27 Jun Grand Canyon Sunsets

The week finally arrived when all my training finally went into play. The 11 high school YCC interns sprang into action and went about their various scheduled shifts at different places at the park such as Grand Canyon Visitor Center, Verkamps Visiter Center, Horse Patrol, Yavapai Geology Museum, and assist with programs such as Critter Chat, Geo Glimpse, History Walk, Adventure Hike, and many more. Trying to remember all these schedules, scrambling around the park, ensuring that all the interns feel comfortable and engaged can get really difficult at times. I help run an afterschool program at an elementary school in Albuquerque, but these supervisory duties are complete new to me – but I am enjoying it!

I am working alongsid Amala Posey, who is the Distance Learning Studio Coordinator and the Youth Coordinator of the Interpretation Department here at the Grand Canyon. She is an amazing person, who has put her blood, sweat, and tears into this amazing Distance Learning Studio. There is so much equipment, so much technology, that people from other National Parks are touring the GRCA Distance Learning Studio to model their own studios after it. This week has been quite stressful with getting to know the schedules, the high school interns more, learning the Village more, the facilities offered at GRCA, the ecology, geology, and human history throughout the canyon. On Friday, after full schedules work different shifts, the YCC Interp Crew and the YCC Veg Crew went on a trip to the Grandview Watch Tower. This lookout tower was built by the CCC in the 1930’s and it is on the Kaibab National Forest, just outside GRCA. This 80 foot lookout tower has been my favorite site so far, but I still have 7 more weeks of this amazing place. I hope to see more of these unique site, the more exclusive site, the sites away from the near 6 million tourists that the Grand Canyon sees!