Melissa
Member
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2012
- Messages
- 45
Well, it's not backpacking or camping, but it IS my very first trip report. As a belated Christmas present, Neiloro and I took a trip to Yellowstone to check out winter in the park. Being unfamiliar with Yellowstone in winter and having very little time to plan, we booked a snowcoach tour package with Yellowstone Alpen Guides that included three nights at a hotel in West Yellowstone and two tours in the park--one to Old Faithful and one to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Overall, we loved the experience and would highly recommend it for anyone looking for an easy winter getaway. Now that we've done it, we would probably opt to do something more adventurous next time rather than do another snowcoach tour.
The drive from Salt Lake City up through Idaho made for a scenic start to our road trip:
In hindsight, I wish I'd taken the extra time to book our own hotel separately rather than going with what the tour package included. Things looked fine at the Yellowstone Lodge on our arrival in West Yellowstone, but the place was just too noisy for us, between snowmobile traffic, hearing every single step people on floors above us took, and some very loud machine like a generator that would kick on and make me think the apocalypse had arrived.
Our first tour was to Old Faithful. The tour company picked us up in our stylin' snowcoach and we headed for the Park. If you're willing to risk cramped quarters, the historic snowcoaches run by Yellowstone Alpen Guides are totally the way to go. They're by far the coolest coaches in the park and have neat features like skylights that you can poke your head out of. The only downside is that if the coach is full, you WILL be getting cosy with your neighbors. Maximum group size is ten for this coach:
On entering the park, we were blown away by the variety of wildlife we could easily see from the snowcoach. The first part of the trip is through the Madison River corridor, and this is where we saw most of the cool wildlife: bison, elk, a bobcat, coyotes, bald eagles, a golden eagle, swans, a great blue heron, foxes, etc.
There was an elk corpse down on the bank of the Madison, and it was pretty cool to watch the eagles and coyotes picking at what was left. Unfortunately, I couldn't really capture most of the wildlife with my iPhone. Here are some swans:
And a bison we met on the road:
My favorite part of the day by far was the optional drop-off at Biscuit Basin (about 2 miles from Old Faithful) where we got out of the coach and snowshoed to Old Faithful. I could have spent a whole day exploring out in the geyser basin behind Old Faithful:
The backside of the Old Faithful Snow Lodge. Seems like a cool place to stay if it weren't so darn expensive:
Old Faithful was both late and underwhelming when it did erupt, partly due to weather conditions, and partly because I'd gotten sweaty on the snowshoe and then sat down on a snowbank in the cold to wait for the eruption, where I got pretty cold. I never did get warm again that day, but I did see Old Faithful erupt:
Food options are pretty limited in West Yellowstone in the winter. We went out for some pizza and then collapsed in our room. The next day, we were delighted to find that our snowcoach to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone had only five people including us and our guide, so we had lots of room to spread out for our second tour. We loved our guide for this second tour--ask for Jack if you're planning to go out with the same outfitters. Weather conditions were pretty bad that day, and we couldn't really get decent shots of the falls on the Yellowstone River. This may be Firehole Falls, I can't quite remember:
The only thing I wished for this day was more opportunities to get out and walk around, but it was only possible to go for a short walk around Norris Geyser Basin, which is exactly what I imagine some other planet looks like:
My awesome trip companion Nilauro in the mist at Norris Geyser Basin:
The highlight of our return journey to West Yellowstone was seeing the "bobarazzi" (a dozen photographers with long lenses taking hundreds of shots of a bobcat) camped out on the bank of the Madison River. The bobcat was too far away for me to photograph, though.
Before we headed back to Salt Lake the next day, we stopped in at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone. The center is home to animals which would otherwise have been put down. This is a great way to see grizzlies and wolves up close without getting eaten:
In conclusion, we had a great time, and are now eager to do more foot-based winter exploration. I'd love to do a winter trip through the north entrance at Gardiner except that it's too long a drive from Salt Lake for a weekend trip. I'm thinking we may want to explore Grand Teton as a future winter getaway destination. I'd like to find a place we can get to for a weekend trip and still have time to do more snowshoeing/cross country skiing.
Featured image for home page:
The drive from Salt Lake City up through Idaho made for a scenic start to our road trip:
In hindsight, I wish I'd taken the extra time to book our own hotel separately rather than going with what the tour package included. Things looked fine at the Yellowstone Lodge on our arrival in West Yellowstone, but the place was just too noisy for us, between snowmobile traffic, hearing every single step people on floors above us took, and some very loud machine like a generator that would kick on and make me think the apocalypse had arrived.
Our first tour was to Old Faithful. The tour company picked us up in our stylin' snowcoach and we headed for the Park. If you're willing to risk cramped quarters, the historic snowcoaches run by Yellowstone Alpen Guides are totally the way to go. They're by far the coolest coaches in the park and have neat features like skylights that you can poke your head out of. The only downside is that if the coach is full, you WILL be getting cosy with your neighbors. Maximum group size is ten for this coach:
On entering the park, we were blown away by the variety of wildlife we could easily see from the snowcoach. The first part of the trip is through the Madison River corridor, and this is where we saw most of the cool wildlife: bison, elk, a bobcat, coyotes, bald eagles, a golden eagle, swans, a great blue heron, foxes, etc.
There was an elk corpse down on the bank of the Madison, and it was pretty cool to watch the eagles and coyotes picking at what was left. Unfortunately, I couldn't really capture most of the wildlife with my iPhone. Here are some swans:
And a bison we met on the road:
My favorite part of the day by far was the optional drop-off at Biscuit Basin (about 2 miles from Old Faithful) where we got out of the coach and snowshoed to Old Faithful. I could have spent a whole day exploring out in the geyser basin behind Old Faithful:
The backside of the Old Faithful Snow Lodge. Seems like a cool place to stay if it weren't so darn expensive:
Old Faithful was both late and underwhelming when it did erupt, partly due to weather conditions, and partly because I'd gotten sweaty on the snowshoe and then sat down on a snowbank in the cold to wait for the eruption, where I got pretty cold. I never did get warm again that day, but I did see Old Faithful erupt:
Food options are pretty limited in West Yellowstone in the winter. We went out for some pizza and then collapsed in our room. The next day, we were delighted to find that our snowcoach to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone had only five people including us and our guide, so we had lots of room to spread out for our second tour. We loved our guide for this second tour--ask for Jack if you're planning to go out with the same outfitters. Weather conditions were pretty bad that day, and we couldn't really get decent shots of the falls on the Yellowstone River. This may be Firehole Falls, I can't quite remember:
The only thing I wished for this day was more opportunities to get out and walk around, but it was only possible to go for a short walk around Norris Geyser Basin, which is exactly what I imagine some other planet looks like:
My awesome trip companion Nilauro in the mist at Norris Geyser Basin:
The highlight of our return journey to West Yellowstone was seeing the "bobarazzi" (a dozen photographers with long lenses taking hundreds of shots of a bobcat) camped out on the bank of the Madison River. The bobcat was too far away for me to photograph, though.
Before we headed back to Salt Lake the next day, we stopped in at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone. The center is home to animals which would otherwise have been put down. This is a great way to see grizzlies and wolves up close without getting eaten:
In conclusion, we had a great time, and are now eager to do more foot-based winter exploration. I'd love to do a winter trip through the north entrance at Gardiner except that it's too long a drive from Salt Lake for a weekend trip. I'm thinking we may want to explore Grand Teton as a future winter getaway destination. I'd like to find a place we can get to for a weekend trip and still have time to do more snowshoeing/cross country skiing.
Featured image for home page:
