It takes a bit of planning to make a successful trip to Yellowstone National Park during winter since most roads in the park are closed. Shawna and Nick Atkinson went to Yellowstone this winter. They chose to go to Yellowstone because they had been before in the summertime but wanted to go back for a completely different type of visit.
From November through April only Highway 212, from Cooke City to Gardiner, is open to automobiles. Several other roads are open to snowmobiles or snowcoaches by guided tour. The National Park Service has a page dedicated to park roads with information about their seasonal access. There is also a page listing authorized snowmobile and snowcoach tour companies.
When visiting the park in winter, many outfitters give clients the choice of seeing the park by snowmobile or snowcoach. Nick and Shawna adventurously chose to book snowmobile tours through Yellowstone Fun. The chose the all-inclusive “Ultimate Package”: a motel stay at Three Bear Lodge in the town of West Yellowstone, breakfast, lunch, one dinner, and an Imax movie. On the first day of their trip, they flew to Bozeman, Montana and rented a car to reach West Yellowstone. They had three full days of snowmobiling before flying home.
Day 1
On the first day Shawna and Nick snowmobiled without a guided tour. They drove on groomed trails in Idaho, just west of the national park. They snowmobiled all day, armed with a map, exploring the Mt. Two Top area. Several miles south of Mt. Two Top is the beautiful Big Springs, where they enjoyed seeing ducks paddling on the steamy blue water. For lunch they went to Meadow Creek Lodge. It is a burger joint open all year long, but accessible only by snow machine in the winter. Shawna said that she had one of the best burgers she had ever eaten. It was magical for them to find this quaint little cabin in the woods and warm up with a burger followed by hot cocoa. In fact, the day Shawna and Nick were there it was negative 20 degrees. However, their outfitter provided full body suits and helmets, which really helped to keep them warm on the trails.
Day 2
Old Faithful Tour (70 mile round-trip)
The first stop of the day was at Firehole Canyon. Along the way Shawna and Nick saw a snowshoe hare and enjoyed hearing information from their knowledgeable guide. Next, they went to Biscuit Basin, which is a geothermal area on the Firehole River. There among many geysers and pools, they saw the eruption of Jewel Geyser. They also came across a herd of buffalo. The guide gave strict instructions about what to do if the buffalo came up to the road, or if the snowmobiles had to pass through the herd. Unfortunately for Shawna, the herd stayed out of the way at a safe distance, even though Shawna would have liked the excitement of having them come closer. The guide timed stops so that they would reach Old Faithful at just the right time for its famously reliable eruption. After seeing the eruption of Old Faithful, they had lunch at the Geyser Grill and visited the gift shop. These amenities are open during the winter season. On the way back they stopped at the colorful Fountain Paint Pots, an area with geothermal mud pots, springs and geysers. It was rather exciting that the guide was able to point out a new geothermal area that had just opened up the week before, likely from a buffalo hoof that opened up the ground. They also stopped at Beryl Spring, one of several steaming blue green pools.
Day 3
Grand Canyon Tour (120 mile round-trip)
On this day Nick and Shawna visited Gibbon Falls, the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River from Uncle Tom’s viewpoint, and then went to view the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River, which was the highlight of the day. Seeing the Lower Falls is an iconic Yellowstone experience. The falls are 308 feet tall, the highest falls in the park. The falls look totally different in the winter snow than they do in the summer. The tour included a sandwich lunch in a lodge open during winter for the snow machine tours.
Cool things Nick and Shawna saw that made the trip absolutely worth it:
♦ a large coyote foraging in the snow
♦ the buffalo herd
♦ a snowshoe hare
♦ icy waterfalls
♦ many hot geysers melting through holes in the snow
Tips:
♦ There are quite a few outfitters available, and according to Shawna, many of the area guides work through several different outfitters.
♦ You can book snow machine tours from several different locations around the park, including Jackson Hole or West Yellowstone. See the list of authorized tour agencies here.
♦ This type of trip is ideal for social distancing during a pandemic. When indoors, masks are required, but most activities are outdoors and distanced from others. Each group tour consists of about ten snowmobiles with couples on most of the machines.
♦ The National Park Service has a page dedicated to visiting Yellowstone in winter that lists opening dates and hours for park facilities.
When asked what was the most memorable experience of the trip, Shawna said that it was in the national park when they drove up to a completely flat plain of snow spread out before them, and pockets of geothermal activity were releasing vents of steam all around. This was one of the most magical moments for Shawna. She said, “It looked other-worldly.”
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