Grand Teton National Park

Where is Grand Teton National Park?
 It is in western Wyoming.

What are the natural wonders?
 The Grand Teton Mountains are beautiful and big but not as big as Mt. Everest.  They have rocks and snow and they are bumpy and rocky.  Some parts are smooth.  There are lakes, forests and fields of flowers and rivers.  You would also see a valley called Jackson Hole.  There is a village there called Teton Village.

What is the history of the park?  Who lived there?
 American Indians like the Flathead, Shoshone, Bannock, Crow, Blackfeet and Gros Ventre.  Early explorers were trappers like John Colter.  He could trap beavers there because there were a lot of beavers in Grand Teton.

What is the geology of Grand Teton?
  The Teton Mountains were created by a big crack in the earth.  The crack was 40 miles long and 15 miles wide.  The cracks pushed against each other.  One side went up and the other side went down creating the Teton Mountains and the valley of Jackson Hole.  That was 9 million years ago.

Why were the Grand Teton’s protected?
 In 1929 the United States Congress decided to make the Teton Mountains a national park.  They decided to do this because the land was beautiful and more and more people were moving there.  But, some of the new people were greedy.  They wanted to make money on the land.  That is why it needed to be protected.

What are some of the animals that live in Grand Teton?
 The biggest animal in Grand Teton is the Bison or Buffalo.  It can weigh up to 2,000 pounds.  Another wild animal is the elk.  It is like a large deer.  They like to graze in the parks meadows.  Moose also live in the park.  Moose are the biggest deer in the world.  They can weigh up to 1,000 pounds.  Other animals are bears, deer and bald eagles.   More than 280 kinds of birds live in the park.  In the summer one of the most interesting birds is the Osprey.  They hunt for fish in the lake. 
 
 

What does the park ranger do?
 Park rangers protect the nations land.  They protect plants and animals.

If you were a park ranger in a national park what would be some of your jobs. 
 You would need to know how to rescue people if they got lost.  Horses and donkeys help the rangers get to places in the park.  you would need to know how to ride horses and pack donkeys. 
  National parks sometimes have forest fires.  The rangers help to fight the fire.  Rangers need special training to do that.  They also warn people of the fire so they can be safe. 
  Animals in parks should not be fed by visitors.  Rangers put up signs that so “do not feed the animals.”  If people do not follow the rules, animals will come closer.  That would not be safe.  Rangers make sure people follow the rules.  They use walkie talkies to help them.
 Endangered animals live in national parks.  These animals need to be protected.  The park rangers job is to protect animals and plants.  Another job of the park ranger is to protect animals from poachers.  Poachers are people who hunt for animals and they don’t follow the laws.
 I would like to be a park ranger if I could lead people in walks and tell stories.  I wouldn’t want to fight fires.  It would be fun to ride horses and donkeys.