RSB, Grand Canyon 2024
When Friday came around and the Park Ranger told us that we did exactly as we were supposed to, reality had set in, and the fact was that we had helped rescue a man and his son from the unforgiving nature of the cold on the Grand Canyon trail as nightfall was approaching. The trip was made possible by collaboration of Raider Service Break, Transformative Undergraduate Experience, and the McNair's Scholars program here at Texas Tech University, shout out. The program had not been active since the outbreak of COVID-19, but the group spent weeks preparing to volunteer, experience, and learn about the National Park's service to the community and how we could be apart of it. Our trip set out to be done over the 2024 spring break in the Grand Canyon National Park and we were assigned duties of being frontline to the visitors needed information and guidance around the park. Through the hard work by all of the staff involved in making this experience possible, I never imagined how much of an impact the trip would help me grow as an individual and connect with others for a common cause. Just two Sundays ago, the Raider Service Break crew and all its volunteers had been packed into two vans for a weeklong volunteer excursion for an alternative spring break helping the National Park Service with park guidance to visitors from all around the world in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. We were the first group and the only school to be welcomed back into the Grand Canyon National Park, so we all felt a responsibility to be our best and help the most we could for a greater impact. I should introduce the group as all the individuals have become fond to me and the experience, we shared is collaborative. The staff which looked after us were John, Aurelia, Jace, and Sarah. The students were me Gabriel, Tiana, Ynes, Taylin, Joe, Nathan, Brooke, Cyerra, and Oliver. During the planning process, we made plans to have family style dinners every night, establish buddy systems, and pack accordingly to the weather. We were a quite group at first, it wasn't until we were prepping out lunch for the 12-hour drive that we started forming a bond between not just us as students but the staff as well. It was 6 am when we left the Texas Tech parking lot and set out for Arizona where our adventure awaited.
The biggest shock was the change in perspective of what we had expected the Grand
Canyon and our environment to look like versus the actual environment we were surrounded
by. There was so many trees that I had at one point googled what type of desert we
were even in. My results were that the park area is a semi-arid desert but not only
does the Grand Canyon Park have a single habitat but there are four more distinct
habitats as the elevation of the rim starts at 8,000 feet on the south rim is specifically
a Ponderosa pine forest. Starting from the bottom at 2,200 feet, the Colorado River
lay and there exists a riparian community, above that is the desert scrub community,
and above that is the juniper and pinyon pine woodland. Finally, above the rim is
a higher rim on the North rim which we did not visit but is another habitat called
the Montane meadows and subalpine grassland communities. Upon arrival we were greeted
by the Park Ranger in charge of us and his volunteer crew which helped us in our necessities
for staying. They were so welcoming and nice with their introduction that at first
impression I could tell that the week was going to be full of adventure and thrills.
Our week was set ahead, the plan we were to do was training and park exploration on
Monday, Tuesday was when we got to learn about federal jobs within the nation park
service and volunteering for the first time, Wednesday we were given a free day to
relax or to explore the park but we got the pleasure of being introduced to the fire
protection agency , Thursday was a fresh full day of volunteering, and Friday we started
early to service the park and then we were to become initiated as junior rangers and
say good byes to all the rangers.
To recap the week, the volunteer experience was amazing, I previously have worked
in the service industry and always enjoyed hearing people stories so having interactions
with people from across the world made this a great experience to help those people
around the park but to also hear where they were from and some of their experiences.
So many people were happy to talk to our groups and we even seen a lot of Texas Tech
students and alumni by the occasional recognition of our merchandise and strangers
shouting wreck em from across the pavement at times. One day I got paired with a couple
of jokesters in our group and it was highlight how much we could share a laugh with
strangers. At one point Oliver, a fellow student, was on the group laughing so hard
and guests were joining him in laughter as they were passing by. When guests would
return from their trips after we gave them directions, they would thank us and some
of the students in our group even were subjects of visitors' vacation experience as
they wanted to get pictures with the group. Every smile we shared with guests at the
Grand Canyon was reassurance that our help was admired, and we made a difference that
day.
