Making adjustments at Bryce Canyon

Seems every day something new occurs while making adjustments at Bryce Canyon National Park.  Some adjustments are easier to make than others, require flexibility, and often many logistics.  Such is life.  And then there’s adjusting to the weather.

Three months of planning has paid off for the shuttle service in the park.  Seats had to be removed and only 20 passengers are allowed onboard which is monitored by a National Park Service attendant.  The driver sits in a plexiglass box to ensure distancing.  So far only four shuttles are running and that seems to be enough right now.  They are making rounds at about 15 minute intervals.  Bryce is certainly not as busy as last summer this time mostly due to a lack of tour buses and international visitors who usually make up about 65% of visitation.

I easily adjusted to living in the big RV once everything was slowly moved out of the camper.  Well not everything, I have duplicates of most kitchen utensils.  As I slowly put things away I quickly realized, I have too much stuff.  I’m trying to pack up clothes that don’t fit or get worn to eventually donate away.  Heck, I lived almost seven months in the 8×12 foot camper and didn’t really miss anything left in the 5th-wheel.  Yet it sure is nice to have more space.  I’m pretty sure I could adjust to living in something in between the two sizes.  And that brings me to, do I sell one or both?

I’m struggling to adjust to the wonky signal where I live, never consistent but mostly slow and intermittent even with the booster.  Facebook is pissing me off by making it difficult to see what friends are really posting as I have little control over who and what I see on my newsfeed.  Most recent doesn’t really mean a thing when asking to see what ‘friends’ are posting.

That, along with still adjusting to a 40-hour work week which really cuts into leisure time.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my job.  But I do get spoiled during winter when I don’t work.  Then I don’t have to think much about what time I get up in the morning or how I’m dressed.

Actually, wearing a uniform is a no brainer.  Just take the next one out of the closet and make sure they’re clean.  But sizes keep changing.  Is it me?  Plus the uniform style is even finally changing a bit, not quite so military looking, which is what the uniform has been based on for 100 years.  Last major design change was in the 1970s so it’s past time.  Starting to be more comfortable with durable fabrics.  Still the “green and gray” with some practical diversity in hats, though we still wear the iconic ‘flat-top’.

I endeavor to adjust the PhotoPills app for photographing the sun and moon as they rise and set, time and direction.  The night before actual full moon I walked down a ways on the Two Bridges side of the Navajo Loop trail.  Timing would be moon rise just after sunset, and that way it’s light enough not to use a tripod.  Sadly, the app was way out of calibration and I missed the moon at the horizon while looking too far north.

I was also distracted by a bride and groom photoshoot.  They walked down several switchbacks with her in 2” heels.  I held my breath but she did fine.

Part of working means weekends for weekly chores when I try to adjust to shopping in more than the local, not quite adequate, tiny towns.  I see an hour and a half drive to Cedar City happening this week.  Even though an exhausting, to me, all day affair, I won’t have to shop like that again for another month.  I’m not keen on shopping or big towns.

And I’m really glad not to be the boss who’s been busting butt making adjustments on schedules, sometimes more than once per pay period (two weeks), to accommodate changes and safely put us in the field doing programs.  I’ve roved along the rim being available to the few visitors I see.  One day I hung out near Sunset Point with a view down the Wall Street side of the Navajo Loop trail, behind tables answering questions and giving several 5-minute abbreviated hoodoo geology talks.  We aren’t advertising Ranger talks, yet.

We spend a couple hours at a time just outside the visitor center staffing an information area surrounded by tables.  Plus we track entry and exit into the building with a limitation of 40 people using restrooms or (hopefully) making purchases from our partner history association.  We’d rather be outside than in, unless the weather is nasty.

It’s been darn near impossible making adjustments to the changing weather in the last week.  Hot in the 80s isn’t normal for early June at 8000 feet.  Neither is rain almost like monsoon season which typically doesn’t begin until July.  Then spring wind brought bitter cold from the northwest with a couple nights below freezing.  I had to turn the water off so the hose wouldn’t freeze.  And one morning it snowed a little, just flurries at the visitor center but visitors spoke of rain, sleet, and snow getting here.

Everyone here is making adjustments at Bryce Canyon National Park including visitors as there is still no food services except snacks at the general store, no overnight accommodations except the recently opened Sunset campground by reservation only, and no backcountry permits issued.

Yet with all the current COVID19 restrictions and adjustments by everyone, I spoke with three young people in one day who want to be Park Rangers.  A young man who is studying biology, a young woman who is working on an entomology project in southern Utah, and another young woman who will start college in the fall and wanted to know how to become a Ranger.  How cool is that?

Garfield County, Utah, where most of Bryce is located, is currently in the yellow, was orange when I arrived last month.  Although all reports read differently it seems numbers are up.  I’ll just keep wearing that awful mask.          https://coronavirus-download.utah.gov/business/Yellow/Utahs_Low_Risk_Phase_Flyer_English.pdf