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- A knowledgeable and professional naturalist guide
- Transportation to and from your local hotel, through out the park
- A healthy breakfast and lunch, fresh made from a local café,
- A variety of snacks including whole wheat and gluten-free crackers, snack cheeses, hummus, carrots, mixed nuts, granola/protein bars, fruit, and more
- Hot & cold beverages including coffee, cocoa, tea, sparkling water, fruit juice, and a water cooler for refills (please bring your own water bottle)
- Use of high quality binoculars and spotting scopes provided by us
- Trekking poles (upon request)
- Snowshoes/poles (winter and upon request)
- Hand/toe warmers (winter)
- Gratuity is NOT included in the price of the tour. Tips are a common practice with guides in North America, and are an important part of their income.
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- Clothing: Please be prepared for any type of weather, even in the summer! We recommend a warm pair of sock, closed toes sneakers or hiking boots, pants, and several layered tops which can be added or removed at the day progresses. Its also wise to bring a warm hat, gloves or mittens as our tours run rain or shine or snow.
- Rain gear
- Your National Park Pass. Click HERE to learn more.
- Other items like sunglasses, sunscreen and lip balm, and any prescription medicines you may regularly need
- Your Camera! With freshly charged batteries and an empty media card, you never know what you’ll want to capture or when it’ll be around the next bend!
- A day pack – for extra layers and all items to be easily stored in the vehicle, and brought along on an adventure if your group decides to take a short hike
- From mid-May to mid-August bug spray can be a lifesaver!
- Water Bottle! We will provide a water jug for you to refill your bottle throughout the day. If you have a reusable coffee travel mug we’d love to refill it with your favorite hot drink!
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Yellowstone possesses some of the most extreme weather conditions anywhere. Temperatures on any given tour could range from -40°F to +40°F (-40°C to +10°C). We recommend plenty of warm clothes that can be layered and easily removed; therefore, allowing you to adjust and stay comfortable throughout your tour.
Visit our Blog “The Art of Layering: How To Dress For a Yellowstone Winter Adventure” to learn more about appropriate clothing including links to purchase or rent the items you’ll need.
Here are our suggestions and what our guides wear on winter tours:
- Long underwear. Starting with your base layers, synthetic or wool long underwear tops and bottoms are critical to your comfort (we can find places to shed this layer later in the day if necessary). Please stay away from cotton, which can hold moisture and drastically chill the body, whereas wool and synthetics wick moisture and can even insulate while wet.
- Sweater or fleece. Ideally more than one layer of insulating layers like fleece or wool sweaters will allow for effective layering and allows you to easily shed layers as the day warms up.
- Fleece or down vest. Vests are great as a layering item that can really hold in core body temperature, yet also allow for maximum comfort and mobility.
- A windproof and water repellent insulated jacket is your most important protection from the biting Wyoming winds. Gore-Tex or something similar is highly advised as the best moisture/wind barrier and goose down insulation is the best insulation.
- Snow pants/ski pants – Insulted pants with moisture/wind barrier. You should have long underwear thermal layers in addition.
- Heavy gloves or mittens with windproof barrier. Many people find it is helpful to have a liner glove inside of a heavy mitten/glove to allow for freedom of movement while taking photos/looking through scopes and/or participating in cardiovascular activities like XC skiing or snowshoeing.
- Warm hat that covers your ears. We lose tremendous body heat from our heads. Protect your ears from the chilly wind with a wool or fleece hat.
- Warm wool or synthetic socks are key to keeping those toes from hampering your good time. Be sure you have plenty of wiggle room inside your boots. If your socks are too thick and fit too tightly in your boots, you will actually reduce blood flow to your feet, resulting in cold toes, regardless of how warm your socks are.
- Insulated winter boots (roomy boots are better as you do not want to restrict circulation in your feet/toes) (see below for boot recommendations).
- Hand and toe/foot warmers. These are lifesavers! We advise everyone to place a full-sized foot warmer inside your boots every morning before the tour. This keeps the edge off and keeps you comfortable to be able to enjoy yourself to the fullest during those hard-earned wildlife encounters! Toe and hand warmers can be used as needed.
- Sunblock. With high elevation sun, many of us burn easily, especially when we are distracted by something like watching wolves for extended periods of time.
- Sunglasses. We recommend an amber/yellow polarized lens for maximum visibility in flat light conditions.
- Even if you are not a serious photographer, a camera is nice to have on tour.
- A day pack is very handy for personal items: hand and toe warmers, water bottle, sunglasses, camera, and of course for all the extra layers you will want.
- A reusable water bottle. A water jug is available on all tours for refilling. It can be handy in the winter to fill your bottle first thing in the morning with HOT or WARM water (especially if you plan on being outside for long periods of time) to prevent your water from freezing immediately.
