During February break, I was lucky enough to travel with my family to Montana and experience the magic of Yellowstone in the winter time. I caught my flight to Bozeman in the early morning of February 17th. We landed in a flat, rural town surrounded by mountains in the distance. As a Californian I will admit, I initially had trouble enjoying myself in the miserably freezing environment, but the beautiful white, snow-covered landscape had me mesmerized. From there, we drove 2 hours, to the touristy town of West Yellowstone where we stayed for the next two nights. When we got there, I immediately noticed the cute, old western style themed businesses there. Dozens of restaurants and souvenir shops lined the main downtown street but not many people were in sight. I assume that the warm weather of the summer is what attracts most of the town’s visitors. The first night of our visit, we settled into our cozy log cabin style hotel room and then put on thick layers of winter gear to explore the small town by foot. Before we left though, we obviously had to make a stop to grab some of the complimentary hot chocolate, cookies, and warm chicken noodle soup our hotel served each evening. We arrived at Bullwinkle‘s Saloon and Eatery after only a five minute walk and sat down to enjoy a warm dinner. We tried some of the local foods on their menu; huckleberry lemonade, barbecue bison ribs, Elk ravioli, and walleye filets were all delicious. We then headed back to the hotel to get lots of rest because the next day was reserved for an exciting adventure!
In the winter, Yellowstone National Park is closed off to all traffic except for authorized tour companies that take people in via snowmobile or snow carriages. So, I accompanied Two Top snowmobile tours on a trip into the park! We started off the journey with getting fit for snowsuits and helmets that protected us from the chill of snowmobiles moving 40+ miles per hour. Once we headed out, it was only a 15 minute ride or so until we had our first wildlife sighting. About a mile or two into the park we suddenly came across a bison. Our tour guide explained that we must stay at least 25 yards away from bison at all times, per park rules, but this creature happened to be so close to the road that we definitely did not meet this. Luckily we were not charged by the 600 pound giant! Our guide also explained a common misconception about these animals; bison are different from buffalos. Who knew? On the snowmobiles, we continued on a scenic route, passing waterfalls, snowy canyons, and plenty more bison. The next stop we made was for lunch. After driving 30 miles into the park, we reached the site of the famous geyser named Old Faithful where we stopped to eat. It took a solid 45 minutes of patiently waiting until the geyser faithfully erupted, spewing tons of boiling hot water up to 100 feet in the air. It was truly a unique sight. There are over 10,000 different hydro-thermal features in the national park and we stopped to see about 8 of them. Geysers, mud pots, hot springs, and fumaroles are the four different types of features we saw, my favorite being the hot spring for the beautiful blue color it was, even in the winter time. On the way back from lunch, we saw tons more wildlife, including numerous bald eagles, swans and other beautiful birds, a red fox, and coyotes. The trip lasted from 9am until 5pm and we were able to travel nearly 60 miles in total! It was an unforgettable way to view Yellowstone and I would highly recommend it.
After only a few days of staying in west Yellowstone, It was then time to move on and make the drive up to Big Sky Montana where we spent the rest of our trip. All of our days in Big Sky were spent skiing, but we never grew bored. With a total of 317 runs, 39 lifts, and 5800 acres of skiable land, the Big Sky resort is the second largest resort in the United States, coming in closely behind the largest, the Park City ski resort. So, even in four days, we weren’t able to complete every run and never grew bored. The snow there was powdery and lift lines were short, giving us the most ideal skiing conditions. The resort has mainly expert terrain (black diamonds and higher making up nearly 60% of the runs) but it also has some easier terrain as well. One of my favorite things about the resort was the new high speed chairlifts that they recently installed. When loading onto the chairs, you were pushed into place by a moving magic carpet to speed along the process that the line moved. On the chairlift, the bar came down automatically and then retracted itself at the top of the lift. They also each had a windshield type of thing you could pull down to protect you from the snow and harsh winds. The chairs even had heated seats! One of the coolest things though was, big sky’s effort to protect the environment, using clean, renewable energy to power these new lifts. When our legs became tired at the end of each ski day, we left the slopes and made visits to the cute little downtown area where we had dinner each night. There were some good restaurants but also some local clothing boutiques and coffee shops that I enjoyed browsing.
As our trip came to an end, I was feeling so grateful for the incredible experiences we had. From the breathtaking views of Yellowstone to skiing Big Sky, it was quite an adventure. For anyone who loves the outdoors, Montana is definitely a destination worth exploring!