Quick Details
Duration: 5+ days
Ages: Ages 12+
Highlights:
- Experience the magic of Yellowstone’s abundant wildlife and iconic beauty
- Local Certified Interpretive Naturalist Guide
- Small group – up to 10 guests
- Away from the crowds and into the wild
- Optics for everyone (spotting scopes/binoculars)
- Breakfast and lunch – picnic style
- Safe, fun and educational
Spring into Summer: Animal Babies
Spring is the season of birth here in Yellowstone! Baby season has arrived, and there is no better time to immerse yourself in Yellowstone’s wildlife-rich Northern Range, Lamar Valley, and Hayden Valley. The grass is greening up, the animals are returning to their summering grounds, and the landscape is alive with new growth! Deep winter snow has melted away in the low-elevation valley floors, bringing an inviting abundance of delicious and nutritious food in its place. Motivated by the bounty of new vegetation, our vast herds of bison, elk, pronghorn, and deer are moving in to replenish their winter-depleted reserves. Wolves are just beginning to share the wonders of the landscape with the newest pack members (just a few weeks old!), bears of all ages have fully emerged from hibernation. They are anxious to fill long-empty stomachs with tender, nutritious roots, tubers, grasses, and protein, and after the long flight back from winter migrations south, 100’s of species of birds have returned with a chorus of spring song. It is the time of new life in Yellowstone, and our guides can’t wait to share the magic with you!
The Spring into Summer: Animal Babies package includes all in-park transportation, five nights lodging in a family-operated motel-style lodge, breakfasts and lunches enjoyed picnic style in a picturesque location in the field, (1) group dinner with your guide at the Wonderland Cafe, the highest quality optics (spotting scopes & binoculars), and a small group size of 4-10. Throughout this package, we’ll spend four days exploring the wonders of birth as a new season unfolds and the next generation of Yellowstone’s fabled animals begins learning the triumphs and trials of survival in their wild homes.
Every day provides exciting possibilities to see newly expanded wolf packs with curious and clumsy weeks-old puppies, bison herds nurturing their red-hued and playful just-dropped calves, elk cows moving away from the herds to deliver their gangly, spotted little ones, black and grizzly bears showing the ropes to their itty-bitty cubs, and so much more!
Your experience will be not just exciting, but also highly educational. We’ll highlight the complex interconnectedness of an intact ecosystem, the monumental reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone and the incredibly rich world of wolf social behaviors, specialized hunting strategies and their ecological impacts on the other animals of Yellowstone and the landscape itself. We will explore how predators and their relationship to their prey and the land we all share, have captured the human imagination for centuries, and over time have characterized the wolf, bear, and bison as the ultimate icons of Wilderness and conservation success. This in-depth understanding will enrich your experience and leave you with a profound appreciation for the natural world.
This multi-day tour package is not just the ideal way to experience the wild wonders of rebirth in Yellowstone National Park but also a rejuvenating retreat. You’ll be treated to the coziest family-owned accommodations, breakfasts and lunches prepared by a local vendor, comfortable transportation, and the best optics available. We’ve taken care of every detail so you can relax and fully immerse yourself in the beauty of Yellowstone.
Tour includes:
- Five-night’s stay in historic Gardiner, MT, at North Entrance of Yellowstone National Park
- All in-park transportation in our fully-equipped Ford Transit touring vehicles (we drive, you enjoy the scenery)
- Three full days (8-9 hours) observing and learning about Yellowstone’s wildlife on the Northern Range (including the wildlife-rich Lamar Valley) and Hayden Valley
- One full day (8-10 hours) spent exploring the geologic wonders (Grand Canyon, Norris Geyser Basin, and Mammoth Hot Springs) that have laid the ecological foundation for our native fauna
- Local Certified Interpretive Naturalist Guide/Outdoor Educator
- All breakfasts/lunches on field days
- (1) Group sit-down dinner with your Naturalist Guide on the last full day
- Supplemental materials provided by your Naturalist Guide to maximize educational/learning opportunities
- Detailed and interactive facilitated discussions related to Yellowstone’s in-depth conservation, park, and Native American past, present, and future
- Optics for everyone to maximize wildlife viewing: top-of-the-line binoculars and high-powered spotting scopes
Further Information:
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In order for this package to operate, there is a minimum total enrollment of 4 participants
Spring 2025 packages are scheduled for the following dates:
5/25/25 – 5/30/25– SOLD OUT- 6/1/25 – 6/6/25
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Day Location Accommodation General Comments 1 Gardiner, MT Yellowstone River Motel (YRM)
Arrive in Gardiner, MT Check-in to Motel after 4:00pm
Welcome orientation @ 6:00pm
Dinner on own
2 Gardiner, MT Yellowstone River Motel 6:00am – 3:00pm Introduction to Yellowstone
Geology & Hayden Valley
Dinner on own
3 Gardiner, MT Yellowstone River Motel 5:00am-2:00pm
Northern Range Wildlife
Dinner on own
4 Gardiner, MT & Lamar Valley Yellowstone River Motel 5:00am-2:00pm
Northern Range Wildlife
Dinner on own
5 Gardiner, MT, and Lamar Valley Yellowstone River Motel 5:00am-2:00pm
Northern Range Wildlife
Group dinner w/guide @ 5:00pm
6 Gardiner Check out of YRM by 10:00am Program ends -
In order to reserve your tour, a deposit in the amount of 30% of the package total is due at the time of booking. The balance due will be charged to the card on file 45 days prior to your tour start date.