Boots:
There are several ways you can go for boots: the insulated rubber “muck” boots that farmers and ranchers like. These are slip on boots that come in varying levels of insulation (up to -50 degrees). They are fine for short walks, but you would not want them for full-day hikes. For the purpose of this trip, they would be fine. Good brands there are Muck and LaCrosse. These are probably the best bang for your buck.
https://www.muckbootcompany.com/collections/arctic-ice/audience_men
The other option is a lace up insulated boot. There are lots of them on the market and you could spend a lot for a boot that you may never use again.
Here is a link with discussion about boots recommended for Antarctica tours. https://www.coolantarctica.com/Shop/antarctica-clothing/antarctic-boots.php
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BOOKING, DEPOSIT, & FINAL PAYMENT POLICIES:
In order to reserve your tour, a deposit is due at the time of booking. Preferred payment method is via credit card through our secure booking system. *The balance due will be charged to the card on file 30 days prior to your tour departure date.
CANCELLATION POLICY OPTIONS:
The Cancellation Policy that you select at the time of booking will apply to your reservation.
TRIP PROTECTED FLEXIBLE CANCELLATION POLICY +12% OF TOUR TOTAL COST
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- If you cancel your tour 24 hours before your scheduled tour, your tour fee is fully refundable minus a $50.00 processing fee.
- If you cancel within 24 hours your tour fee is 65% refundable minus a $50.00 processing fee.
- We are unable to offer any refund for no-shows or tours canceled after the scheduled departure time
- The “Trip Protected Cancellation Policy” fee will be charged within 48 hours of booking and a receipt will be emailed to the email address on file
The 12% Trip Protected Fee is non-refundable. If you booked online, the “fees” charged by the third-party booking system are also non-refundable.
Rescheduling Your Tour with Us: We are happy to reschedule your tour for no additional charge up to 24 hours prior to your tour departure dependent upon availability.
STANDARD CANCELLATION POLICY
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- If you cancel your tour more than 30 days in advance of your tour start date, you will receive a full refund minus a $50.00 processing fee.
- If you cancel your tour within 30 days of your tour start date, we are unable to offer a refund.
Under our Standard Cancellation Policy, if your trip needs to be canceled due to factors beyond our control, including (but not limited to) extreme weather conditions, wildfire, natural disaster, park closure, airline cancellations, or an “Act of God,” we will not be able to offer a cash refund.
As a small business, we regret that we are rarely able to make exceptions to our Standard Cancellation Policy. ***We strongly recommend that you select the “Trip Protected Cancellation Policy” or purchase third-party travel insurance in order to protect your investment in case of unforeseen events affecting your travel plans.***
Rescheduling Your Tour with Us: We are happy to reschedule your tour for no additional charge up to 48 hours prior to your tour departure dependent upon availability.
Updated July 23, 2024
*Multi-day mixed-group, Public mixed-group, and private all-inclusive custom packages may have differing booking, deposit, and cancellation policies. When booking package tours, your confirmation email will explicitly outline the specific policies for that package.
See links below for examples of package booking, deposit, and cancellation polices. Please call us directly at 406.224.0001 with questions.
6 Day Winter Wolf Watching Package
Wolves & Winter Wonders 6-Day Package
Multi-Day Photography Workshop
Spring into Summer: Animal Babies
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There are endless combinations of park passes that can be used to gain entrance to Yellowstone National Park. Which of them is the right one for you depends on many factors. Click HERE to learn more about which pass you should purchase.
When you enter the park on one of our tours, it is considered “Commercial Entry” and the cost is the same as the “Pedestrian” pass of $20.00/person for all passengers 16 or older. The pass is good for 7-days. This is the pass you should purchase if you do not have an annual or equivalent pass:
Standard Pass (includes option for Individual (Pedestrian) Pass)
All of the passes below allow entry to the cardholder plus 3 additional passengers:
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We are unable to pick up at any of these locations due to their distance from our home base in Gardiner, MT at the North Entrance. We can meet at several locations in between our headquarters and these cities or park villages. You can find exact pickup location options for each tour type—with meeting times—in the dropdown menus at the bottom of each specific activity PAGE.
It’s important to appreciate the enormity of Yellowstone National Park and the fact that where there are many thermal features (Old Faithful to Madison), wildlife diversity is limited—especially in summer. Where wildlife diversity is greatest and most consistent (Lamar Valley and Hayden Valley), thermal features are few and far between (Hayden Valley) or nearly non-existent (Lamar Valley). This makes is very difficult to maximize optimal wildlife viewing AND geyser gazing in one day. We recommend at least one full day for each of these activities.