It wasn't just interactions with the guests but also the group which we made dinner
every night, shared our thoughts about the day, and played board games in a competitive
fashion sparking a flush of emotions from the group and a stronger bond between us
all. The most personal experience I had was on the Wednesday which we had a break
day, where me, Nathan, and Joe decided to hike down to the bottom of the canyon to
the Colorado River to dip our feet into the water and hike back up. The hike consisted
of 6.6 miles down to the bottom and 6.6 miles back to the surface of the canyon. The
hike down was amazing, seeing how the environment changed around us as our elevation
was dropping. At one point I was in a t-shirt because of the heat and the rocks were
brown like a western movie, then at the next moment it was humid and slightly cold
with the giant rocks surrounding us covered in moss like we were on the beach of Northern
California, at the bottom of the canyon there was sand and obsidian rocks resembling
a beach in Hawaii (I've never been but it seems like it would fit given the volcanos
out there). When we started the hike back up, it was a sudden realization that the
trip down was not the beginning of the hike but the hike back up is where the actual
struggle began.
Nightfall quickly approached as we became stuck on the trail with mountain sheep kicking rocks down on us. As we managed to get past the herd, Joe spotted a hiker on the side of the trail in the dark snuggled up in an emergency blanket with his son standing by while his dad warmed up. It helps to note that even though I was previously in a t-shirt for part of the hike, by the time the sun fell, the temperature had dropped to 30 degrees. The hiker we assumed to be in early hypothermia stages of which I offered my long sleeve shirt and all the hand warmers I had then Joe offered his long johns to cover up his legs as he and his son had shorts on. We continued the hike with the hikers behind us and in the spur of a moment they were nowhere to be seen in the dark, at this point all three of our legs were cramping on every step up the mountain. I had decided to go back and find them while Joe and Nathan stayed together. It took about 5-10 minutes going downhill to find the hiker again in his emergency blanket and attempting to convince his son to get into his emergency blanket so that they could stay the night, rest, and eat. Which upon conversation, he established that he was an experienced hiker/ marathon runner but for some reason he could not stay warm. What felt like an eternity of talking to them knowing Nathan and Joe were waiting, I managed to convince them to finish the hike with us. I cut the man's emergency blanket into a jacket and provided the assistance needed to get back them onto the trail to catch up with the rest of the group and finish the hike with us. We eventually made it out of the canyon all struggling both us and the hikers we found on the side of the trail, as we gave them a ride to their place of stay, we were celebrating the arrival out of comradery and willpower. The next morning, we woke up to the snowstorm which made it our best decision to get them out of the canyon last night more agreeable. It has taken me awhile to process the night of getting out of the canyon assisting the father and son which happen to be born in a city next to my place of birth. The coincidence of that and the fact that we went on a stretch to bullet hike a high difficulty trails in one day makes the odds even crazier that we found them and were able to assist them but it wasn't until the rangers had explained that we had done exactly what was supposed to be done in that situation and teary eyes filled the room that I realized we actually did had prevented serious injury and more graciously their lives.
Wrapping up this trip into a blog post is a very difficult thing as there are many aspects I would like to keep talking about but the tripped has changed my perspective on life for the better. From volunteering, learning about native American preservations, the service provided by the rangers, and helping those hikers on the side of the canyon has made me more confident in my career path to help people with my education in engineering and medicine. I've always been a high shooter and considered the wild child of my family when it comes to the outdoors and my life choices, like doing pre-med and electrical engineering in my undergraduate. This trip has confirmed for me that risks are worth taking for the good of others and humanity means so much more to me now. The proof is in the positive impacts that are made from the simplest smile to a stranger, picking up litter in the park, and even assisting strangers to finish their hike and getting to warmth and safety.