About five years ago, I visited Yellowstone National Park in the winter.  I had been several times in the other seasons,  and the park is very crowded. Lots of tour buses and automobile traffic.  Campgrounds are full, so it is not a very solitary experience unless you are willing to really hike away from the crowds.  

Visiting in winter is a whole other experience.  There are two ways to visit the park in winter.  Go to the north side and enter through Gardiner, Montana.  This road is maintained, though often snow packed, but most any four-wheel drive vehicle will get you into the park and through the Lamar Valley.

You can drive all the way to Cooke City.  No special permits required. Drive this road and you are sure to see beautiful winter landscapes.  Start early enough and catch the sun rising up through the trees. And critters, there will be plenty of critters.  Keep an eye out for coyotes,  bison, big horn sheep, eagles (and other birds) river otters and wolves.  Especially keep your eye out for wolves. You can also visit the more central part of the park including features like Old Faithful and the Madison River. You can even stay in the park, but regardless, to access the central part of the park you have to enter by snow coach.  The snow is left on the road, but is groomed so that both cross country skiers and snow machines (AKA skidoos or snow mobiles) can share the road. A snow coach used to be a contraption (word choice is appropriate) driven by tracks with skis on the front.  It could carry a group of people.  It had the convenience of a trap door on top so you could pop up like a piece of toast in a toaster, and make some photos.  The downside, the snow coach seating all faces inward, so it is hard to look out the windows you are sitting near, and the trap door on top does not accommodate everyone along for the ride.  I rode in a coach that was more of a modern day van or large SUV with special suspension and oversized tires almost as tall as I am.  Not as cool but a smoother, more comfortable travel option.  

On this trip, my first in winter, I was happy to see wolves  through someone’s spotting scope.  They were at least a mile away. My long lens, a 500mm at a the time was useless, even with trickery like using the camera’s DX mode or cropping.  But it was exciting to see them and part of that excitement came from the others gathered on the side of the road (in a legal parking area) who were excited to see the wolves and log their encounter. 

I returned to Yellowstone again this winter with my neighbor.  He wanted a photo adventure, and I thought it would be great to return again in winter.  Yellowstone is a comfortable day-long drive for me, so we loaded up the truck and headed north. What a different experience.  We saw wolves four days in a row in different parts of the park. They sure can travel when they want to.  Twice we experienced them in the distance feeding on the carcass of a bison.  My 800mm lens was appropriate here. Even with hiking, they did not fill the frame. One time, they literally chased us down the road.  We had to quickly scramble back into our coach.  I guess no one told the wolves they were required to stay 100 yards away from us.  In this instance, the wolves filled my frame and you could clearly see their golden eyes. Some of the wolves were grey, the pups were black.  Needless to say, it was an amazing experience, both being in the moment of seeing the wolves in their environment and also making a couple of nice snaps.

I hope that you too can experience the beauty of Yellowstone in Winter.

Thanks for stopping by.