Yellowstone in Winter

When entering Yellowstone National Park in winter, you sense that you have crossed into another world, one of quiet softness hushed by a thick blanket of snow. Trees wreathed in frost loom like wraiths against the blue winter sky, and towering waterfalls stand frozen in mid-plunge. The crisp, icy air enhances the ethereal effect of Yellowstone's famous geothermal features. An exotic combination of mist-shrouded hot pools, bubbling paint pots, and steaming fumaroles creates an ever-shifting landscape of undulating clouds and mysterious shadows. It is an unearthly world of crystalline perfection.

Seemingly deep in winter sleep, Yellowstone is alive with wildlife. Bison plow through deep snow in search of buried autumn-cured forage. Elk patrol the glistening white meadows and graze on grasses still green from the heat of nearby hot pools and bubbling springs. Numerous animals have emerged from the park's backcountry to congregate in the warmer and more hospitable lowlands and river valleys. Small bands of mule deer and pronghorn antelope wander the frozen landscape. Bighorn sheep have come down from their lofty summer range for the promise of a milder winter climate in the foothills.

For years, the highlights of our Yellowstone in Winter trips have come from our expeditions—using comfortable, specially-designed snow coaches—deep into the snowy interior of the world's first national park. By far, the most spectacular snowscapes and wildlife photo opportunities have come from the remote interior valleys, canyons and geyser basins. For four full days we travel by snow coach into the heart of Yellowstone's most productive areas for photography.

To wander through the interior is to float through a fantasy landscape. Steam rising from numerous geysers becomes a super-cooled crystal fog. It drifts through the trees like diamond dust, collecting on every surface until entire groves become assemblies of ghostly druids bowing rigidly into the wind. Through this ever-changing landscape move the animals. Enveloped in fog, frost and snow, they appear as apparitions from out of the shifting mists—white phantoms haunting the landscape, captured with our cameras.

We visit three distinctly different regions of the park—Mammoth Hot Springs, Old Faithful and West Yellowstone. From our accommodations in West Yellowstone and at Old Faithful we journey into the Hayden and Madison Valleys, to the Firehole River Basin, and to Upper, Midway and Lower Geyser Basins. On our way to Mammoth, we venture to Gibbon River, Gibbon Falls and other photogenic areas. Staying within the higher elevations of the park's interior virtually guarantees snow, whereas areas around Gardiner, Montana, and the northern boundary of the park can be snow-free in dry and warm years.

We explore the Old Faithful area and the Upper Geyser Basin on foot. The variety of geothermal features can best be photographed only when walking among the erupting geysers, pastel-colored hot pools, fumaroles and steaming run-off channels. Numerous big game species winter in this area—the most abundant being buffalo, elk, coyotes and occasional wolves. During the coldest times of winter, coinciding with the timing of our tour, the landscape is transformed into a winter wonderland of snow, "ghost trees" and graphic ice formations.

For an additional day we explore McMinn Bench and famous Lamar Valley in comfortable passenger vans. Here we may find significant concentrations of large animals—including the possibility of wolves and bighorn sheep.

Join us on this magical journey through the crown jewel of America's national parks with an exceptional local leader who knows the park thoroughly! Our time-tested itinerary offers maximum time in the field for photographing some of the West's most stunning winter landscapes and impressive big game animals.