OUTDOORS -- Kyle Hansen, a sophomore at West Valley High School, received his first check for writing outdoor prose on Saturday. You can see he wasn't disappointed in this photo from his parents. 

Hansen won the top award in The Spokesman-Review's 2011 Outdoor Writing Contest for high school students. Three other students won runner-up cash awards.

Get details and see the work of all four of the finalists here. The stories were published in The Spokesman-Review on Dec. 25.

 All of the finalist entries will be forwarded to a national youth outdoor writing contest for published work.

The annual contest is in its 25th year.