Wonderland: Yellowstone in Winter

8 night tour - Starting in Bozeman, Montana - Ending in Jackson, Wyoming.

A Tauck Culturious Tour, small group, active journeys.

Celebrating 90 years in the travel touring business, Tauck offer the ultimate in luxury touring. Throughout the years, ingenuity and innovation, plus a focus on customer servce and authentic experiences, have grown Tauck into one of the world's leading travel touring companies. On your tour you can expect an itinerary carefully designed to create an unforgetable experience, ensuring the finest hotels, luxury motorcoaches and highly experienced tour directors.

The world’s first national park inspires awe any time of the year, as any Yellowstone tour would attest. But as you’ll discover on this very special 9-day Culturious trip, visiting the national park during the winter – when bison, elk, wolves and bighorn sheep wander across snow-covered valleys, and Yellowstone's amazing geologic features are even more spectacular in the frigid air – is a whole other... and perhaps other-worldly... experience. Exploring by snowcoach, you'll see gurgling mud pots and steaming hot springs surrounded by frozen landscapes... waterfalls whose cataracts partially freeze into ice bridges... and geysers, like iconic Old Faithful, erupting dramatically into the cold winter air. And you'll meet an award-winning wildlife cinematographer who offers insights into the lives of the park’s iconic species. When filmmaker Ken Burns and his colleague Dayton Duncan started thinking of new trips on which to share their unique stories and experiences, a wintertime Yellowstone tour was a natural choice – and Culturious was a natural fit. In Dayton’s words: “You’ve never really seen Yellowstone until you’ve been there in winter. Once a snowcoach takes you into the interior (the roads are snow-covered), you have this incredible place pretty much to yourself." Small groups, active travel, immersive – it’s Wonderland: Yellowstone in Winter... and it's Culturious.

Group Size: no more than 24 guests

Note: Some days include walking on uneven terrain, including a snowshoe trek; optional outdoor activities are available in the park. The pace is up to you. Winter months in Yellowstone are cold; to get maximum trip enjoyment, pack wisely and dress warmly; layers are recommended.

 
2016 departure dates:
January 14th & 23rd
February 4th & 19th
View Itinerary Details

Day 1: Arrive Bozeman, and on to Chico Hot Springs

Tauck's wintertime Culturious Yellowstone tour begins at 6:30 PM at the Chico Hot Springs Hotel & Day Spa. A transfer is included from Bozeman Airport to the Chico Hot Springs Resort and Day Spa in Pray, Montana, in the foothills of the Absaroka Mountains, not far from Yellowstone’s north entrance. Your historic lodge, established in 1900, offers two restaurants, a Western saloon, two mineral hot pools, and a full-service spa. Join us this evening for a welcome reception and dinner.

Lodging: Chico Hot Springs Resort and Day Spa

Dinner

Day 2: Into Yellowstone's winter wonderland

Take a morning dip in one of the resort’s open-air swimming pools, heated by underground hot springs. The waters have healing powers, if you believe the legends of gold miners and Native Americans... and even if you don’t, an immersion here is a warm introduction to the geothermal wonders of this volcanic plateau. Meet a professional dog sledder and get the lowdown on the world of dogsled racing. Then head out along the Yellowstone River, teeming with ice floes, to the park’s north entrance – your wintertime Yellowstone tour begins at Mammoth Hot Springs. The frozen world beyond the fieldstone gate can literally take your breath away. Empty of crowds, silent, eerily peaceful and pristine in shades of white. The temperatures in winter can reach 40 below, yet the ground steams through hidden fissures and hot springs, wafting great clouds across the white landscape, where distant herds of bison and elk drift through it like apparitions in a fog... hot springs in this place are wildlife magnets. A presentation tonight by Bob Landis, renowned Yellowstone wildlife cinematographer, gives great insight into the lives of the park’s iconic species including the bear, wolf and bisontheir behaviors and lifestyles – his films have aired on PBS and National Geographic Television. Find your own warm place (and a hot drink beside a crackling fire) at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, your rustic timber and stone oasis for the next two nights.

