spirobulldog

I am in the thinking stages of a winter trip to Yellowstone for next winter (2012/2013). I am presuming that the park will continue with the same practices for snowcoaches an snowmobiles.
I am thinking of doing "Trail of the Wolf" package offered by xanterra. I would do this from
Mammoth.
I have two concerns with this plan.

#1 My biggest concern

is about driving from Bozeman airport to Mammoth. Does the road close often?

#2 This package allows very little time to visit the Old Faithful area. Is it easy to walk to all the geysers in the winter, like it is in the summer or should i just be content with watching Old Faithful errupt and not worry with the others?

I could totally book all of this seperate and not worry with the package and this would allow me to spend an extra day at Old Faithful, but it would be a lot more money.

It just looks a lot easier to fly into Bozeman than Jackson. It looks like getting to the lodge from Jackson is a bit of a trick.

I want to do this trip with my daughter. She would be off of college from about Mid-Dec thru Jan 10. Is this a better trip in say Feb or Mar? or is the last week of Dec/1st week of Jan OK? Enough snow then? Perhaps a better risk at that time for the roads being easier to navigate?

starrs

Have you read this?

"Some park areas, entrances and roads are not accessible year-round!! From early November through late April, all roads south through the park are closed to wheeled vehicles, including the road to Old Faithful Geyser. During the winter season only two roads are plowed:

•between the North Entrance and Cooke City, MT
•from Mammoth Hot Springs to the parking area at the Upper Terraces"

http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/roadclosures.htm

starrs

http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/wintbusn.htm

Look forward to following your planning. I've always wanted to see Yellowstone in winter. We were there for the last day of the season one year (October). It snowed that weekend and employees were packing up and getting ready to close shops/stores. I can only imagine how magical the park is in winter.

spirobulldog

I'm just worried about the road from the airport to Mammoth. I don't plan on driving the roads in the park- will do snowmobile or snowcoach for the most part. I might drive the North Entrance and Cooke City, but might take the Early Morning wildlife tour.

starrs,
It snowed on us and part of the roads were closed when we were there in June a couple of years ago.

boom_boom

In my experience the road from Bozeman (I-90 to Livingston and US 89 to Mammoth) doesn't close that often. The biggest problem seems to be the pass between Bozeman and Livingston, but still when we lived in Billings we seldom had trouble getting to Bozeman in mid-winter.

NorCal_Jo

The roads from Bozeman airport to Mammoth is not a concern unless a really really bad storm happens in which case you might have to wait a day. I-90 is the major interstate through MT and is used heavily by locals, truckers, and tourists so there is a big priority to keep it open even in bad storms through the Bozeman/Livingston pass. Put it this way, in 23 years living in Billings and Bozeman and countless trips back/forth, I only got stuck overnight in Bozeman or Livingston waiting for the pass to open a handful of times and it was usually due to a white out blizzard. Same being true with 89 from Livingston to Mammoth. Not to say that the driving may not be slow if the roads are bad due to a storm but those routes are well maintained and chances are they will be clear for you.
The park is gorgeous in the winter and I would choose dec/jan but feb would be good as well. March could be heavy snow or slush if a warm spell happens so not as predictable.

ketchpa

I can't help with too many of your questions, as I have only been to Yellowstone during the winter one time - but we found that walking around OF and the upper geyser basin in the packed snow was fairly easy. It was slower than walking on a dry boardwalk, but not difficult at all. If it were icy I would have opted for crampons or snowshoes. Snowshoes are available for rent at the snow lodge, and are an absolute blast on the trails.

We stayed four nights at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge after snowcoaching in from West Yellowstone. We took one of the Xanterra-led snowmobile trips around the lower loop from the Snow Lodge and enjoyed it.

It sounds as if you may be considering staying a night at the Snow Lodge? If so, I highly recommend it. Quite peaceful and plenty of skiing/snowshoeing right outside the door. Various snowmobile and snowcoach tours are offered from the lodge as well if thats your thing.

Regarding the lodge food, we thought that the entrees in the proper restaurant were nothing special, but the appetizers were outstanding. After the first night our meals consisted exclusively of appetizers at the bar (for which no reservations are needed.) I recall appetizers of bison tri-tip, a very spicy salmon plate, and antelope sausage.

