Tuesday morning

Hey everyone,

I'm stuck in the office waiting for one of the rangers to give me a ride to one of the trail heads, so I might as well use this opportunity to explain a little bit about where I am and what I'm doing.

Bandelier National Monument is a little bit north of Santa Fe (about 45 minutes). The nearest town is Los Alamos which takes about 20 minutes from park headquarters.
Basically, the park is laid on the southern slope of what used to be a huge volcano, that one day exploded and turned into the "Valles Caldera" (http://www.vallescaldera.gov/). When this volcano exploded, and during various eruptions, this whole area got covered with volcanic rock and ash- and that's what makes up the rock and soil of the park. The park is set along three parallel canyons that run down form the rim of the Caldera (what used to be a mountain), all the way to the Rio Grande River- Southern border of the park. During the 13th and 14th century, native american tribes built their homes along the cliffs of the canyons and on the flat mesas between the canyons. The park was established to preserve these archaeological sites (according to some of the archaeologists that I've spoken to- hundreds of small sites), and the wildlife in the area. The visitor's center is down in the middle of the eastern canyon- Frijoles Canyon, and most people just come for the day to visit the excavated archaeological sites along that one canyon and maybe to take "Falls trail" that runs down from the visitor's center towards the Rio Grande. Some people, however, go hiking, and camping, in the two other canyons- Alamo and Capulin. There are no roads that cross the park. One road goes down to the visitors center- but not further. In order to get to most of the campgrounds and to many of the trail heads you have to drive out of the park and around- along state highways and through National Forest land- and that's where I come in. In order to patrol the farther areas of the park a ranger would have to either hike all day or drive around and leave his car at a trail head (at the end of a dirt road in middle of the forest) and still hike some. So, a cabin was built in the farthest canyon from headquarters- Capulin Canyon. The rangers used to ride in on horses and spend up to two weeks at a time there. Now, with cut backs, that job has fallen on volunteers or interns. Interns like me. Oh, and the horses are gone too. This cabin is also used by crews that are doing all kinds of field work in the wilderness areas of the park- Archaeological surveys, fire studies and trail maintenance. I haven't been out to my soon-to-be home. The rangers are a little short on staff, so they don't have anyone to take me out there and show me all the ins and outs of the place. In the mean time they're having me do day hikes, patrolling trails and backcountry (not necessarily on trails) areas. These are places that I can either get to on foot from the visitor's center, or they can drop me off at the trail head.

How does it look?
Well... it ain't no desert. It's pretty high in elevation (6000 feet at the visitor's center, at the bottom of a canyon). The mesas are pretty dry and have Juniper and Pinion pine growing on them, but the draught is not doing to well for these trees and a lot of the Pinions are dead or dying. There are also Panderosa Pines (tall TALL trees)growing there. The canyons are just lush forests of Panderosa and all the smaller plants that follow. At higher parts of the park, close to the rim of the caldera, on what used to be the slopes of the mountain, there are lots of Panderosa and also a lot of Aspen trees. A big fire in 2000 killed huge areas of trees along the upper parts of the park, so there are a lot of dead trees hanging around and they tend to fall and block trails- all the time.

Animals...

Rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, a few skunks. Wild turkeys, Turkey volunteers, Ravens and a lot of birds I can't recognize. Rattle snakes (mainly in grassy areas) and bull snakes (not poisonous) and a lot of tiny lizards. Deer (mule deer, mainly) and Elk (only saw them from a distance). Coyotes, Bears (black bears) and mountain lions. I didn't see any mountain lions, and probably won't the entire time I'm here, but you see the signs all around- droppings, tracks and here and there a carcass of an animal that was hunted, partially eaten and hidden away for a later meal. On my second day here we had to move a dead baby deer away from the trail so the lion wouldn't come to close to the people walking. Chances are the mountain lion was already done with it because it was already stinking- that's how we found it.
The bears are pretty good about not coming close to people- I guess they haven't learned to associate people with food yet- like in other places, but especially during this season, when food is getting hard to find, they stroll down into the canyon (where most visitors are) and come looking for insects and fruit along the creek. When that happens the rangers just try and scare them away- that's what I did the other day- I guess I was so scary the bear ran up a tree.
Until I go out to my cabin I get to ride around with Dale, my supervisor, (Very cool guy-19 years in the park) in the ranger car, and pretty much do what he does- so it's been pretty interesting.

That's me at the top of Cerro Grande- the highest point in the park.

Other than that I've been cooking some good food and sharing meals with my two neighbors- Tori (maintenance, used to be a poker dealer for 15 years) and Shanon ("hidden treasures" project, I think, does restoration on the excavated buildings and on the CCC buildings we all live in).
Oh, and let's not forget the "Ultimate Frisbee" game last week. I didn't think I had any trouble with the elevation until 5 minutes into the game and breathing started requiring some serious effort. Effort and pain. But that was on my third day here and I've done a lot of hiking since. Next time we play, I'll kick some butt.