A mid-winter's visit to Yellowstone National Park is a trip you're not likely to forget for the rest of your life. But how do you pull it off? Here's a primer on the logistics you'll need to tackle.
A tall stoic man stood at the back of his pack, consumed by his own thoughts. He had been listening to an instructor from the Yellowstone Association. For a couple of days, he squinted into roadside spotting scopes and absorbed eloquent discourses on natural history. He was there with family members who arrived to watch wolves together in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park.
Rocky Mountain air starts out dry, and then the sub-zero cold of its winters pulls out just about all of whatever atmospheric moisture remains. The result is not just a crystal clear sky, but one that seemingly is magnified. Looking at the constellations above Craig Pass in Yellowstone National Park, it sure seemed possible to reach up and pluck a star out of the night.
For years the Buffalo Ranch in Yellowstone National Park's Lamar Valley has been the field headquarters for the Yellowstone Association Institute. Well, the association is expanding with the opening later this year of an 80-acre campus north of the park near Gardiner, Montana.
Yellowstone National Park rangers are looking into the story of a Utah man who cross-country skied into the park in November, allegedly armed with a Glock 9mm. The man appears to have camped alongside the Madison River outside of designated campgrounds. He also found some time to enjoy the warm waters of hot springs near Madison Junction, something that also is against park regs.
Though trumpeter swans once were considered one of the rarest birds in North America, they're fairly easy to spot in Yellowstone National Park. These two, along with a third, were somehow enjoying the Firehole River last week when the ambient air temperature was right around -21 degrees Fahrenheit (-29 Celsius).
Winter is a great time for planning national park vacations. These suggestions will help you get started in the right direction, whether your interests are mainstream or nontraditional.
What can you do in Yellowstone National Park when the wind-chill is pushing the "feels like" temperature towards 40 below? I'm not sure, but I'll figure it out Thursday when I find myself at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge.
Despite one of the worst economies in recent memory, visitors flocked to Yellowstone National Park in 2009. In fact, the year was a record breaker, with nearly 3.3 million visitors passing through the park's gates.