Yellowstone in winter was wonderful.

InSandy

We loved our Trail of the Wolves trip! It was incredible and I highly encourage you to follow through on a winter visit of some sort.

I can't help with information about the highway, but sounds like you've had some good response there.

Snow is such a hard thing to predict. Will there be enough snow for the snowcoachs in late Dec? That is usually the case, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Book as late as you can though. If for some reason there isn't enough snow they will work something out (or not open the road and your trip would have to be cancelled. Get insurance .

Okay, now for the nitty-gritty about the package deal. If you just do the TOW pkg you will not have time for any walk around Old Faithful. We came in from Flagg Ranch, (and yeah, I don't know how you'd get there without renting a car which you would then leave for 3 days. That is what those who flew into Jackson did. We drove our own so it wasn't an issue.) We arrived at Old Faithful right before dark. I was lucky enough to run over and barely see it go off between the trees when we first arrived. Then it got dark and though it is kind of fun to sit there in the dark and listen it is hard to see. Then we were up early in the morning and off with no time to even take a look. It was the same at Mammoth. I managed to get a short walk in around the lower terraces, and saw some elk, but noone else made the effort. The tour is not really geared for the Mammoth and OF areas.

If you could manage one extra day at OF it would give you a chance to really enjoy the geyser area. You might look at the option of entering from West Yellowstone. Then you could add an extra night at OF without a problem. When we went there was over a foot of new snow plus the foot already there on the ground and on our extra day I rented some snowshoes to take a walk around. I was stopped by some buffalo so didn't get as far as I would have liked, but it took much more energy in snowshoes to get as far as I did than it would have just walking. I check out the webcam sometimes and I can tell that sometimes the snow isn't as deep and it would be easier. So what you experience will be unique.

I have looked at going again and doing a more alacarte trip, but there are so many other places to see, I just can't do it all.

Floridafran

spirobulldog,

We had a fabulous winter trip to Yellowstone in February of 2009 and want to go back some day. I don't know how many days you have total, but this was our schedule and it worked out great for us.

Feb. 2 - arrived Bozeman and spent night there. (If you could get to Bozeman earlier in the day you might be able to drive to Mammoth on your flight day. Not possible for us coming from Florida.)

Feb 3 - drove rental car to Mammoth and spent night there. We used the rest of that day to drive our rental car part way on the upper road toward Cooke City.

Feb. 4 - left Mammoth on 8 am snowcoach, arriving at Old Faithful Snow Lodge around noon. Spent the rest of that day hiking the OF geyser basin. (Bought Yaktrax for our boots ahead of time and they worked great on the packed, icy surfaces.)

Feb. 5 - snow mobile tour of lower loop of the figure 8 road. Takes pretty much most of the day.

Feb. 6 - Photo safari from 8-2. Spent the rest of that afternoon tromping around the geyser basin again. That night we did the Steam, Stars and Winter Sounds tour and enjoyed that.

Feb. 7 - Lazy morning at the lodge and one last view of OF erupting before we took the snowcoach back to Mammoth. Left at 2 pm, arrived Mammoth at 6. On our own we toured the terraces by moonlight.

Feb. 8 - drove the road toward Cooke City again, then snow-shoed to Tower Falls.

Feb. 9 - Wake Up to Wildlife and Norris Basin tours which took most of the day.

Feb. 10 - Early departure from Mammoth to catch an 11:45 am flight out of Bozeman.

We started with the Snowmo-deal package (don't know if they still have that) and just added the other nights and tours to that.

I found everyone I dealt with at Xanterra to be extremely helpful and they really worked with me to plan how we could optimize our time and fit in as many of the things we wanted to do, as possible.

As for the amount of snow you'll have - as others have said that varies from year to year. When we were there, some areas near Mammoth had little snow, while there was much more at OF. When I looked at the webcams this past winter, those same areas had a lot more snow, and had it it sooner.

This was one trip where we did buy trip insurance, just in case. Didn't need it, but it wasn't that expensive and the peace of mind it gave us was well worth the price we paid.

Hope it all works out for you. Yellowstone in winter is like being in a Christmas card.