Wildlife Safari & Stargazing Tour

Private Specialty Tour with a Professional Astronomer

This experience offers guests a chance to explore Yellowstone’s legendary volcanic features including erupting geysers, bubbling hot springs, and steaming fumaroles. We will plan to enjoy a walk or several short walks at some of our favorite thermal locations where we view these fascinating features up close and personal as the light fades.

We may also encounter Yellowstone’s diverse wildlife along our drive into the interior. Herds of bison roaming the plains, elk herds grazing in soft grassy meadows, eagles and osprey hunting the rivers for fish, bears carousing hillsides, and nocturnal animals like coyotes and owls build a symphony of sounds and a feast for our senses. Our professional guides will utilize high powered optics for viewing wildlife at a distance. Their guidance will help you enjoy incredible visuals as well as provide photo and video opportunities.
We will then move into our nighttime program.

Nighttime in Yellowstone’s Geyer Basins

In our summertime evenings we will enjoy cooler air and quietude as the astronomer sets up a high-powered computerized telescope to view the night sky. Using this telescope you will see distant galaxies, nebulae, planets, double stars, and other cosmic wonders. The astronomer will also enrich your experience with constellation stories and myths, placing us within history as we gaze into the heavens as so many people before us have as well.

The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is a remote paradise, far from city lights and other sources of light pollution. Because of this, the stars shine extra bright and we are able to see the heavens more clearly. Summertime in Yellowstone is the perfect opportunity to view the Milky Way, as the combination of pristine skies and orientation toward the star-rich galactic core make for an unforgettable experience. The clouds and star clusters of our galaxy come alive, as you see sparkling stars splashed across the night sky in dramatic clarity.

This tour begins in West Yellowstone or Bozeman with easy access to the National Park in the wonderful quiet hours of late afternoon when everyone else is exiting. We will venture towards some of the Park’s most famous thermal basins, hot springs, or geologic features. We may walk at Norris Geyser basin to see its milky blue acidic pools and steaming 1000 acre basin, as well as the largest geyser on the planet. We may walk at Midway Geyser basin to view the largest Hot Spring in the Park, Grand Prismatic, and its sister Excelsior. We may walk at Fountain Paint Pots to see some of the best mudpots in the Park and geysers that erupt all the time against the backdrop of a massive volcanic plateau. Or, we may spend time at Mammoth Hot Springs if we enter through the North Gate.  Regardless of our choice and options, we will showcase some of the best volcanic hydrothermals on the planet, and will likely have it all to ourselves.

In the park, we will find a good location for stargazing and make a temporary camp. We provide chairs, blankets, binoculars, spotting scopes, red-light flashlights, green laser-pointers, and a high-powered computerized telescope for deep space viewing on these tours. Guests will truly have a holistic view of their place in the cosmos by the end of this experience.

As daylight fades, we will find a good location and make a temporary camp as we prepare to witness the night sky’s breathtaking transformation. The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is one of the best places in the United States to experience true dark skies, and this experience includes a stargazing experience led by a professional astronomer. With expert guidance, you’ll be introduced to the wonders of the night sky, from constellations steeped in history to the celestial objects that light up the heavens and your imagination. The astronomer will share fascinating stories, folklore, and the science behind the stars, offering an enriching perspective on the cosmos.

Depending on the season, you will have the opportunity to view different objects in the night sky. Spring is best for distant galaxies, like Bode’s Galaxy, hidden deep within the Big Dipper. Summer brings the bright Milky Way, as well as other clusters of stars such as the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules. As we approach autumn, the nights get longer and the grand Andromeda Galaxy can be found using the telescope.