To get there required a short stretch of interstate highway then turning, at Cedar City, onto a winding, two-lane road that ascended a 10,000 foot mountain. Desert sage gave way to tall pine and the bleached bark of leafless Aspen. As they neared the summit the harshness of the past winter was evidently displayed by the broken trunks of Pine and Fir. The heavy winds and snow had bent the supple Aspen trunks into groves of pale arches.
The travelers arrived at an overlook where, far in the distance, they viewed the West Temple of Zion amongst the expansive mountainous terrain of southern Utah. Amid the other visitors were father and son bikers. The former sporting a long, gray ponytail and ribbons from his Vietnam service; features that Chris and Jay more or less expected in such a character. What they didn’t expect was the tiny, but adorable dog attached to the leash he was holding and the equally tiny pet carrier lashed to his bike. He and his son were cordial and engaged in light conversation and Jay thanked the elder for his service.
The mountain summit was unexpectedly flat with broad, snow-covered meadows, stretching to either side of the road. They passed the entrance to Cedar Breaks National Monument and wondered what it was. Thankfully the descent was much more gradual than the ascent and they arrived in the valley town of Hatch in good spirits.
This is what they found during a day trip to Cedar Breaks.
If the remoteness of the location and lack of “attractions” wasn’t enough to keep Chris and Jay holed up in the RV during their three-night stay, the weather certainly did. The night of their arrival the temperatures dropped, the winds roared and precipitation of all types prevented them from stepping outside for anything other than a trek to the office for mail and to do laundry.
Caught up on e-mails and photo editing, they arrived at Bryce Canyon National Park on a gloriously sunny, blue-sky day and took up residence at Ruby’s RV Park, a mere two miles from the Park gate.
Chris was so excited to be back at Bryce Canyon. She had been there with her daughter, Jessica, in 2007 when they turned transporting some furniture, from her home in Maryland to Jessica’s in Oregon, into a cross-country trip. Jessica enjoyed their first day there so much that she insisted on doing the half-day horseback ride into the canyon, which they both thought was spectacular - until the saddle sores set in the next day.
A panoramic view of Bryce Canyon.
The 8,000 foot elevation at Bryce Canyon took some getting used to in more ways than one. Several inches of snow fell during the freezing nighttime temperatures and although most days were sunny, Chris and Jay had to bundle up against the cool mountain winds. Minimal exertion caused shortness of breath in the thin air making their first few trail outings much longer and slower with frequent stops to ease the gasps and prevent the need for CPR.
A view of the hoodoos from the canyon floor.
On Sunday, May 24th, eight days into their two-week stay, Jay received a phone call from Kevin Evans, a Park Ranger. He explained that one of the camp host couples didn’t show and couldn’t be contacted. The Park was desperate to fill the position. He had gotten Chris and Jay’s names from the camp host volunteer applications they had submitted at Zion and wanted to know if they were available until the end of July. They were his thirty-first call! Jay was taken aback at the request and shared the information with Chris. They thought of the reservations already in place and how the commitment would change their summer and said they were interested and would get back to him. Within minutes, Chris dug out the summer’s schedule and discovered the only deposit they’d paid was for the reservations at Yellowstone and all others needed just a phone call to cancel. They eagerly accepted.
Within days they’d been issued uniforms, radios and keys and had moved into the Sunset Campground host site. After two days of training, by their host counterparts, they were on their own and interacting with the hundreds of visitors that frequented the campsites.
The volunteers before the 4th of July parade.
Chris spent the morning decorating the Polaris ATV they used for campground rounds.
Bryce Canyon National Park has two campgrounds – North and Sunset. Sunset Campground has about one hundred campsites in three loops; two for tents and one for RVs. At the campground entrance is a registration kiosk and a service road that leads to a loop containing four full-hookup campsites. The first was occupied by camp hosts Liz and Gary Seaman and the second by Chris and Jay. The others housed their new boss, Kevin Evans and his wife, Cheryl, who also worked for the Park. Bob and Eva Safranek, Visitor Center Volunteers, had taken up residence in the fourth campsite. Via various meetings they attended, to become oriented to the Park’s policies and personnel, they also met one of the North Campground hosts, Chip and Jill Hayes. Over the weeks to come they all became fast friends, getting together in the evenings for birthday celebrations, happy hours and going away parties.
The camp hosts were advised to keep the radios on during their waking hours, carry them even during their days off and while hiking, to contact a Ranger in case a Park visitor needed assistance. Unfortunately the real juicy stuff was on the Law Enforcement channel to which they did not have access, but the transmissions became an unending source of entertainment. There was always an unusual situation which required a call to the Rangers; from overpopulated campsites and loud and even nude campers to canyon rescues, lost pets and, sadly, several deer struck by speeding vehicles. But, not all radio traffic was “official”. Chris wanted to share her birthday pies (that’s right, not cake) with the on-duty Rangers. The word was quickly spread and all three arrived at the appointed time for the evening’s sweets.
