Video: Cross-Country Skiing in Yellowstone

By Michael Lanza

Consider these statistics: Yellowstone National Park receives about four million visitors a year. Ninety percent of them see the park between May and September. Less than four percent of visitors come between December and March. And yet, in many respects, winter is the best time of year to see Yellowstone: Wildlife congregate at lower elevations, making them easier to see (except bears, of course), waterfalls form towering columns of ice (like 308-foot Lower Yellowstone Falls, in the lead photo, above), and the geysers and other thermal features take on a different character when the landscape grows hushed under a thick blanket of snow.

Plus, you can see the park’s major features, like the Upper Geyser Basin—home to Old Faithful and one-fourth of the active geysers in the world (and the greatest concentration of them)—on skis. Cross-country skiing groomed trails in Yellowstone, many of which are beginner- and family-friendly, is one of the coolest experiences in the National Park System.

Watch the video below about cross-country skiing with my family in the Upper Geyser Basin as well as along the rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, to Tower Fall, and around Mammoth Hot Springs.

Want to learn more about one of the coolest experiences in the National Park System (and one of My Top 10 Family Adventures? Read the full story, which has many photos and tips on planning this trip yourself.

See all of my stories about Yellowstone National Park, and all of my stories about national park adventures and family adventures at The Big Outside.

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