Five reasons why it's better to visit Yellowstone National Park during the winter.

 It is well documented how much I hate the cold. I believe that anything below 65 degrees is just unnecessary. Anything below freezing, sheer lunacy.  Yet, here I was in Bozeman, Montana for a long weekend in February.  I was not exactly upset. This is an unspeakably beautiful state and one of the remaining four I'd yet to visit.  I just wish they'd show a bit more self-control when it comes to Winter. Why does it have to snow so much, even during a year when locals were complaining that there was not enough snow? They don't even blink at 20 below zero, an actual temperature that we experienced. It's simply too much! 

Cold or no cold, I was not about to pass up the opportunity to visit the country's first national park, because of course I wasn't. The plot twist is that now that I have, I am firmly convinced this is the best possible time to visit. I can even give you five solid reasons why.

1. It's cheaper. The park, which covers almost 3,500 square miles and three states-  Montana, Wyoming and Idaho- has five entrances, with the most popular being the West one. Just beyond the gate, there is a small town, conveniently named West Yellowstone. It is immediately obvious, based on the number of hotels, restaurants and t-shirt shops that this is a bustling tourist town. 

After a two hour super scenic drive, we arrived in West Yellowstone and checked into the rustically adorable Brandin' Iron Inn. The price for one night, including breakfast, was $79. Out of curiosity, I looked up how much the same room would cost during the summer. How's $289 sound? That's 3.5x as much!

Some of the businesses were closed for the winter but there were still plenty of places to eat and/ or get a cold beer. Also open was the fantastic Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. They are a non-profit that cares for orphaned, injury and "nuisance" animals that would otherwise not make it in the wild. It was also our best chance of seeing Grizzly bears, who tend sit out the winter months and wolves, who are notoriously difficult to spot in the park.

2. Winter transportation is simply cooler. During the summer, it is possible to drive through the park, which must be pretty spectacular but it's hard to take in all that beauty and also concentrate on the road. During the winter, the roads within the park are closed off to cars. If you want to enter the park, you have to either take a snow coach tour (which is a regular sightseeing van with enormous snow tires), ride a snowmobile or take up cross country skiing. Not surprisingly, my friend Manny and I opted for the warmest of the three options, the snow coach. 

We lucked out with two seats on the highest rated tour operator, Back Country Adventures. They are a small independently owned company who truly go out of their way to give their customers the best possible experience. That is on their regular tour, ours was wonderfully irregular. One of the guides, Kurt, had his family in town from Ohio so they had pretty much booked up the entire van. All but our two seats. Since Kurt had the day off, his buddy was our official guide- sort of. Listening to these two try to out-guide each other made a special day that much better. They were hilarious, dinging each other every chance they got. 

3. It's easier to spot animals against the all white landscape. We hadn't been in the park more than thirty minutes when we spotted our first herd of bison. I say first herd because with over 4,800 living in the park, they are a fairly common sight, at least on this day. 

I'm not sure which of our guides spotted a bald eagle perched up on a tree but it was an impressive spot while racing down the snow-covered road. 

But the hands down best sighting was the Wapiti wolf pack. As I mentioned earlier, it is exceedingly rare to see a wolf in the wild, which is understandable considering there are only 124 of them in this massive park. We saw 15 of them! The Wapiti, the park's largest pack were slowly making their way closer to a lone bison. Our guides managed to spot them not once, not twice but three times, each sighting closer  than the last. At one point, we were out of the van, taking photos and maintaining the required 100 yard distance, when one of the wolves came ambling our way, causing us to haul ass back to the van. We were not actually in any danger (unlike that poor bison) but wanted to give them their rightful space. 

You know how you can tell that you are experiencing something really rare? When the guides are equally if not more excited than the guests. Here were two guys that are in the park every single day and they were positively giddy. At one point it was just the three of us standing outside the van and I worried that I was holding the group back when they confided that if it was up to them, we would be out here all day long.

4. No crowds. Last year, 4.5 million people visited Yellowstone, 95% of them between the months of May - October when the park roads are open to the public. That's a shitload of people in a 6 month period. The trails around the popular geothermal features must be an unholy mass of humanity. In the winter, the number of licensed tour operators is limited as are the number of snow mobiles permitted. That means you often have the trails to yourself. You can sit in silence listening to bubbling fumaroles, watching erupting geysers or just admiring the hot springs. 

When we went to see the park's star attraction, Old Faithful, we shared the viewing area with maybe 100 people tops. It is not the most spectacular geyser but it is the most reliable, thus the name. Once it erupts, they can predict the next eruption with a margin of error of +/- 10 minutes. Ours was super precise, going  off right at the appointed time. 

                                                

                                        

The next eruption, scheduled for 3:05- Miami in the house-was probably not so punctual. 

5. Long after you thaw out and feeling returns to your feet, you will still have the most spectacular pictures. This park is absolutely gorgeous. Full stop. Seeing it covered in a blanket of freshly fallen snow takes it up to an ethereal level that not one of these pictures accurately captures. 

As if our day had not been amazing enough, on our way out of the park, we got caught in a bison jam. I never imagined traffic could be enjoyable but only because I'd never been surrounded by a stubborn herd of slow moving bison. When I tell you these big fluffy cows straight up did not give a fuck about the line of snow coaches trying to pass them... There was zero urgency to get out of our way. 

That was just five reasons why I'm now a winter Yellowstone convert. I could list off plenty more but you get the idea.   

One that was not winter related but was an added bonus for me, we spent most of the day in the Wyoming portion of the park, meaning between that and my stay in Montana, I had now hit 2 of my remaining US states. I now have only two more states to go before I hit all 50- North and South Dakota. Wonder what I'm doing next winter.