Raven Travels: VOLUNTEERING AT THE NORTH RIM

LIFE AS A VOLUNTEER WITH THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE AT THE NORTH RIM, GRAND CANYON

The week following Mule Days is full of activity at the Raven Maven’s nest.

I return from Mule Days and immediately start the process of packing up our gear for a summer of volunteering at the North Rim, Grand Canyon.

It all starts with checking up on our e-mails, ordering a few items to be delivered to the North Rim, and just tidying up our offices. Then it is time to get out the four pages of list of all the things we need to pack for our comfort for the summer. We are given the use of a government trailer while we volunteer but we need to bring everything to go in it – linens, cooking gear, food, books, printer, computers, camera gear, telescope, tools, etc., etc. The list is updated every fall when we get home in preparation for the upcoming year. We take two days to pack everything and stuff it all into two cars. We then drive a day and a half to get to the North Rim.

Once we are at the North Rim we spend the second half of the day unpacking and storing it all into the trailer. Luckily we have done this now for ten years and have had the same trailer for about six years. This makes it easy to recall where things have to go. We get another complete day to finish the unpacking, meeting with some of the staff and prepare for the first day of work. This year I started with the Nature Walk, one of my favorite programs.

This year, Robin, our boss, has given us a fairly light schedule the first week which allows for acclimating to the elevation here of 8250 feet. This is quite a change from working or walking at sea level. It has been great to reconnect with our acquaintances here, some of who have been working here far longer than we have.

All has gone smoothly to date. Our “weekend” is Tuesday through Thursday. This first weekend was taken up with a trip to Kanab, 81 miles away, and laundry. This only took up half of the weekend. The remainder of the time was spent with visitors from San Diego. Ed was my daughters’ photography teacher about thirty years ago. He was here with his friend Ty, and I enjoyed very much sharing with them some of the local photography sites, and the beauty here at the North Rim.

-->

The North Rim is home to the Kaibab Squirrel which is only found here. It is a tree squirrel which makes it’s home in the ponderosa pine trees here. Another squirrel found here is the golden mantled squirrel which hangs around the cabins of the Lodge, and on the patios of the Lodge looking for any crumbs that may fall.

We have already seen some mule deer including two young bucks in velvet.

It was a very dry winter here and it is already quite warm here. We are hoping for a good monsoon season this year. There is a small lake here on the plateau which normally has water until September. This year it is already dry!!

I try to carry a smaller camera with me most of the time because of the chance encounters available with wildlife. I will try to include pictures whenever possible.

One of my special projects here is recording all of the various flowers that bloom here. You will see a number of them as the season goes by.

I apologize for the randomness of the pictures. I have yet figured out how these get set into the blog. Please Enjoy.