July 24-Across the Park

Yesterday was just a day to play around in Rapid City.  The town of Wall is on the way and famous for their free Ice water and the hundreds of highway billboards they have! I dropped in and just looked at all the stuff they have for sale.  If you are ever out this way you definitely have to stop at Wall just for the tourist appeal, amazing.  I did a little exploring and shopping in Rapid City, found a marvelous gift shop called Prairies Edge. Oh I found the painting I want from a local artist...$4,800 dollars, just kidding about getting it.  The artwork was amazing and I did get a really nice pair of earrings produced here.  I also stopped on the way back and got a chocolate shake at the DQ!  See I did have a big day!
Today I set out first thing this morning and did a 5 mile hike across the park priarie.  If anyone does not fall in love with the Badlands just by driving the scenic route they have to get out and walk this trail. My mourning was amazing and I took nearly 100 photos. Not going to bore you with all of them but the weather was marvelous, a breeze was blowing over the prairie, no one in sight most of the trail and it is like discovering the earth all over again.  It is still usually green right now and the birds are everywhere.  The sights from parts of the trail range from grasslands to an overlook at the intersection of Saddle Pass and the Castle trail which lets you look down into the basin.  The formations and landscape tell the story of the erosion process and each turn and hill brings you up on even something more amazing.  I took a little over 2 hours to do 5 miles I just kept stopping and looking all around me marveling at the sights. It is energizing and somehow humbling at the same time.  You feel very small and yet so significant, if that makes any sense at all. 

My time is passing quickly and there is so much I still want to do and see.  My friend and roommate is now back on her way to Baton Rouge to get ready for school.  We plan on getting our students to write each other, that will be fun and interesting. She is a marvelous teacher and person.  I really enjoyed getting to meet her and know her.  It has been a treat to get to know all the staff here!
So I will leave you with two new posts today and that brings me up to date.  We will be hosting a heritage celebration on the 31st and I will post pictures and highlights of that sometime right after.  Hope you are taking time to stand still and listen to the world around you, the little things that seem like noise are truely blessings when you stop to think about them.  Isn't life grand?!

Off on another adventure July 17

What do TRTs do on their time off? Go exploring! This weekend I am hitting the road to adventure.  I took off early in the morning on Friday and drove up north to Spearfish Canyon.  The temperature dropped as I entered the canyon and the smell of pine was in the air.  This is a scenic route and was wonderful.  It was at the encouragement of fellow rangers that the canyon drive and I thank them for that piece of advice. I hiked up to the waterfall and enjoyed that view.  It was cool and quiet since I went so early in the morning.  I finished my hiking just in time to eat at the Latchstring and sat at the base of the canyon in the sunshine sipping iced tea and feeling like the day was a present.  My room mate had been to Devils Tower, Wyoming on her days off and it was just a couple of more hours of driving so up the road I went.  It is an amazing sight to be at the base of this formation and look up to see people climbing.  I also talked with the TRT at the park and we chatted about what they are doing with their summer assignment.  Very nice people indeed.  What next? I headed south to a little place called Newcastle to spend the night and then into Custer State Park.  Custer is another great place to visit.  In the Black Hills so lots of trees and on the wild life loop I was able to see lots of buffalo and pronghorn.  The scenery was beautiful, I walked along a lake and enjoyed the sights and sounds. Had to wait in a traffic jam for several buffalo cows and calves to cross the road.  At Custer the buffalo know who is actually in charge and they take full advantage of it.  They also have wild burros who have the whole hijack the traffic down pat.  If you slow down to look they come right up to the cars looking for handouts.  It's fun because this is the time of the year they have the babies with them and people interact with them, sometimes too easily.  It is easy to forget with the animals being so close that they are wild. I ended my weekend adventure with a fillup in Rapid and my treat of Sam's pizza:) I know it sounds like a busy weekend but it was very relaxing as well.  I enjoyed my time in the hills.

June 13

Each and everyday when I sit at my little dining table and read I look out onto the formations of the Badlands and just marvel.  I am very thankful for the opportunity to spend time in the splendor of creation and it is a time to reflect on what life has to offer and all that I have been blessed with.  I never knew how intricate each type of grass was, the variety is staggering.  There are no less than 60 varieties of grasses here at the park. 60! Yes, you can develop an appreciation for that many grasses and while I never would attempt to memorize all of them I am getting a few of the common ones under my belt (and in my socks HA).  I was in Rapid City this weekend and visited the museum at the geology college, it was very interesting lots of rock, minerals and fossils. I continue to walk the trails of the park, find new things at around every corner! This weekend my plan is to take a trip into the Black Hills and see some of the sights as well.  I can tell you the Badlands is a great place to slow down, enjoy the quiet, the meadowlarks and other song birds as well as listen to the grass sing its prairie songs.  Marvelous.  Remember to stop and smell the flowers.

