The glacier-carved valleys of Yosemite National Park have been closed to the public for nearly three months and a few dozen lucky kids have had it mostly to themselves.
Locked down amid cascading waterfalls and giant sequoias, the kids and their families have passed afternoons hiking empty trails, rafting in the river and walking with wildlife now thriving in the near absence of humans.
The school shut its doors in mid-March like others across America and class has been convening online. The playground and playing fields face the towering waterfall, which offers a running soundtrack and shakes the schoolhouse walls when it reaches full throttle in spring. There's a massive old black oak tree outside that they sit under and read when the weather is nice. They have ski days in winter and go tadpoling in May.
"Covid-19 is not affecting the pretty flowers," said Pearl Johnson, 10. "And it's not affecting all the beautiful rivers. It's actually affecting the beautiful rivers in a good way because people aren't polluting them.""There are definitely more stories to tell because all the animals are out now," said sixth grader Eva Peterson. "It's so fun to be in the park right now. There's nobody here.
"The park is the constant inspiration for all the kids," said Fulhorst-Kirtland, who started the paper as an after-school club last year with a parent volunteer, Maria Victoria Espinosa-Peterson. "They had the only interview anyone has with Cicely Muldoon. I tried to get it, everyone has tried to get it. But they got the exclusive," Little said.
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