The Alpine Connection Co.

Sequoia National Park is hiring from the local area!

We're looking for four seasonal Administrative Support Assistants (GS-05/06/07) to join our team. These positions are open to residents living no more than 75 miles from park headquarters in Three Rivers, CA. This is a great opportunity to work close to home while supporting your local national park.

Duties include:
Providing administrative assistance to supervisors and staff.
Time and attendance duties.
Budget and finance duties including tracking and reconciling expenditures, preparing and submitting finance documents and transactions, and fleet utilization tasks.
Using a computer and appropriate software for data collection, analysis and collating. Preparing reports, forms, and providing proper formatting for information processing.
Procuring goods and services through purchasing.

Seasonal positions usually last about six months and the starting date for these positions could be as soon as July. Actual dates can be variable due to project needs and funding.

Interested? Head over to https://www.usajobs.gov/job/872429400 to apply. Proof of local area residency is required.

If you know someone who may be a good fit, please share this post!

NPS photo
Alt text: the Foothills Visitor Center on a summer day, where the park headquarters is located in Sequoia National Park.

Stars, satellites and supernovas, oh my!

Great Basin National Park will now be offering constellation talks this summer! Experience some of the darkest skies in the USA with our rangers, as they share the stories and science of our night sky. As one of over 40 certified International Dark Sky places in the National Park Service, Great Basin offers a spectacular viewing experience that is becoming less common across the world.

The talks will run from 9:00 pm to 10:00 pm every Wednesday at the Baker Access Trail by the Great Basin Visitor Center in Baker, Nevada.

Photo: T. Auchter

Subalpine meadows like Paradise still have significant snow cover, but snow is melting out fast. Glacier lilies (Erythronium grandiflorum) are some of the earliest subalpine wildflowers to start blooming, sometimes even pushing through snow! This head start gives glacier lilies an advantage in pollinating and reproducing before other wildflowers have even started growing. The closely related avalanche lilies, which have white petals with a yellow center, also bloom early in the season. Look for these lilies throughout the subalpine areas of the park.

Remember, as snow begins to melt, please stay on trails to avoid trampling wildflowers just starting to grow!

For updates on what’s blooming where visit https://go.nps.gov/RainierWildflower

Unfamiliar with Mount Rainier’s wildflower species? Check out the wildflower guide at https://go.nps.gov/RainierWildflowerGuide

NPS Photo of a glacier lily at Paradise, 6/4/26.

Breaking News!!

You may have been misled! Some of our favorite patterns in the sky, including the big dipper, the teapot, and Orion's belt are NOT constellations. These iconic shapes are actually known as asterisms, or a set of recognizable stars smaller than a constellation. These patterns can include stars from zero, one, or many official constellations, but are often easy to point out, making them perfect for orienting yourself in the night sky. For example, the big dipper is part of the larger constellation Ursa Major, or the great bear. Using this asterism or constellation, it is then easy to locate the little dipper (another asterism that is part of the larger Ursa Minor constellation), Cassiopeia, Virgo, and countless other popular constellations.

What is your favorite asterism, and what can it help you find?

NPS Photo/Foott

The canyon is not what it seems…

A common question at Black Canyon is, “Were the canyon walls laid down in layers and rotated 90 degrees?”

This is a widespread phenomenon in geology and a good assumption to explain the appearance of the canyon walls, since visible lines run up and down them. The walls at Black Canyon, however, are made of metamorphic and igneous rocks. Unlike sedimentary rocks that are laid down horizontally, like sandstone, these types of rocks here lack similar large-scale layers. What we are seeing here are joints in the walls of the metamorphic and igneous rock that break along their weakest plane, in this case vertically. Over time, weathering from processes like freeze-thaw have enlarged these vertical weak points making them more obvious to the observer, fooling many of us as to the origins of Black Canyon.

What other secrets might Black Canyon reveal after a second look?

To learn more about geology at Black Canyon, visit: https://www.nps.gov/blca/learn/nature/geology.htm

NPS Photo

🥳 From the tallest elk to the tiniest salamanders, everyone in the national park is celebrating 92 years of the Great Smoky Mountains! 🎉🎊

On June 15, 1934, the national park was officially established by Congress, setting aside these mountains, valleys, and everything in them "for the permanent enjoyment of the people."

Over the past 92 years, the Smokies have grown to become the most-visited national park in the United States, a place where visitors from all over the world can come to share in the Smokies' history, marvel at the beauty of the Appalachian Mountains, and wonder at the incredible biodiversity.

Help us celebrate by sharing your favorite thing to do in the Great Smoky Mountains!

Photo by Bryce Wade