Maddie Tate Art

Visitor Information Specialist / Rio Grande National Forest, Creede office

Maddie grew up wild (and barefoot) in the tiny town of Creede, Colorado. She moved to rural Northern Nevada with her family as a teenager. After high school she did a brief stint as a camp counselor with Nevada Outdoor School. Taking groups of kids to Tahoe, Lassen Volcanic National Park, as well as Paradise Valley she was often reminded of how extraordinary mother nature can be, she found a great passion for sharing her love of the great outdoors with many kids who had never experienced camping, hiking, or kayaking before.

She then decided to live out of the back of her hatchback car exploring the west coast spending most of her time in the Big Sur/Santa Cruise area as well as the coast of Oregon, which is her favorite place to this day. After living a few months in the worlds biggest little city of Reno, Nevada she heard a calling to come back home, made an impromptu decision to sell all her belonging, buy a train ticket, and move back home. September marks two years of being back home, the longest she has stayed anywhere in her adult life, she has worked at Wolf Creek as a snowboard instructor for the last two winters and joined SJMA as a Visitor Information Specialist for the 2023 season.

In the future Maddie is hoping to continue traveling, as well as go back to school to pursue a degree in art education. She enjoys taking her dogs (and, yes sometimes even her cat) on hikes and prides herself in being a paw parent. You can find her snowboarding in the winters and kayaking in the summers.