I first discovered I could work seasonal jobs in beautiful places for 6 months at a time while attending CSU in Fort Collins, Colorado. I found a Wrangler position in Grand Teton National Park to work from May through October guiding trail rides out of Jackson Lake Lodge. Between my junior and senior year of college, I needed an internship for my major of Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism.

I quickly turned my dream job into an internship and moved out to Jackson Lake Lodge in mid May. At the time, I didn’t realize this would be the start of my epic journey working and living all over the Rocky Mountains, from Montana down to southern Colorado.

What is a Seasonal Job?

A seasonal job is a contract position for a certain amount of time. Typically seasonal jobs are during winter season, or summer season.

Winter Seasonal Jobs

Winter seasonal jobs are typically located at places where winter tourism is popular. Examples of winter seasonal job locations are:

• Ski resorts
• Beach resorts (Florida Keys)
• Snowmobile Lodges
• Backcountry Ski Lodges
• Mountain Town Restaurants and shops

Winter season typically lasts from November through April, however most seasons are dependent on the weather. If it’s a snowy spring, winter season can last through late April. If there isn’t a lot of snow, resorts can close as early as March.

Summer Seasonal Jobs

Summer seasonal jobs are typical for places that have mass tourism during the summer season. Place include:

• National Park Lodges
• Ski Resort turned Bike Resort
• Mountain town restaurant and shops
• Dude/ Guest Ranches
• Adventure lodges
• Hiking and backcountry lodges
• Tour guide adventures
• Farms
• Fishing Industry in Alaska

How to Find Seasonal Jobs

Whether you want a winter or summer season job, there are lots of online resources to find a seasonal position. Some of my favorites that I’ve used to find my seasonal jobs include:

1. Coolworks.com
2. vegajobs.com
3. ranchwork.com
4. Indeed.com
5. google jobs
6. facebook jobs

Knowing how to search on each of those resources if important to find your job during the right season. Using keywords like “seasonal job” or “summer job” help narrow down the length of job.

How seasonal jobs allow you to travel

Working 6 months at a time allows you to take up to 2 months off during the ‘mud season’ to travel. Mud season is also known as fall, and spring. The typical time off between jobs is mid to late October through November 25th, and late March through mid May.

It’s very common for seasonal workers to travel during those 2 months between jobs. Most workers are able to save up enough money during the season to allow them to spend it all on travel during the mud season. It’s a beautiful lifestyle, but also doesn’t plan much for future saving because you do tend to spend all your saved money on travel. It’s all about priorities in this case.

Travel and Seasonal Work is about Compromise

When I worked seasonally, my priorities were traveling to new places as much as possible. That meant compromising my spending in other aspects…such as buying new clothes, staying in hotels, eating every meal out, and spending money on activities. I had to sacrifice those luxuries in order to be able to travel to places I wanted to go, cheaply, for up to 2 months at a time.

Learning to travel cheaply and for longer periods of time was easy, since I had my priorities set on longer term travel. I cooked most of my meals, stayed in hostels, with friends, or camped, and didn’t spend extra money on activities.