I am halfway through my third season as a National Park Ranger… some days are fun, some days are hard, but the whole thing is still surreal. December was a special month for me, my grandparents, who many of you know, had the opportunity to visit me here at Grand Canyon. My Grambam and Gramps are a big reason of my WHY with pursuing a career in the park service and having passion for protecting outdoor spaces. So having them come watch me be a park ranger, see me in full uniform giving a program and spending time with them was very memorable.

Thank you for coming to visit me, and thank you to my community who supports me, reads my blogs and to all who have had a part in my growth and becoming who I am today. In other exciting news, the canyon got its first decent snowfall of the year earlier this month. Its tradition after the first big snowfall of the season for the rangers to walk out to the canyon rim together, and we did just that, it was such a cute experience!

As fun as snow is, its been melting quick out here and hasn’t been sticking, so here’s some fun photos of me rangering in the canyon other days this month without snow.

Outside of work, I’ve been chumming it up with my coworkers and forming some friendships. Aiden got a portable fire pit, so we have had some toasty nights in his backyard with a nice wood fire going.

Another night we got a group of us to go into town and we got to meet SANTA! We got a photo with the legend and left with a bag of goodies.

I’ve been having great local adventures, but on my long weekends I’m still going out exploring, and when it lines up, I get to go with Aiden and Maggie as well. Our most recent adventure was out to Zion National Park, this is one of the few times of the year we got to drive in the canyon, and we hiked Emerald Pools and a Canyon Overlook trail. By recommendation of Rianne, our good bud, we got sushi for dinner in St George and it was some of the best sushi I have had outside of California! For dessert, we went to a Utah staple, a soda shop called ‘Swig’ where you can get soda with flavored mix ins. I got a Mountain Dew base with raspberry, peach and vanilla cream. It was pretty good but super sweet, even with the smallest size I couldn’t quite finish it.

On shorter weekends, or more casual days off, I’ve tried to make a point of getting out and hiking bits of the canyon and enjoying new parts of the park. Here’s some photos from recent hikes down to Cedar Ridge and out to Shoshone Point.

For the holiday season, I was granted a brief leave to go home and be with family for Christmas, it was a quick travel turnaround, but so worth it! I spent 4 wonderful days at home with my siblings and parents, got to see my grandparents for Christmas and it was a much needed recharge of my batteries! We had great conversations, home cooked meals and lots of bonding.

After I came home, I got to pet sit for an adorable cat named Smokey for a few days, and then I spent NYE in Flagstaff with two of my buddies: Rianne and Maggie. For New Years Eve, Flagstaff does a ‘Pinecone Drop’ to ring in the new year, so we had to check it out!

Happy 2024 everyone! Looking forward to a great 3 more months with the Grand Canyon and excited to see what the year has in store for me!