6 Day Winter Wolf Watching Package

In order for this package to operate, there is a minimum total enrollment of 4 participants

Winter 2024-2025 trips are scheduled for the following dates:

• 12/22/24 – 12/27/24 – Space available 
• 2/2/25 – 2/7/25 – FULL
• 3/2/35 – 3/7/25 – 1 space left

Itinerary:

Day 1: Sunday  – Arrive in Bozeman, MT. at your leisure

Free shuttle to Best Western GranTree in Bozeman, MT. Dinner is on your own. There is a restaurant on site.

Day 2: Monday– Meet guide for transfer to Gardiner and afternoon exploring Mammoth Hot Springs

Breakfast on your own. (We recommend you eat early or wait until lunch with the group around 11:30 a.m.). Your Naturalist Guide will pick you up at 10 a.m. for a leisurely transfer to Gardiner, MT, with a stop for lunch at the popular Old Saloon in Emigrant, MT. After lunch you will continue to Gardiner where you will then head into the park for an afternoon exploring the magnificent Mammoth Hot Springs terraces. You’ll  check into your lodging around 4:30 to 5 pm. Day 2 will include a private, catered dinner with your guide as you get to know each other and learn more about what’s to come in the following days.

Days 3-5: Wolf & Wildlife Watching on the Northern Range

Your instructor will pick you up each day at 6:00-6:30 a.m. (exact time dependent on dates) to venture out in search of wildlife on the Northern Range. These days focus on viewing and learning about wolves, elk, bison, moose, bighorn sheep, coyotes, foxes, river otters, winter songbirds, birds of prey, and as many other species as possible. Each day begins before the sun rises, increasing the possibility for observing wolves in action at their most active time. Breakfast, lunch, snacks, and a variety of hot beverages will be enjoyed in the field throughout the day. Each afternoon you’ll return to your lodge between 2:30 t0 3:30 pm.

• Tuesday – Day 3: Includes a privately catered dinner followed by a presentation from a local wildlife biologist, naturalist, artist/storyteller, or educator.

• Wednesday – Day 4: Includes a field presentation at lunch presented by a member of the Wolf Project
  • Dinner will be a group sit-down affair at a lovely local eatery/art gallery.

• Thursday – Day 5: Includes a privately catered dinner followed by a presentation from a local wildlife biologist, naturalist, artist/storyteller, or educator.

Day 6: Friday – Transfer back to Bozeman – Package concludes

Your guide will pick you up at 7:30 a.m. to enjoy breakfast together at a local restaurant before transferring the group back to Bozeman, where our package come to an end. Due to possible adverse weather conditions during this travel day, we ask that you DO NOT book flights out of Bozeman/Yellowstone International Airport any earlier than 12:30 p.m.

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]

Yellowstone possesses some of the most extreme weather conditions anywhere. Temperatures on any given tour could range from -40°F to +40°F (-40°C to +10°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 on winter 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.
• Sweater or fleece. Ideally more than one layer of insulating layers like fleece or wool sweaters will allow for effective layering and allows you to easily shed layers as the day warms up.
• Fleece or down vest. Vests are great as a layering item that can really hold in core body temperature, yet also allow for maximum comfort and mobility.
• 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.
• Snow pants/ski pants – Insulted pants with moisture/wind barrier. You should have long underwear thermal layers in addition.
• Heavy gloves or mittens with windproof barrier.
• 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.
• Insulated winter boots (roomy boots are better as you do not want to restrict circulation in your feet/toes) (see below for boot recommendations).
• Hand and toe/foot warmers. These are lifesavers! We advise everyone to place a full-sized foot warmer inside your boots every morning before the tour. This keeps the edge off and keeps you comfortable to be able to enjoy yourself to the fullest during those hard-earned wildlife encounters! Toe and hand warmers can be used as needed
• 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.

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.lacrossefootwear.com/men/work/work-boots/?sortId=product-family&comfort_zone%5B%5D=6689&comfort_zone%5B%5D=6666&gender%5B%5D=5590&gender%5B%5D=5338

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.

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.

• Gardiner MT
• Tower Junction, WY
• Cooke City, WY

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.

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.