The start of the busy season for the U.S. National Parks system is here, with last year’s nearly 312 million visitors hiking across the Grand Canyon, posting Instagram stories from Joshua Tree and waiting for Old Faithful by Yellowstone’s rainbow pools. On Memorial Day last year, many of the parks’ parking lots were full by midmorning. At Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, park rangers start clearing the way for visitors weeks ahead of the busy season, restoring dozens of miles of trails by removing debris and navigating steep cliffs on foot before the snow even melts. Similar preparation plays out at the system’s parks around the country.
Cleaning up erosion
Over millions of years, wind and rain have shaped the limestone in Bryce Canyon into maze of spire-shaped rocks shooting into the air at 8,000 feet. Each winter, the rain and snow sand down the rock faces and degrade trails. Each spring, crews clear hiking paths of debris, mostly by hand to limit destruction to the natural habitat. Unusually intense storms and a wet winter this past year wrought severe damage, delaying trail openings and complicating cleanup. One side of the trail remains closed as crews continue repairs, digging out the surface of the route and installing wire baskets filled with large rocks along the perimeter to divert water and facilitate drainage.
Training for emergencies
Bryce averages around 40 search-and-rescue operations a year, often to help people who have fallen. Rangers and local volunteers undergo basic technical rescue training, learning to use ropes and high-angle equipment for more complicated rescues. Last summer, a visitor could not complete a strenuous eight-mile hike. She tried to take a shortcut to return to the starting point and became separated from her grandchildren. Hours later, rangers found her clinging to a precipitous slope, unable to move. Securing ropes, they descended and lifted her to safety.
Ensuring dark skies
The rangers have to fit all of their cleanup and prep work into daylight hours. At night, their job is to keep the lights off, protecting Bryce’s status as a dark-sky park: After sunset, less than 1 percent of Bryce Canyon is lit by artificial light.
“It’s clear how proud they are of the uniqueness of Bryce’s night sky,” Linda said. “They’re conserving the park, but they’re also preserving a…
2023-05-29 08:24:56
Post from www.nytimes.com
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