Learning everyday!

I had my first observation this week and my supervisor, Julie, is so awesome! I really enjoyed hearing her thoughts and ideas about how I could tweak my program to get the most out of my time with visitors. So with her ideas and feedback I continue to learn about what it really means to be a ranger in a national park.  Everyone here is supportive and willing to share their experiences, tips and help out in general.  It is really  like a big family for the most part.

 I wish each visitor could stay in the park for days but that simply is not possible for most people given their busy vacation schedules.  Many people don't realize how much there is to see and do in the park.  This park is a hidden treasure! You could spend one day on just looking at the formations, another at the plants and another at wildlife.  I went out into the prairie this week and took photos of the different grasses, just grasses!
(Those will be up soon).

Funny story: I went to give a talk on the fossil trail and as I arrived a gentleman was on his hands and knees with a stick in his hand on the far side of the trail. HUMMMMM, this doesn't look good.  Sure enough they had found a rattlesnake and he was trying to get it out of the little crevice the snake had tucked himself into.  So he was nicely asked to step up on the boardwalk and then I was able to keep others on the boardwalk in that area while I was there.  Cool snake, interesting guy:) Lots of talking to visitors that "rove" since everyone wanted to see the snake-makes for good contact numbers to report at the end of the day.

My awesome story this week:
It rained two evenings ago and the clouds were big and dark.  Not a big drenching but enough.  I looked out the window and honestly, the sunsets get prettier and prettier.  The sky was orange and so bright as just on the horizon the sun could peak through as it went down for the evening.  Unbelievable oranges, then purples.  As I turned around to look the other way the most spectacular double rainbow was in the sky over the other end of the park I can view from my quarters.  I wish I could report that my camera caught the whole thing but it didn't.  If it ever happens again I will make it a point to use both cameras.  I was breathtaking to say the very least.  The air was sweet, the temperature cool and all is right in the world:)

We have a program with some students today so I am helping with that project and although my plate is full I am soaking in every moment.  I love learning all these new things and having so many people around that seem to really enjoy their work even with the demands it places upon them. My hat's off to all!
Blog you later!

Busy is the name of the game.

I have now done my first programs and really enjoyed interacting with the groups that came.  I did a geology walk, a fossil talk and a junior ranger program.  This has been a whirlwind of events and my thanks to all that are being so patient for updates.  I have created a video of my wanderings today, hope you enjoy. Today was my day off and I played tourist in the park.  I took off for the primitive area and stopped at every overlook on the far side of the park. It was a great trip and I saw a whole lot of wildlife.  I saw the bighorn sheep laying around on one of the buttes, pronghorn with young, lots of prairie dogs, and a handful of bison.  In fact one I had to stop and wait for him to come down the road at me then off into the prairie.  Once I edit that I will get it posted..I think I may have said something during my taping since a vehicle was fast coming up the hill on his other side and I wasn't sure if they saw him or not as he came down the road. Not the guy you want to run into out in the middle of the prairie.   Then I headed back to the other side and took a leisurely stroll on one of the paths.  Up on that one, the Cliff Shelf, I ran into a mule deer and she didn't seem to mind me or the other visitors a bit.  Cliff Shelf is are area where the butte has slumped down and can sustain trees so you can actually tell the temperature difference in those areas. The animals like it.  Of course I had to catch a prairie dog on tape and some of the beautiful prairie flowers as well.  It was a fun day!
I am slowly learning the grass species in the park, there are over 60 types. Heaven knows how many flowers there are.  Only have seen one rattlesnake, the one from the first day. 

I also ran over to the town of Phillip to check out their grocery store last night.  It is a little one but has just about anything you would need, the plus is it is only about 30 miles from the park as opposed to 70+ miles to go into Rapid City. The trip to Rapid is a straight drive so it is not too bad:) I was telling my husband Tom that on the way to Phillip these little green and yellow grasshoppers were covering the road by the thousands.  Those of you that know me, know grasshoppers are not my most favorite bug.  However, it was amazing to see the road just covered with them. 

I am continually amazed at how beautiful it is here.  It seems to change each and every time you look at the formations.  The old prairie flowers finish blooming and new ones take their place.  The sky is such an amazing shade of blue-it looks almost fake.  When lightening flashes around here it really makes itself know dramatically.  Wish the pictures I post could get across the "bigness" of the whole thing. 
Oh, I will have the traditional ranger at the sign picture to post soon as well.  I am enjoying doing ranger things and although I miss my friends and family, I definitely am very thankful to have this opportunity.