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Hi! I'm Julia Fanning, and I was chosen as the team spokesperson to tell you all about our incredible adventure in Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, where we learned so much about wildlife and the environment.
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We started our first day at Teton Science School, where we met our guide, Dr. Jim Halfpenny.
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We piled into a van and started the journey toward Yellowstone.
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Along the way, we stopped to check out the beautiful glaciers in the Teton mountain range.
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David got right to work as our team photojournalist!
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The runoff from the glaciers ends up here in Jackson Lake. We touched the water, and it was absolutely freezing!
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We spotted loads of bison grazing on the side of the road—you don't see that sight every day.
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It's not a wolf, but a coyote!
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There she blows! No trip to Yellowstone is complete without a visit to Old Faithful. This geyser erupts about every ninety minutes.
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Dr. Halfpenny uses a scope to try to locate wolves in Antelope Creek. Most of us had never seen a wolf before, and we actually saw three that day! We don't have pictures because they were so far away.
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Right after we saw the wolves, we saw a full-grown black bear no more than ten or twenty yards from us.
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We went on a long, steep walk up to the frigid Alpine tundra. For miles below us, we could see frozen lakes, wildlife, and valleys.
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Sravya (a Floridian) was amazed to see so much snow in the middle of summer. Neither of us was used to the cold temperatures.
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Celine and I pause to take in the scenery.
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Dr. Halfpenny explains that moss in the Alpine tundra grows about one millimeter per year.
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You can even find beautiful flowers springing up out of the moss in the Alpine tundra.
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This flower, called a western spring beauty, is actually edible! I ate the whole thing—flower, stem, leaves, and all.
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We hiked to our next destination: the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, where a majestic waterfall awaited us.
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Check out this waterfall in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The water continues to erode the canyon, creating a breathtaking sight of deep reds, oranges, and coppers.
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Next stop: the bubbling—and smelly—mud pots. These natural wonders are found in geothermal areas and are formed when a small amount of water mixes with soil rich in volcanic ash and clay particles.
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These are pronghorn deer fighting for dominance.
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Here's another bison—we learned that this must be a male because male bison travel alone and female bison travel in packs.
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The best part of the trip was getting our team back together again!
Who
Julia Fanning, Sravya Keremane, Celine Saucier, David Westrich
(David Marash-Whitman was unable to attend.)
How
They won the "National Park Service Team Award" at the 2004 Discovery Young Scientist Challenge.
Where
Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks
When
Summer 2005
Mission
To spend three days with renowned scientist and ecologist Dr. Jim Halfpenny for a personalized study of wolves in the wild—learning wolf ecology, behavior, and management while evaluating the future of the wolf
Photos by David Westrich and Julia Fanning