemiteBob.)

Roney’s been living and working at California’s Yosemite National Park ever since 1968, and has barely left the stunning location in the many years since. After his first visit to Yosemite in 1967, “when I left, I left a little piece of my heart there,” he told NPR. “And ever since then, it has seemed the center of the universe, as far as my perspective.”

Roney shares his passion for the park through the aforementioned Twitter account, as well as recording the bird calls and other animal sounds he hears as he goes about his daily walks through Yosemite. He’s also written a guidebook about Yosemite’s many trails.

Roney even raised his children in the park, and while they’ve grown up and left home, they haven’t gone far: his daughter is now a scientist at Yosemite, and his son manages a ski resort just north of Yosemite. Though Roney’s had plenty of time to explore the park’s natural wonders, he still believes he has much more left to see.

“I’ve been there for 40 years, and I haven’t seen the whole thing,” he said. “You can’t see the whole thing. You just have to say, ‘OK, I’m going to enjoy what I get to enjoy.’”

Listen to the wonderful interview with “Yosemite Bob” on NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

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