GRAND CANYON, AZ — February 26, 2019, is a big day for Grand Canyon National Park.
It's the 100 anniversary since the landscape was designated a National Park. Today it is the second most visited National Park in the United States with more the six million annual visitors.
A place full of history, beauty and park staff that have worked alongside the canyon for decades. That includes Ranger Ron Brown, who's lived and worked at Grand Canyon National Park for the past 20 years.
"There's just something about this place, whether it's the canyon or the comradery, or the fact that we're working for the park service. That brings out the very best in people all the time and I get to see it day after day, after day."
A career that Brown and his late wife started on together, originally just coming to the Grand Canyon to volunteer but it turned out to be something much more.
"We thought we would be here for a few weeks and it just turned into a career." A career that has now led Ranger Brown to see a centennial at Grand Canyon National Park, and for him over the past two decades.
His most memorable moment is still seeing millions of people get a look at the canyon for the very first time. "They blend together, into the sound that people make when they see the canyon for the first time."
Ranger Brown, is retirement age and doesn't have to work but says he'll work at the Grand Canyon until the very end. "100 years seems like a long time to us but it's not a long time for the canyon."
