Settling into a still changing routine at Bryce Canyon

Although I am sort of settling into a routine at Bryce Canyon we are still introducing new services so schedules change and visitation continues to increase at the park.  Ranger programs are being expanded—but only if the individual feels comfortable and ready—including constellation tours Wednesday through Saturday.  Back-country trails opened July 1st.

Normally, shopping is rather routine except when living in a remote place with a long scenic drive to services.  Last week I spent one of my three-day weekend driving 1 1/2 hours to Kanab for groceries.  Even better was visiting with a friend, who had been evacuated from the North Rim because of the Mangum Fire, over an outside lunch at my favorite Utah Mexican restaurant Escobars.  Shopping was adequate, lunch and company superb.

SR89 Jacob Lake Inn photo

Friday, SR89A opened through Jacob Lake and the owners and staff of Jacob Lake Inn returned to clean and assess smoke damage from the Mangum Fire.  Two days later they were open for business but not overnight accommodations.  The North Rim Grand Canyon opened for day use June 30th.

Back to work on Saturday took me to the southern end of the Paunsaugunt Plateau to Yovimpa Point where I managed two Grand Staircase geology talks before the light rain and heavy wind arrived.  New smokes were visible from the previous night’s lightning strike starting the Wire Pass Fire plus general haze from the Mangum Fire.  As of Monday the Wire Pass fire closed House Rock Valley Road from Utah SR89 south to Arizona SR89A.  And that also closed hiking by permit to The Wave.

View northeast from LaFevre overlook along SR89 Kaibab National Forest from Jacob Lake Inn photo

As of Sunday morning, the Mangum Fire had reached 71,450 acres at 51% containment and July 1st report at same acreage and 67%.  Monday’s report on the Wire Pass Fire indicated no growth over the 1580 acres, 10% containment, and closures still in place.

I was home Sunday with an upset stomach and slept most of the day having been up half the night feeling nauseous.  Might have eaten some lunchmeat on the edge of bad.  Don’t know what else it could have been as my daily diet doesn’t change much.

Mountain Bluebird from Rainbow Point

While sitting at my computer, I dearly enjoy watching out the window where I see Chipmunks scurry from pinecone to cone, a pair of Stellar Jays follow from perch to perch and may even hear babies squawking.

Yet not so pleasant when home is the smell of the horse corral through open windows and the noise of tractors moving horse shit around and setting up dust.  In the winter I get really spoiled by almost exclusively the sounds of nature.

Hikers on Wall Street side of the Navajo Loop Trail

Knowing I had nothing to spread around to others and how short on staff we are I returned to work on Monday feeling better throughout the day.  Scheduled for a 11am hoodoo geology talk near Sunset Point with groups of people keeping respectful distancing, and 1pm unadvertised Rim Walk that didn’t go so instead I roved the rim.  Then ended the day at the information tables outside the visitor center followed by three and a half hours counting people into the visitor center with a limit of 50.  “Yes mam, that does include the bathrooms.”

Ranger Haley and chippy selfie

As much as I love to watch the wildlife, I don’t want them in my house.  Coming home to find a chipmunk sitting on the back of the couch and Sierra, the not very good mouser, watching it from the floor didn’t make me happy.  Where do they get in?  RVs are notorious for small openings allowing in various uninvited small critters.

The next day I borrowed a small live-trap from the park’s wildlife folks.  Now set up with peanut butter but no chippy.  Anyone had luck with electric ultrasonic rodent/insect repellers?

Late Tuesday afternoon, my Friday, I went roving at Bryce Point, one of my favorite overlooks in the park.  When roving I meet the most wonderful people: folks from Illinois who helped rebuild houses from the Yarnell Hill Fire, seven years ago June 30th when 19 firefighters died.   I met a most amazing family with intelligent and curious teenagers in tow.  People often ask about my last name.  I thought Olmsted was a common enough name and I do get asked if I have relatives in California, Florida and places in between.  Not that I know anyway.  Yet the name also brings to mind Frederick Law Olmsted who I claim as an ancestor and had a history with national parks.  Have I mentioned how much I love my job?

Although seeing an increase in visitation, I’m still enjoying the weirdly wonderful of a whole lot less people this strange summer, and I think visitors are also.  Overlooks are not overcrowded and that’s the way it should be.  I know it’s not like that at all national parks, and they’re not all open.  Of course at Bryce Canyon our typical international visitation makes up 65% of the 2.6 million who visited in 2019.  Compare that to 1929, the first year visitation was recorded, when 5,232 vehicles entered the one-year old Bryce Canyon National Park.  The last week of June 2020 averaged 1,260 vehicles a day.

Note the mask dropped as litter

I support “America’s Best Idea” behind preserving landscapes, environments, and history for “future generations” from around the world, where the idea has spread.  I don’t want to see anyplace loved to death by overcrowding.

Many of our national parks reached critical mass over a decade ago.  And so many parks were established in the 1920s when nobody envisioned the huge influx of visitors.  Parking lots are small.  Pull-outs built to accommodate maybe half a dozen cars and certainly not huge RVs.  Narrow windy roads through spectacular landscapes made for slow driving.  A few scattered small and intimate campgrounds for tents.  Possibly a few cabins and a lodge for dining.  One hundred years later, it’s much easier to travel in go fast cars and RVs.  Promotional events like the 2016 National Park Service’s Centennial #FindYourPark, Utah’s “Mighty Five”, and social media quickly spread the word.  I’m not judging any of these things as bad.  However, I believe we need more parks—and Rangers—to give visitors a safe and uncrowded experience.

By the way, my rim walk is a history talk about changing connections to the land through cultural and individual time.  I’m ready if you’ll join me, at a safe distance please.  Next week, July 3, 4, and 5 at 4pm starting by Sunset Point.  See you there.

Most recent addition to my collection of Ranger badges

“Visitation to units of the National Park System reached 318 million in 2018, an increase of about 16% from a decade ago, with especially notable increases over the last five years.  But within that system-wide increase, there is great variation among individual parks.  Visitation has increased steeply to some of the most famous parks in the country.  Arches, Zion, Glacier, Acadia, and Yellowstone National Parks, for example, have all experienced significant double-digit percentage increases in growth in visitation over the last decade or so – 30%, 50%, even 60% increases.”