The work schedule was a little longer and harder than the new volunteers expected. Gary and Liz had been there for a month and liked a four day on/four day off schedule. Chris and Jay enjoyed the four days off but by the end of four fourteen hour days they were a little bit beat. The schedule required them to be up and dressed by 7 a.m., then make rounds of the campground at 8, and 11 a.m. and 4 and 8 p.m. when they recorded what sites were occupied and with what, i.e. tents or RVs; and the most fun job of all – cleaning fire pits!! Campers peppered them with questions but most of all compliments on how nice the campground was, how clean the bathrooms were and how grateful they were for the answers to all of their questions – especially the ones about the bears.
A prominently displayed notice on the Registration Kiosk warned of bears and it seems people actually read it – above all the foreigners. One French woman was particularly concerned and with a French/English dictionary in hand, expressed her fears to Chris who explained that since the Park initiated strict trash disposal and food containment regulations, bears had not been seen in the campgrounds but they had been spotted in remote areas of the Park. To further allay her fears, Jay offered her $1,000 if she saw a bear. Thankfully she didn’t.
The most memorable question of the season came from a visitor at North Campground when they asked Chip and Jill “At what elevation do deer become elk?” Who cares what they answered, the question was priceless!!
An unexpected reward for interacting with the campers was FREE FOOD!!! Sunset campground had a group site that was reserved every Monday night by Backroads.com a worldwide outdoor tour company. They filled the site with white vans for transporting the road bicycles, tents and carrying all the meals they prepared for their guests each night. Any dinner fare that was not consumed was offered to the camp hosts – which they eagerly accepted. They were treated to scrumptious lasagna, garlic bread, a moist, brownie-like chocolate cake and sometimes salad, in such quantities that it had to be shared amongst their NPS neighbors.
One perk of volunteering at a National Park is the opportunity for various types of training. Chris and Jay were able to attend a CPR/First Aid refresher course to update their certifications. A short time later there was a call on the radio for people to assist in a rescue. A young woman had sprained/broken her ankle while hiking in the canyon and the Rangers needed hands to help carry her out.
Weeks earlier Liz had asked if volunteers could assist with rescues and was told they could not unless they’d had training. As a result, Chris and Jay never responded to previous calls. Having just received the First Aid training, Jay decided to ask if they could help, figuring that he’d get turned down if what Liz said was true. The Ranger in charge said they could use all the hands they could get. Despite it being a day off, within minutes Chris and Jay were in uniform, supplied with food and water and out the door.
The pace the young Rangers set hiking down the steep switchbacks into the canyon had the volunteers panting and literally jogging to keep up. By the time they reached the injured visitor her ankle had been splinted and she was ready to be loaded into the litter, a contraption uniquely suited to the task with handles fore, aft and on both sides and a bicycle sized pneumatic tire directly under the middle of it to support most of the weight. All the handlers had to do was guide and stabilize.
Chris and Jay were apprehensive about matching the pace out of the canyon, but were relieved to learn that the route out was down – to Tropic a small town nearby. It was a longer trail but they would go faster and boy did they! Later Jay said he felt as if his feet were hardly touching the ground!
The Rangers held a going away cookout for the camp hosts that were departing and their arriving replacements. It is customary to give a gift as a token of appreciation for the volunteers’ time and contribution to the Park’s needs. Chris and Jay were expecting the obligatory NPS coffee mugs, which they got, along with a beautiful hardbound Bryce Canyon coffee table book, but Chris giggled with delight when Jay opened the box to reveal a Prairie Dog stuffed animal. The Utah Prairie Dog is an endangered species that resides in the Park and one of the meadows where they live is frequented by shutterbug tourists. The stuffed animals are sold in the Visitor Center to raise funds for their preservation.
Attendees of the going away picnic: L-R Chip Hayes (camp host), Rangers Katheryn Sommer, Peter Christianson, Dan Fagergren, Caleb Janda, & Duane Poslusny; Jill Hayes (camp host), Ranger Tyla Guss and Kemper Toller (camp host).
L-R Ranger, Rayne Rohrbach, Vern & Jo (replacement camp hosts), Liz and Gary Seaman (camp hosts) and Ranger Virginia Thiel.
L-R Kevin Evans, Jay Crouthers and Cheryl Evans.
Each animal comes with a full-color frame-able certificate and owners are encouraged to name their new pet and register it. Chris looked at the cute little critter sitting on her desk one day and the expression on its face screamed Percy! She and Jay agreed it needed only a monocle to appear like a stuffy British aristocrat and played around with variations of the name. They settled on Sir Percival Bryce; Sir Percival having been the Knight of King Arthur’s Roundtable that found the Holy Grail.
Sir Percival Bryce.
The six weeks of camp hosting passed all too quickly but Chris and Jay enjoyed the experience and decided to apply to other National Parks in the months to come. Sad to leave Bryce, but eagerly anticipating almost two weeks in Yellowstone, they departed the morning of July 14th to re-provision during a brief stop at Salt Lake City before heading to the nation’s first National Park.
