The Ultimate Yellowstone in Winter 2025 – Trip 1

Yellowstone, with its wildlife, is the Serengeti of North America and being able to explore all of the accessible areas of park this time of year – both the interior and the Lamar Valley – makes this The Ultimate Yellowstone tour! Imagine frost-covered bison, icy steam-veiled geysers, wolves, otters, big horn sheep, elk, coyotes and foxes against the wintery scene. Photographing wildlife will be our focus for this trip but we will of course photograph the striking landscapes of this time of year as well.

In winter, Yellowstone reveals a very different mood – one of survival. Snow in the mountains pushes wildlife down into the valleys and rivers in search of food and warmth, ice and snow surround geysers veiled in steam, mud pots bubble in freezing fog, waterfalls are veiled in icicles that reveal the water’s flow. The landscape is austere, while herds of bison or elk stand dark against the white.

This is a great time of year to see and photograph wildlife in their best coats. They are concentrated into smaller valley areas: hunting, feeding, or sometimes simply standing stoic against the cold. Bald eagles, river otters, beavers, trumpeter swans may emerge along a river. Coyote, fox may hunt through a field, diving into snowbanks to catch mice and voles under the snow. Wolves hunting in packs may make a kill and feed there for a days. We will look for it all each day.

While using Gardiner as our base, we will alternate days between going in to Lamar or Mammoth so we have the best chance to catch action. We will enter the interior via snow coach through Mammoth and spend 2 days looking for and photographing wildlife and landscapes at iconic spots like Mammoth Hot Springs, Swan Lake Flats, Electric Peak and Sheep-eater cliffs. And we will explore the Lamar Valley over 3 days by private bus with a professional driver/guide. This is one of our best opportunities to photograph Wolves, otters, big-horn sheep, and moose.

In West Yellowstone, we will visit Hayden Valley in search of foxes and river otters, explore Madison river area in search of elk, bison, bobcats, trumpeter swans, coyotes; visit the icy Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and stop at geyser basin and other thermal spots to capture those ethereal settings.

Wildlife is our focus but the landscapes are gorgeous too! During this entire tour, we will be working hard to photograph mammals but throughout our search, we will take advantage of the beautiful austere winter landscapes and photograph them as well.

Unlike other tours, we will work the park from three locations and put you in every corner of the park that you can possibly see this time of year. Over the course of our 9 days together, you will have 6 1/2 game drives!! We know of no other tour that provides this many game drives or this much access to the incredible wonderland that is Winter in Yellowstone. We maximize your time in the field and give you the best value and experience we can.