Yellowstone's Wolves and Winter Wildlife

In the year 1872, US president Ulysses S Grant set aside a huge area of pristine  mountains, forests and geothermal springs known as ‘Yellowstone’ as the world’s very first national park. Today, nearly a century and a half later Yellowstone National Park is also a World    Heritage Site and remains one of America’s finest protected landscapes, drawing visitors from around the world to appreciate its scenery, waterfalls, geysers and    abundant wildlife. The Park’s geology is fascinating. Yellowstone sits in a huge active volcanic caldera measuring 45 by 30 miles and the heat that wells up from deep beneath the Earth’s crust fuels over 10,000 geothermal features, from boiling pools of mud to huge geysers such as Old Faithful, one of over 250 geysers that dot the Park’s steaming valleys and basins. The jagged peaks of the Grand Teton National Park lie just to the south and are now included within the ‘Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’, a vast tract of protected land that covers over 80,000 square kilometres.

 Yellowstone has become one of the country’s most popular national parks, but in winter, once the snow has fallen and the crowds have retreated, it is largely left to    the resident wildlife. Against a spectacular snowy backdrop, herds of North American Bison huddle around the steaming geothermal pools for warmth; Moose, Rocky Mountain Elk and Bighorn Sheep venture down into the valleys and Bald Eagles soar effortlessly overhead. Perhaps the greatest wildlife spectacle of them all, however, is the sight of one or more of the Grey Wolves that hunt and play in Yellowstone’s Lamar and Hayden Valleys!  The last Wolf was shot in Yellowstone in 1926, but 69 years later this muchmaligned creature was reintroduced back into the Park and, despite a lot of local opposition and controversy, the Wolf is once again thriving. Indeed, Yellowstone National Park is now one of the best places in the world in which to see this secretive and unfairly persecuted mammal.

We begin our holiday with a flight to Jackson Hole on the edge of the Teton Mountains in Wyoming. Here we will meet our local guide, and spend two nights while exploring the dramatic landscapes and exciting wildlife of Grand Teton National Park. Moving on, we will head north to the town of West Yellowstone, our base for the    next three nights. West Yellowstone offers    easy access to the western and central regions of Yellowstone National Park such as the Upper Geyser Basin (home of Old Faithful) and the mix of habitats between the park entrance and Madison Junction is one of the most productive areas for wildlife in the winter. We will spend our time here enjoying short walks and watching the wildlife from the comfort of a heated ‘snowcoach’, a specially adapted minibus designed to cope with the snow-bound and icy winter landscape. Here we are sure to encounter the majestic North American Bison, an animal that was driven to the    brink of extinction from an initial population that was estimated to number over 65 million! The story of the Bison is one of the most tragic in natural history, but today nearly 5,000 animals roam the grasslands of Yellowstone and the sight of a herd feeding or standing huddled around a steaming hot spring will no doubt be one of the enduring memories of this holiday.

Amongst the other mammals that we will hope to encounter here are Bobcat, Coyote, Moose and Rocky Mountain Elk, plus such birds as Bald and Golden    Eagles, Northern Shrike, Steller’s and Grey Jays, Clark’s Nutcracker and Evening Grosbeak. We will also have the    opportunity to visit ‘Old Faithful’, Yellowstone’s most famous geyser, and watch it erupt into a cloud of steam and, if cold enough, crystalline mist. Winter is undoubtedly the most spectacular time to watch this natural wonder. Other areas to explore include the Hayden Valley and the boiling mud pools of the Fountain Paint Pots and Lower Geyser Basin.

Passing the colourful travertine terraces of    Mammoth Hot Springs, we continue our exploration of Yellowstone from Gardiner, our base for four nights whilst we explore the Lamar Valley and the northern sector of the National Park. Back in a conventional 4-wheeled minibus, we will make a particular    effort to find Grey Wolf on evening and early morning walks and drives. This is one of the most reliable places in the world in    which to view this secretive mammal, and although nothing is certain in the world of wildlife-watching — and the Wolves range over huge areas (especially in the winter) — we stand a good chance of striking lucky! At times the Wolves are distant, but on occasions they can be wonderfully close. Whether they are hunting, playing or just moving through their icy home, it is a rare privilege in the modern world to be able to watch such a persecuted animal returned to its former status in its traditional home. It should make a fitting finale to our snowy wildlife odyssey to one of North America’s finest parks and last remaining wildernesses.