June 26 to July 1 - Tuscon Trip

It's time for an update about our trip down to Tucson! We all headed out on the 26th of June and drove down to meet the other SCA team at their sweet apartment. Awaiting us were Annie, the team leader, Other Joe (as we liked to call him to differentiate between him and our team's Joe), John, Josh, Sarah, and Emily. These are some hard-core volunteers that have traveled all around Arizona for the previous two months in order to get to their work sites.

After arriving and settling in, we all looked for a way to cool down in the much-warmer-than-the-Grand-Canyon weather. As much as we disapprove of man-made bodies of water in the middle of the desert, we couldn't help but enjoy the Tucson team's wonderful pool. The next day we began our work revegetating social trails in Saguaro National Park. Being from an area where the temperature generally never goes higher than 90 degrees, we all proceeded to melt in the Saguaro's toasty 116 degree heat. But, it was a wonderful experience to revegetate the trail.

On the second day of reveg, we were all better prepared for the heat, toting frozen water bottles and camel packs stuffed with ice. It was a truly satisfying moment at the end of the day to look up from our completed work and not be able to find a path back to our camp site. Awesome!

On the 29th of June the Grand Canyon team, accompanied by our friends from Tucson, made the return journey home. The Tucson team then helped us water and weed a large portion of the Visitor Center, enjoying the brisk weather and amazing view. On July 1st we said goodbye to the Tucson team, which returned to their home base. We hope to work with them again on our internship, or at least get the chance to hang out!