21 Jul Let’s Get Lost in the Fun of it All

Hello there, readers!  My summer is already near its end here at Rocky Mountain National Park.  I wanted to recap on just a couple more amazing opportunities I have been able to take advantage of during my time here as a Fish & Feathers intern.  My supervisors and mentor wanted to make sure that I get the most out of my internship, which is why they allowed and encouraged me to branch away from just my own duties and programs as an intern in the interpretation and education team.  Never having any prior knowledge or experience in the outdoors or with National Park Service itself and the careers they offer, it was my mission to familiarize myself and get a better understanding of it all.  As a kid in the big city with the nearest national park being literally 7+ hours away, it was hard to really grasp any idea of what the NPS do before this internship.  Thankfully, during my time here I have gone through different cross-trainings, shadowing days, and intern events which has really opened my perspective on how cool the NPS really is.  So, let’s look back on some of those opportunities I’ve been lucky enough to take up on here at Rocky Mountain National Park. 

Trails Cross Training:

Attending a cross-training with the trails crew and helping them pave & level a new trail a mile away from the Green Mountain Trailhead that will be finished by next Spring. Using shovels and tools to pave the trails really demonstrated the labor-intensive work the Trails crew puts in everyday during the hot days of the Summer for the benefit of our visitors and overall condition of the park and its future.

Intern Cohort Dragonfly Mercury Sampling:

The Dragonfly Mercury Project is a collaborative project nationwide between the National Park service, the United States Geological Survey, and The University of Maine. In broad terms, this project helps us assess the health of aquatic ecosystems. This is a super fun day involving getting into waders and sampling for Dragonfly larvae as well as learning out to identify different families of Dragonfly larvae. I Joined the Intern Cohort for a morning of collecting dragonfly larvae and the data collected from this project allows us to know what mercury levels exist in our water and ultimately can contribute to the betterment of downstream communities.

Search and Rescue Training:

Basic SAR (Search and Rescue) training is required for park employees assisting in the field for Search and Rescue incidents.  Search and Rescue is a park-wide function, and we rely heavily on participation from all divisions and work groups from within the park. After curious about learning more on advanced trainings for search and rescue, my supervisor signed me up for a low angle scree evacuation SAR training. Low angle rescues are generally considered to fall between 15 and 35 degrees. Examples include motor vehicle accidents involving vehicles down embankments and injured runners or hikers that leave a trail and fall down an embankment. In this more complex training, we learned how to rig up an anchor on trees as support systems in the case of having to repel the party from the top of a mountain

Maintenance Cross Training:

Attending a maintenance cross-training and getting my hands dirty paving caps on concrete slabs to fix up the Timber Creek Amphitheater located at the campground which we worked hard to get it reopen for our Recreate Like a Ranger Program.  A huge gust of wind blew off our canopy 50 feet downhill where we had to retreat it stuck in twigs and trees.