#YellowstoneNationalPark

  This winter an incredible event unfolded here on the Northern Range of Yellowstone National Park. In late January a wildlife guide was watching a lone mountain goat high on a cliff band above the Lamar Valley. The goat stomped repeatedly while looking intently at the rock wall in front of it, or at least…

We are as excited as you are the first day of springtime has finally arrived here in Yellowstone National Park! Though we continue offering winter tours through the end of March (and wolf watching has continued to be very successful) we thought we’d share some of the things we are looking forward to when we…

  Photo courtesy of NPS – Yellowstone. We kicked off our Yellowstone adventure with a mesmerizing exploration of the Mammoth terraces in northern Yellowstone National Park. The intricate formations of travertine created a surreal landscape—as if we were wandering through a scene from another planet. The geothermal activity was captivating, with steaming pools and colorful…

For most of the afternoon the large, tan-colored cat was basically impossible to see, bedded down behind a boulder high on the cliff ledge. Occasionally, it rolled over or repositioned, briefly revealing its foot or head from behind the rock, and if you looked really closely you could see the black tip of the lion’s…

It was cold, dark, and early when I picked up the mixed group for day one of four we would have together. People in this group came from all over: a couple people from the Midwest; England was represented along with Canada; and someone even traveled all the way from Australia! They were strangers—soon to…

“Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf,” wrote philosopher, forester, and conservationist Aldo Leopold. The words appeared in his famous essay “Thinking Like a Mountain,” which eloquently examines the presence—or lack of—wolves in the environment and how it affects deforestation of the landscape. Here in Yellowstone,…

A great gray owl perches in a tree before flying off to continue hunting. Photo courtesy Yellowstone Wild Guide Rob Harwood.   “Owl!” I heard excited voices calling from the front of the snow coach. It was a beautiful December morning on the road between Mammoth Hot Springs and Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone,…

Photo Courtesy Emil McCain, owner Yellowstone Wild Tours. Navigating snow, sagebrush, and downed timber, Yellowstone Wild Owner Emil McCain and 2023-24 winter guides came across telltale prints in the mid-December snowpack: wolves! The tracks merged, converged, showed signs of trotting and loping, and at times crisscrossed downed trees playfully. Finally, at a clearing boasting a…

  Wildness will always envelop the North Entrance gateway community of Gardiner, Montana, the only year-round entry to Yellowstone National Park. Every autumn, as cold air threatens the highlands and snow skiffs across the landscape, grass-eating animals start long, stoic treks toward the fields and river valleys waiting below them. Like spheres of mercury– separating,…

The grizzly bear, (Ursus arctos horribilis), has become an icon of Yellowstone National Park and of the wilderness in general. For a large portion of Yellowstone visitors, a grizzly bear sighting ranks right up toward the top of the bucket list, alongside witnessing such famous attractions as Old Faithful Geyser, the Grand Canyon of the…