Quick Details
Duration: 5+ days
Ages: Ages 12+
Spring is the season of birth here in Yellowstone! Baby season has arrived in force 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 moving back into their summering grounds, and the landscape is alive with new growth! Deep winter snow has melted away in the low elevation valley floors bringing in it’s place an inviting abundance of delicious and nutritious food. 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 and 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 5 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. Over the course of this package, we’ll spend 4 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 highly educational, as we 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 multi-day tour package is the ultimate way to experience the wild wonders of rebirth in Yellowstone National Park, while treating yourself to the coziest family-owned accommodations, breakfasts and lunches prepared by a local vendor, comfortable transportation, and the best optics available.
In order for this package to operate, there is a minimum total enrollment of 4 participants
Spring 2024 package is scheduled for the following dates:
Spring 2025 packages are scheduled for the following dates:
| 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]
Here are our suggestions and what our guides wear/bring on Spring tours:
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.
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.
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):
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.