With over 370 miles of developed road, a maximum speed limit of 45mph, and heavy summer traffic, drive times are considerable. Please see the map below for estimated drive times (these times are on the longer side of average – 30 minutes per stretch of road is a good overall baseline:
Please see the drop down titled “What are drive times like in the park?” for information regarding estimated drive times from the park villages and surrounding areas.
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Our tours run regardless of weather conditions! Cooler summer days are our FAVORITE kind of days with the proper pre-trip planning (see above for suggested items to bring)
Our experience has proven time and again that during the long hot days of summer, cooler weather conditions spur activity among our well-insulated wildlife species. This can be the ideal time to enjoy longer viewing periods of animals actively moving around the landscape. Additionally, our thermal features come ALIVE when the heat from thermals mingle with the cool ambient air temperatures of a summer rain or snowstorm. Perhaps the best part of being out when the weather is “inclement” is fewer crowds.
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Our tours generally last for 6-10 hours (unless otherwise noted). We often find that groups after an early start are satisfied and exhausted after about 6 hours, however if we’re all still feeling energetic and excited for more Yellowstone we can go up to 8 hours or beyond! We try to avoid putting hard ending times on our tours because they are dynamic and all different. Being open and flexible is important when dealing with wildlife, traffic, geyser eruption times, etc.
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- We do not guarantee any wildlife sightings on our tours. The beauty of Yellowstone is that our wildlife is truly wild, however, we will guarantee that your guide will use their knowledge, skills, and network of other guides, watchers and photographer to do everything we can to find you the animals you’d like to see. We are in the park nearly everyday searching for and watching wildlife, and the consistency of our efforts frequently pays off in finding the animals you’ve traveled to see.
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With the exception of our Yellowstone Hiking Tour or Snowshoe or Cross Country Ski Tour, Wildlife Watching and Day Hiking Combo Tour, or Backpacking trips, all of our tours are easy-to-moderate and based on YOUR interests and abilities!
Nearly all of our day trips are private tours (just your group) and customizable. In general our goal as a company to interact with the landscape away from the road as much as possible. However, our first priority at all times is the comfort and interests of our guests. All of our tours can be enjoyed and educational from pullouts along the road, short paved paths or boardwalks, or within a 1/5 of a mile from these areas. It’s up to you! You’ll work with your personal Naturalist Guide to determine what level of activity is right for your group.
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As nearly all of our tours are private and customizable based on YOUR groups abilities, please note that these are frameworks only and can modified as needed for your comfort and enjoyment.
The guidance below is a good outline for what to expect on mixed-group tours where unfamiliar groups are taking part in a tour. In these types of touring situations, your guide will work to ensure a pace is set that can be enjoyed by ALL members of the group. Once a group has departed the vehicle for a hike/ski/snowshoe the group must remain together for safety reasons. However, anyone can choose to stay back with the touring vehicle for the duration of a hike/ski/snowshoe if they choose.
EASY: You can expect very little walking outside of moving to areas for best wildlife viewing, thermal features (maintained boardwalks), or natural features (paved walking paths) to short hikes totaling 1-2 miles (1.5-3.2 km) over the course of the day with elevation gains/loss of less 200′ (70m). Anyone who is able to get in and out of the vehicle with or without assistance can enjoy a tour that is listed as an “Easy” Activity Level.
MODERATE: Guests can expect to spend 2-5 miles (3.2-8km) total over the course of the day away from the vehicle. These miles could be on or off trail (group/guide preference) with elevation gains/loss of no more than 750′ (229m). Trekking poles can be provided upon request. Many guests find this activity level to be the perfect amount of activity for our Wildlife Watching & Day Hiking Combo Tour
HARD: Any activity level rated “Hard” requires participants to be physically fit with good balance. Tour types that may venture into “Hard” would include the Backpacking Adventure, Yellowstone Hiking Tour, and Snowshoe or Cross Country Ski Excursion. Guests can expect full days on or off trail with the option of extreme elevation gains/loss greater than 3000′ (915m) and distances between 5-12+miles (8-19.3+km). Trekking poles are highly recommended and available upon request.
EXTREME: Please contact Yellowstone Wild directly if you are looking for a more challenging hiking/backpacking excursion. The “Extreme” activity level is possible but additional information is needed to ensure clients are physically and mentally prepared for on or off trail excursions covering distances of more than 13 miles (21km) a day with steep ascents/descents in rugged country. This activity level is rare for a Day Hike but could be integrated into an extended multi-day overnight backcountry adventure. Trekking poles required and available upon request.
PLEASE NOTE: These ratings are averages and what is easy for some may be hard to others. We get it! We’re here to help YOU customize your day around your abilities. Don’t hesitate to reach out directly if you have questions!
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Our guides will always appreciate, but never expect a gratuity. Yellowstone Wild is proud to compensate our guides at a rate that values their previous experience in the field, educational background, local cost of living averages, and the high expectations we hold regarding delivering only the highest caliber customized excursions for our guests.
