National Park Diary: Misc. Patrols & Beginning of Spring Break!

I am trying to write before I fall asleep. Of course, a glass of wine seems to have accelerated my sleep time! It was a long day. Walt and I got to fly with the Galen, an NPS pilot on loan from the Grand Canyon. We had to be out at his home at Hart Ranch by 8:30 this morning, so we were rolling by 7:15 a.m. dodging cottontails and jackrabbits most of the way. Unfortunately, one rabbit was not so lucky . . . poor bunny!

Anyway, we had an awesome day for flying. The 55 mph winds of the last 24 hours had finally died down and we had clear skies and beautiful clouds floating around the Chisos Mountains. We got to see the entire park, all the campsites, most of the main features in 3 hours!!!! It kind of makes an all-day driving trip up Old Ore Road seem truly tedious! We spotted our zone campers on the Marufo Vega and followed the entire trail. We flew the entire river corridor up to Santa Elena Canyon and called in dozens of trespass livestock. The pilot spotted an out-of bounds camper at the Pine Canyon Trailhead and we even saw a dirt biker wipe out on the Black Gap Road. Fortunately, after we circled him 3-4 times he stood up and waved that he was okay. Whew! Galen humored me and even flew over the Estufa Canyon to the Banta Shut-in. The 7 mile trip took just a few moments in the airplane!

Walt was a participant in a dirt bike race through the park Friday when he came upon Alyssa on Old Ore Road tending to a biker who had broken multiple ribs and had a punctured/collapsed lung among other injuries. Walt helped by staking out a landing area for the helicopter, moving vehicles out of the way, etc. Additional medical help from the park arrived and administered morphine to the patient and pretty soon he was feeling well enough to ask a gorgeous flight medic for her phone number. Ah, better living through pharmaceuticals! He was air-lifted to Odessa which is the nearest trauma center.

The Hot Springs and the Chisos Basin are the "hot spots" for the spring break. We handle Hot Springs traffic control and see several hundred visitors per day. The same is true of the Chisos Basin and as soon as we hear that the Basin parking lots are almost full we know that everyone who could not get into the Basin flocks to the Hot Springs. Note that those two areas are 30 miles from each other! We learned in our pre-spring break meeting last week that the park gets 1/3 to 1/2 of our annual visitation in this 1-2 week period.

We try not to get too excited because the crowds will diminish as quickly as they rolled into the park. Our mantra today is "this too shall pass". Here are some memories of the last week or so:

Melissa at the POE showed me the beautiful moths that she photographs in her downtime from work. These moths were both just outside the door.

Prickly Pear new growth?? Kinda weird looking.

Just in case you are missing seeing Zuni relaxing after a few moments of chasing various things around the house.

After a long, tedious day patrolling the Old Ore Road, I was leaving the Nine Point Draw campsite when I saw (what I figured out was) a vulture mating display. The male was soaring on the 55 mph winds, diving, doing loop-de-loops and generally trying to get this gal to take an interest in him.

After he dove trying to land on her several times, doesn't her face seem to say "what the heck is he thinking!!!"

Despite his goony eyes he was stunningly handsome and amazingly acrobatic in flight. He even flew over the car just a few feet away to get a better look at the intruder - me!