Yellowstone’s Winter Magic – Outdoor Adventure Photography

One of my very dear friends, Kayley, recently accepted a travel nurse assignment in Seattle, Washington. It pained me to see her go, as we have grown much closer in the last several months. However, we started this new chapter for her (and our friendship) with a bang – a ten day road trip to move her to her new home. Along the way we made some stops at some of our bucket list places. One of those places was Yellowstone National Park.

When we initially planned this trip, we wanted to drive from Denver, through Grand Teton National Park, and into Yellowstone over the course of about three days. However, as we began our research, we quickly learned that Yellowstone is only accessible from the north and west entrances in the winter. This made some significant changes to our initial route. We decided to forego the Tetons all together, as Yellowstone was a high priority for Kayley. The snow further put kinks in our plan as we learned that much of Yellowstone is only accessible by snowmobile or snow coach in these frigid months and you have to really plan ahead to rent either of these things because they book up fast. Feeling slightly defeated, we stopped at the visitor center to figure out what we could see. All I can say now is that even though we couldn’t see some of Yellowstone’s more iconic features like Old Faithful, it still did not disappoint! I couldn’t imagine seeing the thermal features and wildlife in any other season but winter because it was pure magic!

Upon arriving at the park entrance, we were immediately greeted by a herd of bison. At this point, we were in awe of the big, cute, furry creatures grazing by the side of the road. “Pull over, pull over!” I squealed at Kayley as we entered the park. I immediately got out of the car, camera in tow. Being an adventure photographer, inspiration was hitting me before we even got deep into the park.

Our options for exploration in the park sans snowmobile included Mammoth Hot Springs, driving to Lamar Valley, and the Boiling River. We decide to skip the long drive to Lamar Valley since that is accessible year round and started off exploring and hiking around Mammoth Hot Springs. Don’t be fooled, Mammoth is not a place where you will actually get in and enjoy the hot springs. It is really just a little community village and areas to hike, snowshoe or ski around the hydrothermal springs. They have the area lined with boardwalks to hike up and see the various hot springs, and these are pretty well maintained in the winter to just hike. If you wanted to get off the boardwalks, it is suggested that you snowshoe or ski.

I was personally blown away by the textures and colors of the springs. It was seriously like being on another planet. The magic created by the heat, textures, and contrast of the snow made my creative juices soar, and my mind felt like it was on overload taking in everything around me. As Kayley put it when we got to Canary Hot Springs, the hot springs often looked like melting marshmallows over a fire.

Once we explored the hot springs, we headed into the town of Gardner, Montana to grab some chai and call every rental place we could get numbers for to see if we could get on a snow coach the next day. We were so determined to see Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic in the winter because the helpful woman at the visitor center said seeing it in the winter is a once and a lifetime extraordinary adventure. Unfortunately, all rental business at the north and west entrances were all booked way in advanced and we needed to get back on the road before anything was available. So we resolved that this one day would be our Yellowstone adventure and headed back into the park to check out and soak a bit in the Boiling River.

Technically, you cannot get into the actual Boiling River as it will in fact boil you. There is, however, a point where it crosses paths with the Gardner River. Once you find that sweet spot where the water mixes just right, it’s a very relaxing hot spring that won’t melt your skin off. Lucky for us, it was a chilly 14 degrees Fahrenheit for this adventure! As we hiked 3/4 of a mile in to where we needed to be, we were bracing ourselves to brave the frigid cold in our bare feet and bikinis. I wore less layers to make the dressing and undressing as fast a possible, and I knew that putting socks on wet feet wouldn’t exactly work. I, however, regretted that decision later. (Side note: Kayley hates that pink beach bag, but I think it’s cute and fun juxtaposition to how cold it actually was!)

Once you reach the Gardner River, you find a nice area where you can set your belongs and step down into the river. A huge tip:  if you do this in the winter, make sure you bring dry bags to put you clothes in. The steam from the river will get your clothes wet, and then you’ll end up with frozen clothes like this guy did.

Getting into the river proved challenging as the rocks were pretty slippery and the initial decent was into cold water. If I were to do it all over again, I would have brought water shoes. Once we were in the water, it wasn’t too bad despite the low temperatures outside. We laughed about the icicles that started forming in our hair and the couple that arrived shortly after us that were unwilling to brave the cold and turned around. Honestly, we were both dreading our return and started plotting how to quickly get out of the water and dress without frostbite. When we got out, we both stripped down to our birthday suits since no one else was around to try and expedite the dressing processes. It is pretty difficult to put winter clothes on top of a a wet body though. I decided to just throw my Marmot coat on with nothing underneath so we could just get going. I don’t think I have ever been that cold in my life, but my adrenaline was rushing! I always think that it’s this kind of thing, as miserable as it may sound, that makes for such a fun adventure – pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone and coming up with a plan to solve whatever puzzle is in front of you.

What we didn’t expect though was the new challenge that would stumble across our path as we started our hike back to the car soaking wet.  Sometimes being in a national park, you can forget that you are in fact in the wild. We were reminded very quickly that this is in fact the wilderness. About halfway back to our car, we ran into another herd of bison. Except this time, there weren’t other people around, we weren’t by our car on the road, and we had no exit route.

To the right of us was the Boiling River that we couldn’t get in and to the left of us was a large snow covered hill that I wasn’t sure would get us where we needed to be. Then directly in front of us, on the trail, were the bison. At first, I was giddy with the thought of it, pulling out my camera, but Kayley quickly ushered me behind a small tree and reminded both of us that this is not a situation to have fun considering the proximity of the bison.

One male bison crossed in front of us, only five feet away, stopped and turned to look at us. Another male stood as you see in that last photo less than ten feet from us, staring as well. I looked at Kayley who was checking her phone to see if she had service to call 911 as the sign a the beginning of the trail prompted you to do. However it was a lost cause. We discussed climbing in the tree to get out of their way, but it wasn’t very large or high off the round. So we waited silently, each of us watching what one of the male bison were doing behind our friend.

Finally the second male decided to pass us, so we decide to make our way as far up the slippery hill as we could to try and wait for the rest of the herd to go by without disturbing or angering them. My heart started racing realizing that we were in partially wet clothes, had no food or water, had no socks or gloves, and had no idea how long it would take for the bison to mosey on. With the sun quickly dropping, I was just praying we wouldn’t have to wait to long. Finally after what felt like an eternity and a millisecond all at one time, the entire herd passed, and we were free! Lucky for us the whole situation was probably only 20 minutes. Kayley and I got back into her Subaru relieved and understanding that this could have been a very different situation.

It is crucial to always be prepared when you’re in the wilderness – even if you’re only hiking 3/4 of a mile from your car. It’s easy to get complacent and not want to carry certain things if you don’t think you have to for whatever reason, but you never know what could happen. It’s also very important to use common sense and remember that wild animals are in fact wild. They can hurt you. I personally, and very luckily considering how much time I spend alone in the mountains, have never had an encounter with an animal that could be dangerous to me. So this experience definitely put perspective on that. These big, cute, furry creatures were no longer cute in this situation.

Huge shout out to my partner in crime, Kayley, for taking the amazing shots you see of me in this post.

Here are some fun iPhone photo outtakes!