Lodging: Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel and Cabins

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 3: Lamar Valley and the wolf packs of Yellowstone

Head out via snowcoach to witness great herds traversing the white plains of Lamar Valley in the early morning light, a Yellowstone tour winter highlight. Winter drives the grazing elk, bison, bighorn sheep, and pronghorn antelope down from the mountains to lower elevations where the snow and ice are thin and they can break through to the grass beneath... the bison using their massive heads like snowploughs. The herds draw packs of grey wolves (reintroduced to the park in 1995), and the predators in turn draw hopeful scavengers like coyotes and bald eagles. Wolves, usually invisible in the summer months, are easy to spot in the barren winter landscapes, and their howls punctuate the hunting hours at dawn and dusk. Find your own sustenance in the civilized warmth of Cooke City, once a mining camp in the foothills beside the Snake River. An early winter sunset paints the sky and mountains with soul-stirring light and color on the return trip to the lodge. Tonight, take your choice of activity – perhaps a ranger lecture, or a turn on the ice skating rink under the stars.

Lodging:Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel and Cabins

Breakfast, Dinner

Day 4: Geysers, fumaroles and paint pots galore

Yellowstone is a hotbed of geothermal spectacles. Superheated groundwater erupts from the earth in boiling springs, fumaroles, mud volcanoes, and geysers... described famously by a miner as “the place where hell bubbled up.” Native Americans considered it sacred; early explorers likened the thunder of mud geysers to the boom of distant artillery. In the crisp cold air of winter, the thermal features are all the more present, billowing steam, hissing water, and spume that encrust trees with frost and paint white masks on the faces of bison. Today on your wintertime Yellowstone tour, a pilgrimage to famous Old Faithful includes stops at Gibbon Falls, an 84-foot cascade frozen in a veil of ice, the Norris Geyser Basin, and the aptly named Fountain Paint Pots, oozing pools of liquefied rock oxidized in reds, yellows, and browns. Experience the alien world that steams around Black Sand Geyser and Midway Geyser Basin before you arrive at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge... warm up, settle in, then walk outside to witness the eruption (on average every 94 minutes) with no crowds between you and the legendary clockwork geyser... a sudden explosion of boiling water that hisses upward to 180 feet for one to five minutes, drifting a curtain of steam in the icy air.

Lodging: Old Faithful Snow Lodge

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 5: Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the Hayden Valley

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is considered the soul of the park, deep in its interior, and you arrive there by snowcoach, over roadless terrain. En route, visit West Thumb Geyser Basin at a corner of Yellowstone Lake, and the Mud Volcanoes, bubbling mud hills that emit methane. Discover the sub-alpine Hayden Valley, once a vast lake bed, now a surreal winter landscape alive with trumpeter swans, bison, elk, and moose, home to the Sulfur Spring and the Black Dragon Caldron... None of which prepares you for the sight of the Canyon itself – a fantasy landscape with a deep gorge blown open by an ancient volcanic eruption, then carved by glaciers and the river itself, nearly a mile wide and plunging 1,200 feet with two torrential waterfalls, each with an arc of spume-made ice and crystalline forests up and down the steep banks. Members of an expedition in 1870 who first happened upon the canyon stood speechless on its rim for a full five minutes... silent... which may be the best way to describe it. And they didn’t see it in winter... Your last evening on the Yellowstone tour portion at this amazing trip, at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge, might include a ranger presentation.

