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Yellowstone Tours
Our Yellowstone National Park tours are offered year-round. For general sightseeing and wildlife tours featuring bears, we recommend planning your arrival for the summer months. For wolf watching and a spectacular wintry landscape, we recommend a winter wildlife safari.
Your exact route and itinerary will be determined by your interests, current wildlife sightings, and current weather and road conditions. Our guides are all highly experienced, with thousands of hours in the field, and will expertly tailor your safari to you and your group.
Each season provides a different experience in Yellowstone. The geothermal features occur throughout the year. Bears are active in summer but hibernate in winter. Wolves are more easily spotted on the wintry landscape where they prey on elk that winter in the valley. Spring offers sights of migrating birds, wildflowers and animal babies, while autumn is a season of color and mating season known as “the rut“.
Roads are easily accessible in summer, but also crowded with more traffic. Spring and fall may see seasonal road closures due to untimely weather events. In winter, roads into Yellowstone are closed to vehicle traffic and the only way to access the interior is by over-snow vehicle. The northern range remains open during the winter months and, luckily, that is where much of the wintering wildlife congregates.
No matter the season, we look forward to welcoming you to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and sharing our passion for all things wild with you.
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FAQs
What is the best way to tour Yellowstone?
Yellowstone National Park is a vast 2.2 million acres of rugged wilderness with 250 miles of roads running through it. It is so large with so many things to see, it can be overwhelming to plan a day trip or even several days and make sure that you get the most out of your time. While you can absolutely navigate your own way around the park, booking a guided tour with us can give you the most stress free, fun, and efficient experience. Leave the driving to someone else and enjoy the view without worrying if you’re spending too much time in one spot or missing something amazing. We have well-seasoned itineraries to ensure you’re seeing as much as possible in the time you have, and our knowledgeable and passionate guide will impart so much fascinating information on the geology, history, and wildlife of the area that you wouldn’t get on your own. Your guide will also know the best places to look for animals!
What animals are on a Yellowstone winter tour?
Due to its altitude, Yellowstone experiences winters of extreme cold, wind, and heavy snowfall. Some animals like bears disappear and hibernate through the season, but many others are out and about for us to see. Bison persevere through the winter under their thick, dense coats and graze on what little vegetation they can find. Most elk migrate out of the park for the winter, but many remain. This is good news for those keen on looking for wolves as the snowy conditions make hunting elk easier for packs. Lamar Valley is famous for wolf watching as two active wolf packs reside in the valley and successfully hunt elk and bison, and are more visible and easier to spot in the bright white backdrop. Coyotes, foxes, bald eagles, and golden eagles are also common and exciting winter wildlife in Yellowstone.
What wildlife is on a Yellowstone summer tour?
Summer is a time for abundant resources and favorable weather for wildlife. Depending on where you are in the season, it is also a time for giving birth and finding a mate. There are plenty of wildlife opportunities on a summer safari! Spring is an incredible time to look for black bears and grizzly bears as they emerge from hibernation and search for mates, and they continue foraging throughout the summer. Elk and pronghorn antelope migrate back to their summer ranges to have their calves and fawns. Moose and bison calves are also taking their first steps and sticking close to their mothers. Coyotes and foxes are often seen hunting for rodents in open fields, and countless bird species migrate to the region to breed. Animals like beavers, otters, and weasels are a little more difficult to spot, just remember to keep a sharp eye out!
How many days should I spend touring Yellowstone?
This ultimately depends on what you are interested in, how much you want to see, and how much time you have available. Many people take a day tour of Yellowstone and come away thrilled with a full day packed with some of the best highlights the park has to offer, and several amazing wildlife encounters. For others, a day just isn’t enough; a slower pace is preferable to really take in the experience and to see more of Yellowstone’s unique geological features and stunning vistas. In this case, anywhere between two and five days is certainly sufficient.
Further Reading
Yellowstone’s Big, Wild, and Wonderful Landscapes
Mar 15, 2021
One of the trademark aspects of Yellowstone that amazes and bewilders so many people is how absolutely enormous the National Park is. Yellowstone National Park encompasses more than 2.2 million acres of grasslands, forests, mountains, valleys, lakes, and rivers, all situated in or around one of the largest volcanic calderas on Earth.
A Brief History Of Yellowstone National Park
Nov 3, 2020
Yellowstone National Park was established on March 1, 1872 as the world’s first national park. Yellowstone is an active volcano with one of the world’s largest calderas, measuring approximately 45 miles by 30 miles.
