We've been on a once in a lifetime trip and I'm currently writing this blog post from the sitting area at Old Faithful Snow Lodge. About a year ago now Jenny asked if Ryan and I would be interested in doing a trip to Yellowstone in the winter to celebrate her 40th Birthday and you know we couldn't pass up an invite like that one! Having just been to Yellowstone two summers ago it felt a little early to be headed back, but we figured it wasn't everyday that a group of people would want to do a trip like this so we lined up some kid sitters (Thanks Dad and Erin!!) and started booking our trip.
**A little hard to see, but that's two grey wolves from a pack of about 10 or so out in the Lamar Valley.
Our first stop for the week was in Mammoth Hot Springs. They renovated the entire hotel back in 2019 and between COVID and then the big flood in 2022, the hotel was relatively unused. Jenny's original plan for the trip was to spend 5 or 6 nights right down at Old Faithful but I advocated that we spend a few nights up at Mammoth because I really wanted to see the Lamar Valley. It was one part of the park that we didn't get to see the summer we were out here. Plus, when I found out that there were cabins with hot tubs for rent at Mammoth I think I was able to convince the group. Both Jenny and Jack and Ryan and I rented the cabins with the hot tubs. The cabins were old, but nice. They included a queen size bed and a very small bathroom. There was a small shower (like the one we used to have at the lake house in Wisconsin) a toilet and a sink that was located outside of the bathroom by the front door. It was small but nice and it was warm but the best part was the 4 person hot tub we had right outside our rooms. We didn't get a chance to see the hotel rooms, but Nora, Kate and Katie stayed in a suite right inside the renovated hotel and from the sounds of it, it was really really nice.
Our first full day at Mammoth we booked a tour called Wake Up to Wildlife. It was an early morning snow coach ride out to the Lamar Valley where we hoped to see some wildlife. You never quite know what you're going to get...it's not a zoo...but I think the collective group had wolves and moose were our list. Our guide Kirk was great - the best guide we've had on the trip so far. He did a great job and we had what they call a "Three Dog Day". We got to see the pack of wolves I had a picture of earlier, a coyote and an adorable red fox. We also saw buffalo, elk and a variety of birds and water fowl. He introduced to an cute little bird called a Dipper. Kirk told us he was the only bird that could "fly" underwater. They stand on the banks of the river doing little ducking/dipping motion sort of bouncing up and down and then they dive underwater and use their wings to "swim" underwater grabbing their food from the bottom of the river. Once we knew what to look for we could find them everywhere.
After our Wildlife tour everyone was feeling a little itchy to do some moving. The tour was 5 hours long, but it was mostly made up of sitting on the bus and popping out when there was something to look at. It was really neat to see parts of the park we hadn't seen before but we all needed to do some hiking. So, we grabbed lunches and then decided to head out and hike around the Mammoth Hot Springs area. There is a huge, terraced area that include three hot springs with boardwalks all around. These photos are from right around those hot springs. It's nearly impossible to capture the beauty in photos but if there's one thing to notice, besides the nature, it's the utter lack of humans! In extreme contrast to our summer trip, we've found that pretty much anything we want to do, we have it to ourselves...or maybe a handful of other people. There is not a single other person in this photo. It's such a stark contrast from our summer trip it's nearly convinced us that when the kids are a little bit older, we might be back with them one winter.
The springs around Mammoth are beautiful and it was so fun to explore with the place nearly all to ourselves. In the end we hiked nearly 6 miles that afternoon all around Mammoth. We did a trail off the top of the boardwalk which I cannot for the life of me remember the name of. I'll find it and update the blog later so I've got it.
The beauty of this area is really really hard to capture in photos. Video shows it better, but I can't post them here on the blog so stills will just have to do!
Our second day at Mammoth we did a few different things. Ryan and I booked a tour called Norris Basin which I'll talk about in a minute, but the rest of the group decided to explore on their own for the day. There was a trailhead right outside our cabins for a 5 or 6 mile hike called Beaver Ponds. The rest of the group decided to set out on that hike a few hours before our Norris Basin tour started so Ryan and I thought we'd start the hike with them and then turn around in enough time to let us grab lunch and be ready for our tour later in the day. It was one of the best decisions we made. Not only were we the first ones to hike the path that day (we could tell because it snowed overnight 3 or 4 inches and we were the first ones to step foot on that trial that day) but we also stumbled on a large nursery heard for elk. We'd learned the day before that the females and babies all herded together in nursery herds awhile the males tended to be more solitary. Before actually finding the animals themselves we saw all sorts of signs that they were there the night before. Bedding marks, hoof prints and all kinds of poop all around. Maybe 10 minutes later we walked right up on the heard. The photos I have just don't do it justice, but it was really neat to be so close to the animals and to have them all ourselves!
Our Norris Basin tour was very interesting. It turns out the Norris Basin is the most active and changing basin in the entire park. It's constantly opening new geyser areas and the small pools and hot springs are always changing sizes, locations and colors. One thing Ryan and I realized about doing the park this way (with tours) is that you learn a lot more of the history and science behind the area vs. just seeing it and taking in the beauty as you see it. You learn about why it looks like that, how it changes and what you might expect down the road. It may convince us to do more guided tours on trips in the future so that we can get a good mix of exploration and education of certain areas.
This hike was much more windy than our hike earlier in the day with the group to Beaver Ponds. We were colder than we expected on our 2 hour hike around the boardwalks but we saw a ton, learned a lot and overall were very glad we made the trip. The last thing we did on this hike was to walk past Steamboat geyser, one of the largest in the park. It sounds like it might be close to erupting...but it's not really as predictable as others like Old Faithful or even Giant geyser right by Old Faithful lodge. One of our other tour bus drivers told us that he got to see it twice last year. Our guide told us a story about how she tried to see it as a child and never had the chance, but that she finally got to see it erupt in 2018 and how it was nearly a life changing experience for her.
I said it earlier in the post, but capturing the colors and movement of the park is so so hard in photos. The colors range from brown and beige to bright blues and greens and yellows. It's really very beautiful.
We had a great ending to the day when we got to see a male elk just less than 20 feet away from our snow coach as we pulled back into the park. I didn't have a good vantage point to grab a photo but watching him from so close as he pawed at the ground and munched on his grass and minded his own business.
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