I moved to Bozeman in the summer of 2021. Primarily to be close to Yellowstone, so that I could visit anytime. Anytime shrunk a little bit since in the post-lockdown era, parks have been overrun beyond their capacities with folks understandably eager to see them. The shoulder season (spring and fall) became highly alluring.
But winter. Winter was a different thing altogether. I made it through my first Bozeman winter without getting to the park. I did not intend to make it through two. So when it looked like the weather allowed safe driving from Bozeman to Mammoth Springs, I booked a trip that would involve a stay at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge.
I was nervous about parking the 4Runner at Mammoth and hoping it would start several days later after being allowed to freeze in the arctic temperatures, but you only live once.
Yellowstone is a different park in the winter. Interior roads are open only to snowmobiles and snow coaches. Those roads are groomed nightly to ensure safe travel, but you can only get anywhere via snow coach. So I signed up for several Xanterra-operated tours.
On one of them, we saw a bobcat working on a mule deer carcass. That was an unexpected treat. My 200-500mm lens got a workout. The thinking was that the bobcat chased the deer over a cliff in Firehole Canyon. The deer did not survive the fall. That cat might have fallen, too, but survived. Or it climbed down more cautiously. This had happened weeks before my trip into the park. But the cat came back ... for whatever meat was still to be had.
I saw other things, too. A photo tour made an unscheduled stop at Norris Geyser Basin, a personal favorite place. A nighttime tour was delightful, as was the freedom to wander the Upper Geyser Basin on my own.
Here’s what I came home with.
