Home on the Range



Pioneering Spirit



I am dying to add a little western barbeque rub to my blog. 

The challenge is how to do it in a tasteful and educational way.

Appropriate for living in the "Tetons", for days I had been missing my Calvin Klein undergarment. (I would be remiss not to thank my dear friends and Cape colleagues, Joni and Tara, for rationing my jeans, skirts, and undergarments when helping me pack so efficiently for my trip out West).

Bison in Antelope Flats GTNP

I searched all over - my locker at work, my shared closet, the community laundry room at Beaver Creek.  Finally found it dangling over my kayak paddle shaft in the back of my jeep.
I laughed.

I have come to learn I can make home wherever I am - whether it be in my jeep, in shared park housing, or an ocean-view bungalow.

In addition to the essential clothing in my Jeep, I have my brother's cooler stocked with his ideas of survival gear (ie mosquito netting and fishing lures), firewood, sleeping bag, tent, camp stove, fishing pole, Cliff bars, and water.

I officially live in an area called Beaver Creek, part of Grand Teton National Park employee housing.  It is three miles from work and easily accessible by the Park's Bike Path, which runs about 25 miles from downtown Jackson (one of my favorite towns) to the southern side of Jenny Lake.  It offers great vantage points of the Teton Range and the meadows below them.

Cunningham Cabin - Historic Site
with Mountain Views

I realized while listening to another park ranger sing some western love ballad from his porch last night,  that this two-bedroom, two-bath cabin I live in is also starting to feel like home.  I purchased pretty table mats the other day, even though I have only three weeks left, and with the pioneering spirit of my roommates, set up a 20' clothes line with bungee cords and a staple gun.

In the photo, my Calvin Klein garment is hanging safely on this make-shift clothesline.  Zoom in for a closer look.

On the topic of homes and habitats, the other day I designed and taught a one-hour "Family" program on four of the six "Natural Communities" found in Grand Teton National Park.  Communities are often based on dominant vegetation type.  These plants reflect environmental conditions involving soil, sun, water, and elevation.  The Sagebrush, the Forest, the Wetlands (aquatic), and the Alpine communities, with their own distinct features, are habitats for specific vegetation and wildlife designed to live in them.

The exchange between these communities is important to note.  Relationships form between and within them.  There are no fast rules or hard lines where animals might live.

In the program I had a young girl stage herself as a Sagebrush, demonstrating both its deep and shallow root systems allowing them to thrive in dry, rocky soil conditions.  In these Sagebrush communities live deer-like Pronghorn, running speeds up to 62 mph, as well as Bison, reaching speeds of 35 mph and jumping 6-feet fences.  They are easily found in the Antelope Flat and Gros Ventre southern areas of the Park.  In first morning light, it provides a beautiful photo opp, with the rising sun illuminating the barn on Mormon's Row.

For the moment, the Tetons are home.

The Ranger at Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitors Center