Lodging: Old Faithful Snow Lodge

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 6: Yellowstone as you please, plus a snowshoe trek

 

Days are exquisitely short this time of year, and this one begins with a morning that is yours to spend as you wish. You might rent cross country skis to cover more ground, or take a snowmobile for a spin (please note – some activities are at an additional charge). Or there is always a quiet day of indoor activities with the most incredible view... cozying up in the rustic comforts of the lodge beside a welcoming fire, or enjoying the Geyser Grill and the great timbered dining room. There are about 300 geysers in Yellowstone Park (more than in all the rest of the world combined), many of them even more spectacular than the famous one on your doorstep... and you'll see some of them this afternoon, when you join a local guide for a snowshoeing trek through some of the less visited places in the Lower Geyser Basin near Old Faithful. Of course, you'll also have time today to do whatever... like visit the new Old Faithful Visitor Center, watch the geyser erupt, ski, skate or just relax by the fire...

Lodging: Old Faithful Snow Lodge

Breakfast, Dinner

Day 7: The Tetons and the National Elk Refuge

The ice on Yellowstone Lake can freeze three feet thick, yet where the edges meet the warmth of boiling springs, there are patches of open water where otters frolic and catch fish – and coyotes try to steal them. Stand in its awesome solitude and you are part of the picture. In Yellowstone tour by snowcoach via Kepler Falls and the West Thumb Geyser Basin to Flagg Ranch, once an army station when the military maintained the Park. Leave your snow vehicle behind for travels to Jackson. Snug into the bar at Dornan’s, where lunch comes with a killer view of the Grand Tetons. Visit the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center in Grand Teton National Park, then ride a horse-drawn sleigh into the heart of the National Elk Refuge. You learn that vast congregations of elk – 7,500 out of what was once a population of 25,000 – weather the harsh winter here en masse; learn how conservation efforts over the decades strive to keep the remaining herds alive – including the annual antler auction, where Boy Scouts collect the great antlers shed by bulls in the spring and auction them off to pay for conservation efforts. Sled through the steaming, pawing winter world of the herd, as they watch you pass. Return from the tundra to your historic hotel in the heart of Jackson... with unforgettable images to contemplate. Your evening is free to spend as you please in Jackson.

Lodging: The Wort Hotel

Breakfast, Lunch

Day 8: Historic Jackson at your leisure

The day is entirely free to do as you please in the beautiful town of Jackson, with the majestic peaks of the Tetons all around you in the distance. You might want to spend some time sitting by the fire or visiting the Silver Dollar Bar at your historic Wort Hotel (where the bar is actually made of silver dollars); re-enter civilization among the town's unique galleries and boutiques; or be really adventurous, bundle up and go dog sledding or snowmobiling (both of which would require advanced bookings and additional fees, and could be arranged through the hotel concierge)d. Have lunch on your own today, and don't miss the famous elk antlers of the town square. Tonight's special farewell reception and dinner takes place at The National Museum of Wildlife Art, whose galleries house a stunning collection of paintings, drawings and sculpture celebrating Western wildlife... and illuminating the natural world and humanity’s place in it (including you!).

Lodging: The Wort Hotel

Breakfast, Dinner

Day 9: Farewell to Yellowstone's winter wonderland or extend your stay

Your Culturious Winter in Yellowstone tour ends in Jackson. Fly home anytime. A transfer is included from The Wort Hotel to Jackson Hole Airport. Checkout time is 11:00 AM; post stays available. You should allow two hours for flight check-in at the Jackson Hole Airport.

Breakfast

Your Tauck Tour Highlights

Small groups, no more than 24 Culturious guests
Exclusive to Tauck! Filmed vignettes by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan sharing their own personal stories and telling the stories of those who shaped the creation & preservation of America’s first national park, Yellowstone
Travel by snowcoaches to the remote parts of Yellowstone, “coaches on skis” that are specially designed to glide over the snow – a mode of transportation that dates back to the 1930s
See the greatest collection of geysers, fumaroles, mud pots and boiling springs in the world at their most spectacular, when these thermal features that make the park unique are more prominent
Special presentation by Bob Landis, award-winning Yellowstone wildlife cinematographer, who gives insights into the lives of the park’s iconic species including the bear, wolf and bison; his films have aired on PBS and National Geographic Television 
Attend a special farewell cocktail reception and dinner in Jackson at The National Museum of Wildlife Art, whose galleries house paintings, drawings and sculpture celebrating Western wildlife
Travel by sleigh into the National Elk Refuge
Winter activities in Yellowstone (some at additional cost) – hiking by snowshoe, ice skating, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling
Airport transfers upon arrival and departure as noted
19 meals (8 breakfasts, 4 lunches, 7 dinners), service charges, gratuities to local guides, admission fees, taxes and porterage

Your Hotels....

