28 Jun My First Few Days at the Grand Canyon

I had never been to the Grand Canyon before this internship, and have been looking forward to being here since I was told I was accepted to work for the park. I woke up at 3 AM to get to the Raleigh Durham airport in North Carolina, flew into Charlotte, then Phoenix, and finally Flagstaff, where I would be driven in by shuttle for an hour and half until I got to the Grand Canyon.

I was picked up by Tarryn, who is one of the interpretation rangers here and one of my supervisors, and she took me to the cabins. When I arrived and met my neighbors (I have my own cabin), we got to chatting and they asked if I’d ever seen the rim before. This being my first time here I said no, and so they immediately drove me to the rim. When we parked I could only see the top, and on the way to the rim I purposely kept looking down because I wanted my first look at the canyon to be perfect and not ruined by any people, cars or buildings. When I got to the edge I looked up and was amazed by the size of the canyon. I couldn’t believe that this is where I would be working in the summer, and was in awe of the view. The long plane ride and altitude changes were worth it by just being able to be here. The first few days I was exploring the park and all that it had to offer. All the ranger programs, hikes, community events, history of the park, and Junior Ranger tables. It was all very interesting, and I feel that I have learned so much about the Grand Canyon by just being here for a few days rather than I being back home. We had a few days to prep before the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) arrive at the park, where we would be sending them off to work in their fields like interpretation, vegetation, housing, maintenance, auto shop, wildlife, and museum collections. I will be working mostly with the interpretation YCC kids, making sure they have everything they need to work on the Junior Ranger table as well as the talk they are supposed to give to the public by the end of the internship. Here’s to a great summer!