Let’s Meet Grand Canyon’s Doc!
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♫Guitar and singing:
♫Hiking away again in Grand Canyon,
♫Searching for my elec-tro-lytes (salt, salt, salt),
Dr. Myers quote (Sometime it's on the path it's on the path most rocky that you will find your footing most true.)
♫Some people claim, there’s a Ran-ger to blame,
♫But I know, it’s my own darn fault.
Grand Canyon. Where hidden forces shape our ideas, beliefs, and experiences. Join us as we uncover the stories between the canyon’s colorful walls. Probe the depths and add your voice for what happens next at Grand Canyon.
Hello and welcome. This is Jesse. This is Emily. And this is: Behind the Scenery.
“Hiking Away again in Grand Canyon.” Indeed!
How about completing 300 Grand Canyon hiking/backpacking trips? How would you like to spend over 1000 days hiking/exploring below the rim? How about releasing a new 430-page book about your seven-year quest to hike the entire length of the Grand Canyon? A though-hike feat accomplished by maybe around 60 people only, in modern history?
Oh, let’s also throw in over 40 Grand Canyon Colorado River raft trips? And a couple other Grand Canyon books, including the best-selling: Over The Edge/Death in the Grand Canyon book. 600-pages! Lists all know fatal mishaps in Grand Canyon. Sold over ¼ million copies!
All of this, on your own time.
Hello. My name is ranger Doug. I am a summertime park ranger at the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park.
I would like to introduce you to Tom Myers. He is the dude who has accomplished all of the above. But wait. There’s more.
Actually his full name is Doctor Tom Myers. Yes, you guessed it, medical doctor Tom Myers. That’s his day job: Doctor to Grand Canyon National Park. Since 1990.
Yes, there is a medical clinic on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. On call 24/7. Seeing patients, many of whom are having the worst day of their lives.
Over time, Dr. Myers has become an expert in understanding heat-related problems. Currently he and his wife Becky live in Flagstaff, Arizona and have three grown children and two grandchildren.
In late May, 2025, Dr. Tom Myers came to the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, as a guest speaker. To deliver a public talk and slide program titled: Lessons from Life and Death at Grand Canyon. While visiting the North Rim, I thought it might be nice to have a conversation with this fascinating man. I invited him to join me for an in depth, wide-ranging and at times personal interview … looking into his life and park experiences. You are in for a real Grand Canyon treat.
Dr. Tom Myers, come on in. Join me. Welcome.
Dr. Myers: My name is Tom Myers. I am a physician by training. And I would like your listeners to know that I consider myself a hopeless Grand Canyon addict. Pretty much love everything Grand Canyon and probably a lot like them and, the reason they're tuned into this podcast.
Doug: OK why become a physician?
Dr. Myers: I'd like to preface that answer by saying I'm a Mamma 's boy. I always have been. My mother is still alive by the way. She's 92 years old. My mother raised myself and my siblings on her own. It was very difficult and I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for her. My mom had careers picked out a professions for all of us, my siblings and myself. Like lawyer or doctor or banker but the two she seemed to hold in highest regard were priests and doctors. And she's very devout Catholic so she loved priests.
But she also loved doctors and she would say “I have seven sons. One of you needs to be a priest. And one of you to be a doctor.” I remember thinking a priest? That ain't happening at least not with me you know girls are way too fascinating. You know I'm I might want one someday I did want one someday. I thought let Dave or Terry or Jim or John or Joe or Jerry have that priest job. And I'll I'll be a doctor. Anyway, she planted the seed. I didn't want to disappoint didn't want to disappoint her. She also told me that, you know, medicine was a noble career and a path out of poverty. And we were a welfare families so that also had an impact and that's why I started down the road to be a Doctor.
Doug: OK. What Grand Canyon pictures or art or memorabilia do you have on your wall at home or at your medical office and tell me about some of those and why they speak to you?
