22 Jul Saludos desde Kings Canyon National Park

Hola! I realize I am late to the “blogging” party but nonetheless I am excited to introduce myself! My name is Jocelyn Perez, I was raised in the little California town of Bloomington in the huge County of San Bernardino. Both of my parents are from the hermosa city of Aguascalientes, Mexico and immigrated to the U.S. before I was born. I am the third out of four girls, we all have varying interests but still we are all mejores amigas. I enjoy spending time outdoors: desert, mountains, beaches, you name it, I love it all! I graduated from California State University, San Bernardino in late June and just after a week I was in the amazingly beautiful Kings Canyon National Park. I am an interpretation intern for Grant Grove and my time here has been unbelievable; I am literally going to have to be dragged out when the 11 weeks are up. So, here is a little summary of my first week here. Most of the first week was all about listening, learning, and exploring. It’s was a little overwhelming at first, as I was flooded with information on Kings Canyon, Giant Sequoias, National Parks, and interpretation. I shadowed the visitor center where I learned the closing and opening procedures and listened to how rangers answered some of the most frequently asked questions. I meet so many nice people, including Victoria the interpretation intern for Cedar Grove. And I was able to do some exploring of Kings Canyon! I visited the General Grant tree (the second largest tree on earth), I got to see general grant just about everyday since I watch rangers do guided walks and talks on giant sequoias to help develop my own program. One of the training days was in Cedar Grove and just the drive down is gorgeous but some of the highlights were Zumwalt Meadows and Roaring River falls.

              I spent my off day in Hume Lake, did the short hike to Panoramic Point and I walked the Big Stump trail. The Big Stump hike was quite impactful because is was an area where nearly all the sequoia trees were cut down and now all that is left are stumps, decaying pieces of giant sequoia and the huge mounds of red colored sawdust from over 100 years ago.           The following week mostly consisted of preparing my first Big Tree Talk but more on that, in my next post. Hasta Luego.