Yellowstone Cross Country Ski Tour

• Shuttle to Mammoth Hot Springs: 2-hour drive
• Skiing Mileage: 5 miles
• Accommodations: Best Western by Mammoth Hot Springs

On this Yellowstone National Park winter tour, we’ll arrive at Mammoth Hot Springs and settle into our rooms before departing for our first ski at Tower Falls. After appreciating the overlook of the 132-foot Tower Falls we’ll head southwest on the groomed Tower Fall Trail adjacent to the rushing waters of Tower Creek. Wildlife sitings are likely and may include bison, elk, coyote, and bighorn sheep. We’ll enjoy a delicious picnic lunch with hot cocoa before heading back to the hotel. After some personal time we’ll venture out to the Boiling River hot springs for a soak beneath the evening alpenglow.

• Snow Coach Shuttle to Old Faithful: 4 hours
• Skiing Mileage: 4.7 miles
• Accommodations: Old Faithful Snow Lodge

We’ll be up and at ‘em early this morning and board a snow coach for the isolated winter landscape of Old Faithful! The 4-hour snow coach journey takes us by frozen rivers, snow- covered valleys, through dense forests, and by herds of bison huddling for warmth against the cold.

We’ll be dropped at Midway Geyser Basin, where we’ll have a 4.7-mile ski to Old Faithful. We’ll ski through Upper Geyser Basin (photo below) before arriving at Old Faithful. Yellowstone is home to 60% of the world’s geysers and most of them can be found here. Skiing the trails we’ll experience the basins’ diverse array of geysers from thin fountains to massive eruptions as thick plumes of steam rise heavily through the frigid air. It is an impressive scene.

• Snow Coach to Biscuit Basin: 30 minutes
• Skiing Mileage: 5.5 miles
• Accommodations: Old Faithful Snow Lodge

It is a short snow coach shuttle to the Biscuit Basin Trailhead, where we’ll don our boots and skis. We’ll explore a number of thermal features in Biscuit Basin, including the brilliant Sapphire Pool, before making the tour along the Little Firehole River 1.5 miles to Mystic Falls, draped in curtains of ice. We’ll then turn around and head back through Biscuit Basin before skiing the final 2 miles to Old Faithful. En route we’ll pass by Morning Glory Pool and the spectacular Grand Geyser.

• Skiing Mileage: 8.5 miles
• Accommodations: Old Faithful Snow Lodge

Following breakfast we head out to one of the more unique and impressive backcountry geysers in the park – Lone Star Geyser (above photo). Our ski tour hugs the Firehole River, named for the numerous thermal features that feed its waters, before we arrive at the geyser. Found in a clearing surrounded by dense forest, it erupts from a large cream- colored mound. At full tilt it sprays scalding water and steam 40 feet into the air. We’ll reverse our route back to dinner and time spent warming by the lodge’s fire. We’ll then venture out on an interpretive walk to see one of the more impressive starry skies in the Northern Hemisphere!

• Skiing Mileage: appx 2 miles
• Snow Coach Shuttle to Mammoth: 4 hours
• Shuttle: 2-hour drive

The final morning of our journey will commence with breakfast at Old Faithful Snow Lodge followed by an early morning snow coach departure back to Mammoth Hot Springs Lodge.

Upon returning to Mammoth Hotsprings, our group will embark on a short drive to a trail head that allows for exploration of the Mammoth Hot Springs travertine terraces. As we travel along the Upper Terrace loop, the expansion and contraction of this hot spring feature dominates the mixed conifer forest landscape. Our group will be able to view areas of the feature that have grown or shrank depending on changing underground thermal activity. Once on top of the Terraces, we will be gifted with wide ranging views of the deeply cut Gardner River Canyon directly below, Mt. Everts, and snow clad peaks of the Southern portion of the Absaroka – Beartooth Range.

From the high vantage, the group will descend back to the vehicle for the return drive to Bozeman and our conclusion to a unique winter experience.

This trip is often done in 4 days by eliminating the Biscuit Basin day from the itinerary (Day 3).