This week we have been participating with Bryce Canyon seasonal and volunteer staff training. They have been throwing a lot of stuff at us, but it's been invigorating, rewarding and fun. The ranger staff here is great, and everyone is making us feel like we are a real part of the park. Our supervisor, Jan Stock, is a very inclusive and people-oriented person, and we look forward to doing anything she tells us to do. We have been learning what it takes to be a park interpreter, which involves helping visitors to the park understand and assimilate universal themes that the park has to offer. Our instructor Kevin likes to say that after our interpreting, we leave off where are visitors 'will go onto the rest of their lives'. We have also been struggling over the Junior Ranger book, it isn't easy! We found out that anyone (including adults), can become Junior Rangers. Yeehaw! But the program is targeted to kids twelve and under, with the underhanded intention of getting their parents involved too, so that they can learn a thing or two. We have been issued a set of keys, given use of the staff laundry, and soon will get radios and uniforms.
Today we have the morning off, but will participate in the "Dark Skies" program tonight, which we are looking forward to. Astronomy is very big here, so is geology. Kathy and I are both trying to prepare some geology talks. Right now I am contemplating using a sandwich as a model of rock layers, then show what happens to it as it is cut (faults) and one side is uplifted from the other, as can be seen here between the fault separating the Aquarius Plateau (higher) and the Paunsaugunt Plateau where Bryce is. I will also take some bites out of it, representing the formation of ampitheaters, which is what is happening here at Bryce. Eventually, the sandwich will be gone (yum) as will the rocks forming all the spectacular scenery here (sob), but that will take another three million years.
The most amazing scenery here, and what makes Bryce so unique are the multicolored hoodoos. There are hoodoos in other areas (including the country of Turkey), but none to the extent that exist here. It's the freezing/thawing cycle here that is the predominant erosion activity forming the hoodoos. Bryce gets 200+ days per year where the temperature goes both above and below freezing. We have had four out of five days like that so far, last night was the first night it didn't drop below freezing. By contrast, the Aquarius Plateau, which is from the same rock formation, stays below freezing a lot more because it is 2000 feet higher. Therefore, it doesn't get the erosion factor that Bryce gets and has no hoodoos.
On Monday Ernie & Heide Mahlke showed up and greeted me "Hi Scott" at Rainbow Point. I was taken off guard and didn't recognize Heide at first, but then I saw Ernie and she said "I'm Heide" and my recognition returned. They are the first visitors from back home who looked us up. We went out to dinner with them that night and had a good time visiting. They had just been to Zion and are continuing their travels on the 'loop' in Utah which takes one to several other magnificent parks. So the rest of you reading this, make your plans now to get out here and either surprise us or not, but just get here.
We feel that we are acclimating to the 8000 foot elevation here. Last night we did a 20+ mile bike ride, and notice we didn't feel as winded. But now I have a flat tire to attend to. (another one!) Kathy hiked down into the canyon today (as I sit here on the computer) and already encountered a ranger assisting a woman with a broken ankle. Falls and injuries are very common here. Not too many people die here, fortunately, but lightning has taken 3 lives and injured many others, including taking off the scalp and pony tail of Kevin Poe's friend. It is already pretty busy here. Many of the visitors are from foreign countries, mostly European, so we can have a European experience as well as a spell-binding hoodoo one right here in Bryce.
Today we have the morning off, but will participate in the "Dark Skies" program tonight, which we are looking forward to. Astronomy is very big here, so is geology. Kathy and I are both trying to prepare some geology talks. Right now I am contemplating using a sandwich as a model of rock layers, then show what happens to it as it is cut (faults) and one side is uplifted from the other, as can be seen here between the fault separating the Aquarius Plateau (higher) and the Paunsaugunt Plateau where Bryce is. I will also take some bites out of it, representing the formation of ampitheaters, which is what is happening here at Bryce. Eventually, the sandwich will be gone (yum) as will the rocks forming all the spectacular scenery here (sob), but that will take another three million years.
The most amazing scenery here, and what makes Bryce so unique are the multicolored hoodoos. There are hoodoos in other areas (including the country of Turkey), but none to the extent that exist here. It's the freezing/thawing cycle here that is the predominant erosion activity forming the hoodoos. Bryce gets 200+ days per year where the temperature goes both above and below freezing. We have had four out of five days like that so far, last night was the first night it didn't drop below freezing. By contrast, the Aquarius Plateau, which is from the same rock formation, stays below freezing a lot more because it is 2000 feet higher. Therefore, it doesn't get the erosion factor that Bryce gets and has no hoodoos.
On Monday Ernie & Heide Mahlke showed up and greeted me "Hi Scott" at Rainbow Point. I was taken off guard and didn't recognize Heide at first, but then I saw Ernie and she said "I'm Heide" and my recognition returned. They are the first visitors from back home who looked us up. We went out to dinner with them that night and had a good time visiting. They had just been to Zion and are continuing their travels on the 'loop' in Utah which takes one to several other magnificent parks. So the rest of you reading this, make your plans now to get out here and either surprise us or not, but just get here.
We feel that we are acclimating to the 8000 foot elevation here. Last night we did a 20+ mile bike ride, and notice we didn't feel as winded. But now I have a flat tire to attend to. (another one!) Kathy hiked down into the canyon today (as I sit here on the computer) and already encountered a ranger assisting a woman with a broken ankle. Falls and injuries are very common here. Not too many people die here, fortunately, but lightning has taken 3 lives and injured many others, including taking off the scalp and pony tail of Kevin Poe's friend. It is already pretty busy here. Many of the visitors are from foreign countries, mostly European, so we can have a European experience as well as a spell-binding hoodoo one right here in Bryce.
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