Night 1 : Chico Hot Springs Resort and Day Spa - Pray, Montana

This quaint and cozy Montana resort’s main attractions are the open-air mineral hot springs pools, where the temperature averages 96° – 103° F… and that means guests can soak and swim in January. The historic resort, which opened in 1900, is intricately tied to the history of the hot springs pools, known for their “healing waters.” Optional outdoor winter activities include trail rides and dogsled treks… and then there’s always the spa…

Nights 2 - 3 : Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel and Cabins - Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

A cherished Yellowstone destination since 1937, Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel and Cabins takes its name from the steaming limestone terraces that lie just above the hotel – it’s the only hotel in Yellowstone National Park that is accessible by automobile in winter. Elk wander the parade grounds of what was once Fort Yellowstone; historic photos of Yellowstone are reminders of the past; and the rustic hotel is in a perfect location for exploring the wildlife-rich Lamar Valley. The main building of the hotel features a decorative lobby, a unique Map Room ideal for reading and relaxing and an activities desk.

Nights 4 - 6 : Old Faithful Snow Lodge - Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Tauck Guests enjoy complimentary Internet access in guest rooms!

Location, location, location… Just steps away from one of the world’s most famous icons, Old Faithful Snow Lodge is a warm and comfortable oasis in the winter wonderland of Yellowstone. Take advantage of optional activities, from ice skating to off-trail snowshoeing to skiing. Yellowstone National Park in winter is surreal, isolated and pristine… and a roaring fire in a fireplace at the lodge welcomes you back from exploring…

Nights 7 - 8 : The Wort Hotel - Jackson, Wyoming

Tauck Guests enjoy complimentary Internet access in guest rooms!

Once you arrive, you’ll discover why “Meet me at the Wort” is heard so often in Jackson Hole! Only half a block from the lively town square and surrounded by museums, galleries, restaurants and nightlife, The Wort Hotel is a beloved historic landmark and has long been the place to be in this mountain town. A favorite gathering place at the hotel, the Silver Dollar Bar, was designed and built by a German cabinetmaker using 2,032 uncirculated silver dollars from the Federal Reserve in Denver. A member of Historic Hotels of America and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, The Wort Hotel was chosen as one of the Top 50 Inns of America by National Geographic Traveler magazine.

Tour Only Cost: All prices quoted below are per adult person, per tour in British Pounds (GBP)

Departure Dates

Single Twin/Double Triple Quad
2016: All departures in 2016 £3430 £2800 £2623 Please call us

 

Not included in your tour cost:
Flights – we can package your tour with flights at very competitive airfares using our airline partners. Please call us to discuss the best airline for your itinerary.
Pre or post accommodation - If you want to extend your stay at the start or the end of your escorted tour or add another destination to your booking please call us and we will be happy to provide a quote.
Meals, other than those listed in the itinerary.
The customary gratuities for the Tour Director and local drivers are not included.
 
FAQs:
There are many questions and considerations you might have when planning an escorted tour with Tauck. For more information please click here.
 
To book your travel arrangements:
Please call us on Freephone 0800 0336 335, We are open 7 days a week.
We will be happy to check the availability of your tour, offer a quote for flights and any pre or post nights you would like to add.
When you are ready to go ahead with the booking, we would require a non-refundable deposit of 20% or the full balance if you are due to travel within 8 weeks.