Being in the middle of nowhere, with no way to contact those I left behind, created a space for growth. I found it both exhilarating and challenging—being disconnected from the world I was used to felt like flipping a coin. On one side was the thrill of living entirely in the moment, unattached to the steady ping of messages or the urgency of news. On the other side was the gnawing awareness that those I loved were still living their lives without me, and I couldn’t instantly be part of their moments or share my own. This experience, however, taught me something profound: there is beauty in this disconnection, a freedom that opens space for the unexpected and the new.
By: Daniela Thompson, Weber State University
Being in Mongolia with these people was an awesome, once-in-a-lifetime experience. Over the past 6 weeks, we got closer, learned how to work with each other, and had a lot of fun. We learned so many new skills including camera trapping, field work, surveying, and collecting data in various habitats. We will miss Mongolia, all the people we’ve met, and the memories and friendships we’ve made.
By: Sam Hahn, Casper College
Come along with Sam to retrieve data from camera traps set in the Darhad Valley.
By: Jayden Reynolds, Weber State University
Join Jayden and the Mongolia Summer 2026 team as they backpack through the Darhad Valley surveying for Vansemberuu, a culturally significant, medicinal plant.
This past spring, students in our Patagonia and Botswana cohorts joined ongoing research initiatives with our partner organizations, contributing to fieldwork and data collection on topics ranging from elephant habitat preference to guanaco population trends.
Explore their capstone research projects here!
By: Logan Weems
Throughout the last week, the Round River Mongolia crew hopped in the Furgon (and the Delica) and drove across the steppe to 85 plots, measuring indicators like grass height and vegetation cover in order to observe how these pika populations were responding to environmental pressures they are facing.