However, we greatly appreciate that the majority of our clients enjoy recognizing the exceptional service our Naturalist Guides provide. As such, a “standard” gratuity for private one or two day experience is generally 15-20% of the total tour cost. For all-inclusive multi-day packages, a “standard” gratuity ranges from 10-15% of the total package price.
All of our guides are able to accept gratuities in the form of cash or Venmo. If those are not options for you but you’d still like to tip your guide, we encourage you to ask them directly at the conclusion of your tour if they are set up to accept Zelle, PayPal, or another form of contactless money transfer method.
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Yellowstone is a HUGE park with 5 different entrances/exits, 371 miles of developed roads, a maximum speed of 45mph (unless posted less than this), and heavy traffic during the summer months.
Yellowstone Wild is based in Gardiner, MT at the North Entrance to the park. The closest pickup locations to this entrance are Gardiner, MT, and Mammoth Hot Springs. However, we do offer pickups for some tour-types at other park locations. Please click on the following tour-type to view pickup locations for that offering: Bear & Wolf Watching; Family Adventure Tour; Private Wildlife Photography Wildlife Tour; Watching & Day Hiking Combo; Ultimate Yellowstone – Geysers & Wildlife; Geysers, Hot Springs, and Bubbling Mud Pots, Oh My!; The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Waterfalls, & Geysers; Yellowstone Hiking Tour;
In general it’s a good idea to plan on AT LEAST 30 minutes of drive time for each stretch of road within the park.
A few examples of estimated travel times (in minutes – NOT in miles):
Bozeman to Gardiner, MT. – 1 and a half hours
Livingstone to Gardiner, MT.- 45 minutes to 1 hour
Emigrant to Gardiner, MT. – 30-45 minutes
West Yellowstone to Canyon – 1 hour
West Yellowstone to Mammoth – 1 hour and fifteen minutes
Big Sky to Canyon Village or Mammoth Hot Springs – 2+ hours
Old Faithful to Canyon Village or Mammoth Hot Springs – 1 hour and fifteen minutes
Grant Village to Canyon Village – 1 hour
Jackson, WY to Mammoth Hot Springs – 4+ hours
SEE MAP BELOW FOR COMMON DRIVE TIME ESTIMATES (based on peak traffic times – will generally be significantly shorter before 7:00am & after 7:00pm:
https://yellowstone.net/intro/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/07/mileagemap-802×1024.jpg
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Park Rules and the Yellowstone Wild Code of Ethics
As a licensed Commercial Use Permit holder with Yellowstone National Park, we must follow all park rules and regulations.
Additionally, as life-long proponents of wildlife and wild places, we will also follow our own ethical wildlife viewing practices. We will take this opportunity to teach you about how we can have the very best viewing and photography opportunities possible without having negative impacts on wildlife by respecting the animals’ space and movements as they go about their lives.
While on tour with Yellowstone Wild LLC, we will observe the following park rules (subject to law
enforcement):- Keep at least 25 yards from all wildlife
- Keep at least 100 yards from wolves and bears
- Avoid remaining near or approaching wildlife, including birds, at any distance that disturbs or displaces
the animal.
It is our ethical responsibility as visitors to the park to make sure that our actions do not inflict undue stress or hardship upon the animals that we are observing. Wild animals in a natural setting do not have easy lives, and the last thing we want to do is make their lives any more difficult. Your guide is an expert at reading animal behavior, and the moment that our presence is bothering an animal, we MUST back off until we are no longer disturbing its natural behavior. Failure to promptly respond to your guide’s instructions to back away from wildlife may result in the termination of your tour, subject to the discretion of your guide.
This is where our optics prove invaluable. We use only the finest quality Swarovski and Vortex spotting scopes so that we can thoroughly enjoy our wildlife sightings at a distance that allows the animals to carry on about their business, as if we were not there. In fact, much of the time they probably don’t know we are there, yet our high powered and crystal clear optics give us an up-close and personal view. Furthermore, we must be mindful of any animal feeding on or resting near a carcass. Approaching such an area may drive the animal(s) away and deprive them of valuable food. It is important to remember that a carcass is regularly scavenged upon by any number of other animals, including grizzly bears, who will violently defend such a food source. Approaching such an area is strictly prohibited and can seriously put people and wildlife in danger. Finally, it is important to be mindful of the other park visitors and biologists who may also be observing the same animals. We promote quiet, respectful behavior to maximize everyone’s wild Yellowstone experience.
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Yellowstone National Park is a very large place divided by mountain ranges, deep valleys and a massive lake. The weather within the 2.2 million acres can vary widely, so checking the weather in the park can be a difficult task. We recommend checking several different NOAA weather stations around the park, and working an average of those if you’re planning to travel around the entirety of the park.
