Helen Siskavich Hossley grew up in a small mining town in Northern New York dreaming of a life of travel and adventure. In1988, she threw caution to the wind, quit her food service job, packed the car and took off with a friend. Their seven month journey began with downhill skiing in a zigzag line through the Rocky Mountains. Their dream journey was full of personal challenges, wild twists and unending fun. As the trip came to a close, she answers the call to become a National Park Ranger and proudly wears the iconic Park Service hat. She discovers that wearing it doesn’t magically endow her with ranger instincts or abilities. She is forced to learn the rules of the desert the hard way. She finds herself dehydrated, on the verge of collapse, and lost. But the land she comes to love shapes the way she sees her own life. This is the engaging story of one woman's journey beyond single-minded independence through fear to personal triumph.