Quick Details
If sticking to the road all day isn’t your thing, our ski or snowshoe tour will get you out into the winter wonderland of Yellowstone’s backcountry. Yellowstone’s Northern Range has everything to offer from easy groomed trails to venturing off on our own and breaking trail to lesser visited landscapes!
Never snowshoed before? That’s ok! If you can walk, you can snowshoe! Do you prefer the thrill of gliding on skis? We can do that too! Either way, our experienced Naturalist Guides will work with you to customize the day, including figuring out what kind of conditions and mileage you are interested in. We might go on a snowshoe walk above the Yellowstone River, or around the thermals of Mammoth Hot Springs, or through the forests and meadows around Lamar Valley. If skiing is your thing, we may explore the beauty of Tower Fall, Blacktail Plateau Drive, or the Upper Terrace Loop. Regardless of your mode of backcountry transportation, we will examine animal tracks and sign, learn to understand the geology that has created the incredible diversity of the Northern Range, and tell stories of past winter explorers in Yellowstone.
We may start the morning by taking advantage of any wildlife sightings, and depending on your interests and the temperature, we could do a longer snowshoe/ski or a couple of short ones. Exploring the backcountry with a guide will help ensure that you experience the magic that is winter in Yellowstone. With every trip, we consider the safety and comfort of our guests, and strive to show and point out the special corners of the park that you might not see on your own. Let us show you the park in our favorite season!
For more information please visit our FAQ page!
Looking for a completely customized Yellowstone trip? We can plan a trip that is just what you’re looking for. Reach out to us!
Here are our suggestions and what our guides wear on winter tours:
Boots:
There are several ways you can go for boots: the insulated rubber “muck” boots that farmers and ranchers like. These are slip on boots that come in varying levels of insulation (up to -50 degrees). They are fine for short walks, but you would not want them for full-day hikes. For the purpose of this trip, they would be fine. Good brands there are Muck and LaCrosse. These are probably the best bang for your buck.
https://www.muckbootcompany.com/collections/arctic-ice/audience_men
The other option is a lace up insulated boot. There are lots of them on the market and you could spend a lot for a boot that you may never use again.
Here is a link with discussion about boots recommended for Antarctica tours. https://www.coolantarctica.com/Shop/antarctica-clothing/antarctic-boots.php
If you need to order boots, you could have them shipped here, and we will have them on hand for you when you arrive, not a problem at all. Just let us know.
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.