Dr. Myers: Most of the ones that we have on the walls at my house and there are a lot of them and memorabilia are things of photos that I collected with my adventures and explorations in the Canyon with my family. You know the ones that were there where where I was there with the ones I love most in my life. You know whether it's down at Phantom or somewhere remote those are the ones I cherish. And so a lot of those fortunately Becky hasn't been too annoyed that I put Canyon stuff up everywhere.
Besides photos that take me back to a place in time and a memory, because really for me it's about the memories not the miles, but besides those that we have quite a collection of old Canyon signs they're ones that were hand routered.
I had a friend that when I working on the South rim as a doctor the same time I was there the guy who has had the sign shop I went to high school with him and he was a buddy and I just asked him “hey do you have any old signs that are now obsolete that you're getting rid of?” “I guess sure Tom you can have this or that” and so I got some of those.
But one of my favorites, it's kind of a cool story, but before they built the mile and a half rest houses there used to be a sign down at Havasupai Garden that said: last toilets until South Rim. So you're hiking up it's like you need do you needed to know you needed to use the restroom before you start it out because that was the last toilet for four and a half miles until you got to the rim. So when that was built, the mile and a half rests houses, that sign became obsolete. And I saw it in the trash pile with my friend who was the Ranger down there at the Garden at Time and I said “hey what you do with that?” He said “probably burn it. You know it's gonna be thrown away.” I'm like “can I have it?” He said “sure.”
So I hiked it out and put it in the bathroom in our house at the South Rim. And within a few days of doing that, Robert Arnberger, who is a Superintendent and his wife Alvira, came over for dinner.
And Rob said “hey I need to use the rest room.” “Yeah, sure, go ahead, it’s right over there.” And then Becky I looked at each other and went “uh oh, that sign’s in there.”
And I thought “oh man, he might think I stole it.”
And then he came out and he was laughing cause he knew the sign was obsolete and he was like “God I just love that sign.” So that's one of my favorite.
Doug: OK cool. Now often physicians they specialize in a certain part of a medicine you know internal medicine cardiology whatnot. Why didn't you specialize?
Dr Myers: Well you know honestly Doug I think an even better question from my perspective was: why stayed in medicine at all? And when I get to into medical school I got to be you know completely honest I was disenchanted with the career. I wasn't sure I wanted it to be a doctor.
Ranger Doug: Why is that?
Dr. Myers: Well, you know, the whole process was grueling you know it's all consuming you know it's really disheartening a lot of ways. The pressure was tremendous. You'd ask me one point about a mentorship and I'll talk about that but I didn't find ... I didn't have a mentor physician within that training somebody that I really aspired to be like. And so when I got to my senior year I told Becky “I don't want to do this. I don't think I'm very good at it as a matter of fact I think I'm probably suck at it, you know” and I said “I'd like to leave.” And she said “well I’ll support you whatever you want to do.”
But that being said I also knew then I spent years and years and you know thousands of hours and a lot of money toward that career. And I would have a debt, my school debt, to pay off. And I decided to do my internship and just kind of see what happened.
And I was in internal medicine. I got to the end of that year and I told the director I’m still searching for you know, for some place in the field. I wasn't really convinced that it was my path in life. And I told the director “I was leaving the program.” He said “wow, well what are you going to do?” And I said “I think I'm going to go to the Grand Canyon.”
And he looks at me he goes, “What are you Myers, some kind of dirt farmer?”
And I'm like: “No.”
And he goes: “Well what would you do at the Grand Canyon?”
And I said: “I'm thinking about being an interpretive Ranger.”
He goes: “really”, he goes “what does that mean? You gonna give a Smokey the Bear enemas?”
And I'm like: “no, an interp.ranger tells stories and educates the public about the place.” And I said: “That's what I think I might want to do as well.”
“Good luck.”
Long story short, I did eventually get my license to practice medicine, and I think Grand Canyon sort of found me. But that's a whole another story. But I ended up ther
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