Stay tuned.

Communications have gotten worse.  We are headed for Flagstaff and the South Rim for a few days.  Maybe we can get a stable connection while there and update the blog.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
 After a long winter in Death Valley National Park, California we have arrived at our summer gig, Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming.  What a contrast.  Being at almost 200 feet below sea level and temps above the century mark to over 4,000 feet above sea level and night time temps just barely above freezing.  All in a matter of days.  It's the first week of May and once again we are the 'newbies' and on a steep learning curve to get up to speed on everything Devils Tower and Northeast Wyoming. Most of our training is on-the-job.  We are shadowing our Interpretive Ranger Supervisor for a week and most of that time is in the Visitor Center.  Head-count coming through the door is ranging from two to three hundred per day.  As we hit peak visitor season, July, we'll be counting 1,100+ during our four hour information desk time.  Plus, we'll be "swearing in" about 10 Junior Rangers an hour.  The other half of our day is spent outside, m...
Read more

Spring in Death Valley, End of the Visitor Season and Our Job

Image
  Spring has sprung in Death Valley, such as it is.  We leapt from high 70's and low 80's to 105 degrees in less than a week, and it has stayed there.  And to add insult to injury the wind has been howling.  It's been blowing so much and so hard that a 30mph day is the new norm for a calm day.  My satellite dish is rated for up to 50mph wind.  It's been stowed more than it has been deployed for the last month. Despite repeatedly warning campers that their awnings and canopies were at risk, we have ended up with dozens of shredded canvases and bent awning arms and canopy legs piled up in front of our dumpsters.  Many tents have simply disappeared into the desert.  I'm sure there are salt cedars and mesquite trees with a variety of colored nylon in them somewhere, but with a geographic area the size of Connecticut it won't be soon seen. Absent this spring is a bloom.  There has been virtually no moisture in a year.  Normally a cloud burst ...
Read more

Last Stop Before Death Valley

Image
  With our Utah sightseeing done it's time to get to our campground where we will stage up before entering Death Valley for the winter.  The Clark County Shooting Complex RV Park in north Las Vegas is familiar to us and it works out great for getting service work and shopping done before getting remote. We've signed up/paid for a couple weeks at this location.  Our proposed arrival date for our campground host position with the National Park is October 9th.  I say "proposed" because severe weather and threats of a government shutdown are always in the mix this time of year.  In fact, it was twelve years ago at this same time that we discovered this park.  We were just finishing up as campground hosts at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and were about to transition to Big Bend National Park in Texas when the government shut down hard.  So the first of October 2013 we were cast adrift and were scrambling to find someplace that could accommodate us for t...
Read more