Sophomore takes on Yellowstone National Park

After hearing from a peer about a cool opportunity to work this summer in Yellowstone National Park, sophomore, Cara David, is excited to be earning money while working at a park job site.

Yellowstone National Park is located in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. David will be staying in Wyoming, near Mammoth Hot Springs. “From July to August, I will be camping near the job site and doing things like trail maintenance, making repairs, painting and staining, planting and collecting seeds, and cleaning,” said David. “Basically, I will be carrying out the things they don’t want to pay adults to do,” joked David. She will be paid $7.25 per hour, with some money taken off for taxes and housing.

According to World Studies teacher, Sean Stevenson, “Yellowstone National Park is located on top of a super volcano.” The volcano is 44 miles across and is capable of eruptions thousands of times more violent than the Mount St. Helen’s eruption of 1980. “Some places at the park actually smell like sulfur. There are a lot of smaller canyons and many different types of nature. A friend of mine had a summer job at Yellowstone tracking fish. He tracked many different kinds of fish to learn about the migration and populations,” said Stevenson.

During the weekends David and 33 other student workers will be at the base camp hiking, white water rafting, swimming and backpacking and other recreational activities. David is looking forward to a tour of the park and a visit to the world-famous Geyser, Old Faithful. “Even though I will not be making a lot of money, I think It will be an exciting opportunity to spend time in such an old and famous National Park,” said David.