Canyons & Lizards!

This week was training for my role as an interpretive ranger this summer. Once I'm in the regular rotation, days will consist of giving short talks (geology talks in the morning, various presentations in the afternoon, or evening programs in the campground), staffing the information desk in the visitor center, or roving the trails to provide more informal interpretation. Yes - roving means I get to go hiking during work time.

Here are a few highlights from week one:

• Wednesday afternoon, I drove the entire park, 23 miles, along historic Rim Rock Drive, which follows the rim of the canyons. I stopped at all the overlooks, read all the signs, and talked with park visitors. In all, the drive took me about 3.5 hours. This is called Coke Ovens because the rocks have eroded to look like the dome-shaped ovens used to turn coal into coke in the olden days.

• I helped with the kids program that comes to visit the monument on Thursday mornings. The kids are part of a day camp at local elementary schools. Their program included learning about what the park service does, why Colorado National Monument was set aside to be preserved, and a short hike to Devil's Kitchen. I really enjoyed hanging out with the kids and look forward to doing it again in future weeks. This is the picnic area where the kids program meets.

• After the kids left to go back to camp, I stayed and hiked some of the east-side trails. So far, my favorite is a trail called No Thoroughfare Canyon. The trail follows a dry stream bed to a (dry) waterfall. The trees in the canyons are so cool - they are well adapted for the desert, and they need to be. The monument only gets about 9 inches of precipitation per year. Compare that to the +/- 140 inches of precipitation each year in Hanover.

Here's the waterfall.

And here's one of the many colorful lizards I spotted along the trail. There are two kinds of lizards in the monument. This one is a Collared lizard, as you can tell by the incredible colors around his neck.

• Thursday night I went to the weekly outdoor concert on the green in Fruita, just three blocks from where I'm living. Hundreds of people were there listening to the band -- pretty cool!

• Last night, I co-led the evening ranger program in the campground. For my segment, I told the story of how Rim Rock Drive was built almost entirely by hand by men in FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps between 1933-1942. I enjoyed researching it and learned a lot about the history of the monument. You can read about the road here: http://www.nps.gov/colm/planyourvisit/scenic-rim-rock-drive.htm

After work, I met some of the seasonal rangers and other GeoCorps interns at a bar/restaurant in Grand Junction that has sand volleyball courts. Sounds goofy, but it was a lot of fun.

I'm off to see a Grand Junction Rockies game, then going hiking tomorrow morning!