Thanks to Xanterra, Jamie and I were treated to a guided snowmobile tour. It’s the Canyon Tour should you visit Yellowstone in the winter. The Canyon Tour travels the main loop roads allowing you to see a large part of the park that is open in the winter months.
We were up at 0600, had breakfast at 0645 and were on our machine at 0745. Our guide was Jason from Montana. He was pretty good about letting us have fun as long as I wasn’t a danger to others or breaking the speed limit.
Right out of the gate we played “chicken” with a dozen buffalo. They were walking right at us with a blatant disregard of our presence. It was pretty neat. I promise we could have touched more than one if we made even the slightest of effort. And yes, I did think about it.I have so many “favorite” spots in the park and the Canyon Tour afforded us the opportunity to see several of them to include: Upper & Lower Falls, Hayden Valley, Fire Hole River, Yellowstone Grand Canyon, Lake Yellowstone, Dragon’s Mouth and several others.
It was a nine hour adventure and worth every second. In addition to the buffalo we were able to see fox, coyote, swans and elk. The sights in the winter are simply amazing. It is hard to believe the amount of snowfall here. It is well over ten-feet-deep in places.
Since motorized traffic must stay on groomed roads the snow is as pure today as the day it fell from the heavens.
When we arrived at Upper Falls the snow was every bit of ten-feet-deep. I couldn’t contain myself. I had to fall in and make a snow angel! Yes it was cold but the most impressive snow angel ever. I couldn’t talk Jamie into following my lead on that one. I paid for it, though. It took all day for my clothes to dry out and I don’t think they every really did.
A nice thing about taking a guided snowmobile tour with Xanterra is the fact they outfit you with everything you need. All you need to do is show up.
We couldn’t have picked a better day to explore the park. We had a little early morning fog but that was it. It was a beautiful clear day with the temperature reaching 20 degrees.
In my opinion, when God created the earth He started with Yellowstone.
Forever West,
Jeremy
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