Should you need to cancel your tour with us more than 46 days prior to your tour departure date, your deposit is fully refundable minus a $200.00 service fee.
Should you need to cancel your tour within 45 days of your tour departure date, your payment is non-refundable.
We regret that as a small business, we are rarely able to make exceptions to our cancellation policy.
We reserve the right to cancel the trip if minimum enrollment of 4 guests is not met by 30 days prior to the trip departure date, or due to extreme weather conditions or other factors that are outside of our control. Full refund of your Yellowstone Wild package price is given if this occurs. Yellowstone Wild is not liable for reimbursement of travel-related expenses such as airfare, car rentals, or other incidentals.
We strongly recommend you purchase third-party travel insurance that will protect you in case of unforeseen cancellations or changes to your travel plans (for suggested travel insurance companies, use the following link for highly-rated options): [Forbes Advisor]
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Yellowstone possesses some of the most extreme weather conditions anywhere. Temperatures on any given tour could range from 0°F to +90°F (-18°C to +32°C). We therefore recommend plenty of warm clothes that can be layered and easily removed; therefore, allowing you to adjust and stay comfortable throughout your tour.
Here are our suggestions and what our guides wear/bring on Spring tours:
- Long underwear. Starting with your base layers, synthetic or wool long underwear tops and bottoms are critical to your comfort (we can find places to shed this layer later in the day if necessary). Please stay away from cotton, which can hold moisture and drastically chill the body, whereas wool and synthetics wick moisture and can even insulate while wet.
- A windproof and water repellent insulated jacket is your most important protection from the biting Wyoming winds. Gore-Tex or something similar is highly advised as the best moisture/wind barrier and goose down insulation is the best insulation.
- Gloves or mittens.
- Warm hat that covers your ears. We lose tremendous body heat from our heads. Protect your ears from the chilly wind with a wool or fleece hat.
- Warm wool or synthetic socks are key to keeping those toes from hampering your good time. Be sure you have plenty of wiggle room inside your boots. If your socks are too thick and fit too tightly in your boots, you will actually reduce blood flow to your feet, resulting in cold toes, regardless of how warm your socks are.
- Cool, quick-dry hiking pants and shirts, t-shirts, and/or shorts (for warmer afternoons)
- Closed toed, waterproof hiking boots/shoes
- With high elevation sun, many of us burn easily, especially when we are distracted by something like watching wolves for extended periods of time.
- Even if you are not a serious photographer, a camera is nice to have on tour.
- A day pack is very handy for personal items: hand and toe warmers, water bottle, sunglasses, camera, and of course for all the extra layers you will want.
Weather
Yellowstone National Park is a very large place divided by mountain ranges, deep valleys and a massive lake. The weather within the 2.2 million acres can vary widely, so checking the weather in the park can be a difficult task. We recommend checking several different NOAA weather stations around the park, and working an average of those if you’re planning to travel around the entirety of the park.
Can you expect to see all the wildlife you hope for?
It is important to remember that the wild animals we seek to observe are exactly that, WILD free-ranging animals that can roam across all of Yellowstone’s vast and rugged 2.2 million acres. The probability of locating and observing them is greatly elevated due to your guide’s intimate personal familiarity with the landscape and the animals themselves. We do not guarantee any wildlife sightings on our tours; however, we will guarantee that your guide will use their knowledge, skills, and network of other guides, wildlife watchers and photographers to do everything we can to find you the animals you’d like to see. We are in the park nearly every day searching for and watching wildlife, and that consistent experience pays off in finding the animals you’ve traveled to see.
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Park Rules and the Yellowstone Wild Code of Ethics
As a licensed Commercial Use Permit holder with Yellowstone National Park, we must follow all park rules and regulations. Additionally, as life-long proponents of wildlife and wild places, we will also follow our own ethical wildlife viewing practices. We will take this opportunity to teach you about how we can have the very best viewing and photography opportunities possible without having negative impacts on wildlife by respecting the animals’ space and movements as they go about their lives.
While on tour with Yellowstone Wild LLC, we will observe the following park rules (subject to law
enforcement):- Keep at least 25 yards from all wildlife
- Keep at least 100 yards from wolves and bears
- Avoid remaining near or approaching wildlife, including birds, at any distance that disturbs or displaces
the animal.
It is our ethical responsibility as visitors to the park to make sure that our actions do not inflict undue stress or hardship upon the animals that we are observing. Wild animals in a natural setting do not have easy lives, and the last thing we want to do is make their lives any more difficult. Your guide is an expert at reading animal behavior, and the moment that our presence is bothering an animal, we MUST back off until we are no longer disturbing its natural behavior. Failure to promptly respond to your guide’s instructions to back away from wildlife may result in the termination of your tour, subject to the discretion of your guide.
This is where our optics prove invaluable. We use only the finest quality Swarovski and Vortex spotting scopes so that we can thoroughly enjoy our wildlife sightings at a distance that allows the animals to carry on about their business, as if we were not there. In fact, much of the time they probably don’t know we are there, yet our high powered and crystal clear optics give us an up-close and personal view. Furthermore, we must be mindful of any animal feeding on or resting near a carcass. Approaching such an area may drive the animal(s) away and deprive them of valuable food. It is important to remember that a carcass is regularly scavenged upon by any number of other animals, including grizzly bears, who will violently defend such a food source. Approaching such an area is strictly prohibited and can seriously put people and wildlife in danger. Finally, it is important to be mindful of the other park visitors and biologists who may also be observing the same animals. We promote quiet, respectful behavior to maximize everyone’s wild Yellowstone experience.