Altitude Adjustment: A Quest for Love, Home, and Meaning in the Tetons

 

Altitude Adjustment: A Quest for Love, Home, and Meaning in the Tetons by Mary Beth Baptiste

Nonfiction - Memoir

2014

Finished on November 23, 2025

Rating: 3.5/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Aware that her youth is slipping by, Mary Beth Baptiste decides to escape her lackluster, suburban life in coastal Massachusetts to pursue her lifelong dream of being a Rocky Mountain woodswoman. To the horror of her traditional, ethnic family, she divorces her husband of fifteen years, dusts off her wildlife biology degree, and flees to Moose, Wyoming, for a job at Grand Teton National Park. There, unexpected lessons from nature and wildlife guide her journey as she creates a new life for herself. Set against the dramatic backdrop and quirky culture of Jackson Hole, this is a thoughtful, often humorous account of a woman's bumbling quest for purpose, redemption, and love.

My husband and I spent two weeks exploring the Tetons in the fall of 2024. We drove our RV from Oregon through Idaho and Montana, stopping briefly in West Yellowstone before arriving in the Grand Teton National Park. We camped at Headwaters Campground and RV Park in Moran, Colter Bay RV Park, Signal Mountain Campground, Gros Ventre Campground, and Alpine Valley RV Resort. Always on the lookout for books by local authors, I found Mary Beth Baptiste's book somewhere along the way, drawn to the cover with the stunning image of the jagged mountain peaks and John Moulton's barn in the foreground. 

My photo of John Moulton's Barn

I enjoyed reading about Mary Beth's responsibilities in her various roles as a seasonal employee at the Grand Teton’s Division of Science and Resource Management, as well as her descriptions of the locations that Rod and I visited during our trip. I could easily picture Jenny Lake and Moose Pond, which is where I saw my very first moose. Actually, three. Mama, papa, and baby! 

I also recognized Lupine Meadows, which is where I wound up after taking a wrong turn on the trail to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. Oops. Thankfully, there were no bears around, although maybe there were and my loud singing scared them away. Speaking of bears, Baptiste has more moxie than I do! Able to hike off-trail with a 40 pound backpack for three days, beat her male coworkers at target practice (for tranquilizing bears), staying calm (well mostly, other than the time she crawled up the back of a fellow ranger) during various encounters with a moose cow and a grizzly bear. Her responsibilities were varied and unpredictable. One day she may help with a breeding bird count or locate and count elk tracks. On another, she might help clear vegetation to reduce fire hazard. One day she may hike with coworkers to count bighorn sheep or help transport a great blue heron to the vet's. 

A twist of the binoculars' focus wheel and I gasp: two toddler-sized black bear cubs, one brown and one black, twined together high up in a spruce tree fifty yards away. I scan the ground for the mother. In a nearby huckleberry patch, her cinnamon-colored rump bobs like a swatch of scruffy hide on a clothesline. 

It unnerves me, this lack of boundaries. Every animal, scat, or track I find brings a new fear--a mother bear will charge, a moose will explode from the brush and trample, something out there will break through and annihilate me into dust. I long for an owl's head-turning ability so I can take it all in and see what's coming before it gets me. 

I turn and dash on tiptoes down the trail, my imagination conjuring up a multitude of lurking predators. 

This is how I remember those first years on my own in a strange place: thimblefuls of fake courage thrown at a conflagration of fear.

Halfway into the memoir, my attention began to wane. The author recounts her on-again off-again romantic relationship with a coworker that had me wanting to shake some sense into her. Mary Beth's desire for a love life after her divorce came across as immature, and some parts of the book are filled with teenage angst. The woman was in her early forties, not twenty-something! I grew anxious to finish the book and move on to something fresh, but the stories regarding the job rather than her personal life took hold once again. I was pulled back in and enjoyed the remainder of the book. So, a little uneven, but beautifully rendered, especially regarding the landscape.

Before us, smug with audacious power, the Teton range surges from the valley floor and the green-black forests, snagging cloud wisps as it rips through a meek cobalt sky.

Would I have appreciated Altitude Adjustment had I not visited the Grand Teton National Park? Probably not. And I doubt I'll read it a second time.

Recommend with reservations.