#OptOutside

One day in early to mid-July you might find yourself driving through Yellowstone National Park taking in the amazing scenery all around you. You turn a corner and the beauty of one of the many creeks, streams, and rivers in the park reveals itself. Suddenly, that beauty is interrupted by what looks like a flock…

Photo courtesy Montana State University Thermal Biology Institute. When I, Leysa, take my guests on tour I demonstrate how the seemingly little things in Yellowstone contribute to the bigger picture. For example, how small grubs, insects, and ground squirrels can feed some of the park’s biggest carnivores; how removing one apex predator can change an…

While ‘oohing and ahhing’ over the largest land mammal in North America, did you ever notice the small, seemingly ever-present bird perched atop a bison’s back or following closely around its feet? Enter… the “Buffalo Bird” (aka brown-headed cowbird). Courtesy National Park Service Courtesy Neal Herbert/NPS Courtesy Neal Herbert/NPS While other birds are priming nests…

One of the last days of June and the dash tells me it’s 38° F at 6 a.m. Awesome! That is exactly what I want on a morning drive to the center of a volcano. Geyser steam hangs thick in the air like cream of mushroom soup and Yellowstone is virtually deserted. As we drive…

“Oooooh, this might be the one!” I lost track of how many times we had said (or thought) that in the past three days. But this time it really did look like a more substantial minor eruption than any of the previous ones. Alas, the minor eruption (or “minor” for short) fizzled out and we…

The Yellowstone Floods of 2022 served as a stark reminder of the complex relationship between extreme weather events and climate change. As we witnessed—and continue to witness—the impacts of climate change worldwide it has become imperative for all of us as individuals, communities, businesses, and governments to take decisive action to curb greenhouse gas emissions…

As a naturalist guide in Yellowstone, one of the most coveted sightings as far as wildlife is concerned is to catch a fox hunting—or “mousing”—for its prey. However, because of foxes’ tendency to be more active at night, this sighting can prove to be a difficult challenge. On an early Sunday morning in June I…

Day after day, month after month, year after year, familiar faces show themselves in Yellowstone. For some, this means people: the wolf watchers, those individuals with the largest spotting scopes of all that we’ve grown to love and admire throughout time; the geyser geeks in their floppy sun hats, letting us know when our favorite…

Something about sandhill cranes catches our attention in northern Yellowstone. The cranes fly up to 200 miles per day when migrating north to their spring nesting grounds here, announcing their arrival in an insistent and raspy chorus. Their unmistakable calls — made possible by long windpipes that curl into their sternums, adding richness — can…

May is a fabulous time to view grizzly bears in Yellowstone!  In this video a mother grizzly and her two 2.5-year-old cubs play and wrestle in a small snow patch on Yellowstone’s famed Northern Range. This level of somewhat violent play may be the beginnings of mom pushing the young ones out on their own….