Day one-self guided orientation tour.

This summer I am very fortunate to be working for the National Park Service in a program called Teacher Ranger Teacher. By participating in this program I will have the opportunity to work in Shenandoah National Park as an official Park Ranger! I am doing this because I want to learn more about Shenandoah National Park. I also want to share my love of the outdoors with my students and other young people. I want to take an active role in helping to preserve Shenandoah. I want to encourage other people to do the same.

Today I began my adventure!
Part of my orientation included a self-guided tour of the park. I drove on Skyline Drive from the park headquarters in Luray, VA to the southern entrance near Waynesboro. I stopped many times along the way to read signage, study the landscape, hear a ranger talk at Byrd Visitor Center and take in all of the beauty of the flora and fauna. One highlight of the day included an adult and cub black bear sighting beside Little Stony Man hiking trail. I stopped at the Byrd Visitor Center where they have an interesting display on the people and history of Shenandoah. I attended a ranger talk at Big Meadows. I learned a lot about the Weakleys, the family that lived at Big Meadows before the park was built. On our short hike we learned about the valuable uses of some of the plants in the meadow. We identified milkweed, yarrow, blueberry, ferns, daisy flea bane and a plant that was new to me called fly poison. Did you know that before people had screens in their windows they used this plant to catch flies? The would crush the plant and put it in a bowl of milk on the window sill and the flies would land in it and die. Our walk got cut short though because a thunderstorm blew in and we had to move out of the meadow to safety. I returned home tired, but feeling a sense of calm and peacefulness from being in the wilderness. When I return to work next week we will be busy preparing for the 75th Anniversary rededication ceremony on June 25th.