12 Jul Engaging Communities and Bridging Cultures: Outreach at Zion National Park

Time is flying by! I have hit my half-way point in my internship and work is on a roll.

This past weekend, we went to a Latino Festival in Hurricane, Utah! It was the very first Latino festival for Hurricane, and it was a success. Our team actually didn’t know it was going on until one of us saw a flyer for it while grocery shopping. Good thing they saw that flyer because after that we were able to table at the event. For the event, we brought pelts of various animals at Zion, like the Ringtail Cat and the Grey Fox, to use for education. We also brought some information on Carla and I’s LHIP project and a few things we’ve found in research so far. Lastly, we brought the fliers that we made for Latino Conservation Week at Zion National Park!

Lately, I have been very focused on planning Zion National Park’s very first Latino Conservation Week! This has been a blast and a honor to be apart of! My internship mentor, Jorge Hernandez, has been great at supporting my ideas and helping make them a reality. So far, we have planned a morning hike with coffee that I am calling “Cafecito.” This guided hike will be along Zion’s Pa’rus trail, which is entirely paved and flat, making it the most accessible. For this guided hike, the theme will be mindfulness, connecting with nature, and reflecting on movement or migration. I chose these themes especially for Latino Conservation Week, to best connect with Latino audiences who may have not been outdoors as often as others. After the hike, there will be tabling activities at our Nature Center building. There will be fun traditional activities like making papel picado, or like my LHIP intern partner Carla’s idea, having loteria! I am so excited for this event, I hope to reach as many people as we can. Until then, we have a lot of work to do!