Attendant

Our hosts range from “volunteers” who receive a stipend to help pay for utilities to mostly full time attendants and managers who receive a place to stay and a higher salary. About half of our host sites have electrical hookups along with water and vaults. The earlier you commit to working with Hoodoo, the better the chances are that you will get the location that you want. In general though the nicer campgrounds and those with hookups tend to have a lower wage than the more isolated campgrounds which can have higher wages.

We have dozens of hosted campgrounds in the Wenatchee and Gifford Pinchot National Forests in Washington. About a third of the campgrounds will have hosts living in the campgrounds and the other two-thirds will have attendants who stay in one campground and visit other campgrounds as well. Hoodoo provides work trucks for almost all attendants who have to travel as part of the job. We start our hiring process in October, but hire throughout the season through August.

Attendant

Attendants often do the host duty in their “home” campgrounds while also traveling to other campgrounds in the area cleaning toilets, collecting fees, helping the hosts, and doing small maintenance jobs. Attendants usually work from half-time to full-time with salaries equivalent to the amount of hours expected. Attendant jobs usually go to those with previous experience or those who have unique abilities that would help them work in the outdoors. Attendants often will have some time off during the middle of the day, but normally will spend the night in their hosting campgrounds.

Criteria

No matter which job you might be interested in doing, the most important criteria is that you like working with people. These are not difficult jobs, but you will be working with people who sometimes will blame you for problems that are not in any way your fault. We have retired CEOs working for us and retired blue collar workers. One group is not necessarily better qualified than the other. If you are the type of person who responds to criticism by saying “that’s not my fault” even when it isn’t, you are probably not the right person. If you don’t love the outdoors and enjoy conversing with people, the salary is not going to be adequate to make this job worthwhile. For most people being hosts, attendants and managers the money they get paid is secondary to the love of the job. You will be working in some of the most beautiful places in the world. If that stays with you, you will want to come back year after year, like many of our employees do.

If you are not acquainted with the weather of the Northwest, you will be pleasantly surprised. The early weeks in May and June might be rainy, but by July 4th the rain normally is completely gone and with the exception of a few days, the season will be dry to the end of September. The temperatures are usually cool (50s and 60s) in the evenings with very low humidity, but will be in the 70s to 90s during the day. Again, this depends upon the exact location of the campgrounds. The higher the elevation the cooler the temperatures. In almost all areas the main camping happens between July 4 and Labor Day. Memorial Day is also crowded, but June usually gives you a chance to gradually get used to working in the campgrounds.