{"id":639,"date":"2011-01-28T02:49:49","date_gmt":"2011-01-27T20:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thebigoutside.net\/?p=639"},"modified":"2020-12-14T11:24:21","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T18:24:21","slug":"cross-country-skiing-yellowstone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebigoutside.com\/cross-country-skiing-yellowstone\/","title":{"rendered":"Cross-Country Skiing Yellowstone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Michael Lanza<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The snowcoach rumbles away, leaving us in a wintry silence disturbed only by a slight breeze and the gastrointestinal emissions of a supervolcano that last let out a really big one 640,000 years ago. Back then, it ejected about 240 cubic miles of rock and dust into the sky. Today, as seems always the case with these things, it just sounds a little rude and smells badly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

My wife, Penny, and I, with our son, Nate, and daughter, Alex, have just stepped off the snowcoach with our cross-country skis in Biscuit Basin in Yellowstone National Park. Watching us disembark with our grade-school kids, the other passengers stared solemnly, as if expecting they would be the last to see us alive. Clearly, none of them are Nordic skiers, otherwise they might have realized that we\u2019re setting out on one of the coolest half-day adventures in the entire national park system: ski touring along the Firehole River through Yellowstone\u2019s Upper Geyser Basin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/strong>Hi, I\u2019m Michael Lanza, creator of The Big Outside, which has made several\u00a0top outdoors blog lists.\u00a0Click here<\/a> to sign up for my FREE email newsletter. Join The Big Outside<\/a> to get full access to all of my blog\u2019s stories. Click here<\/a> to learn how I can help you plan your next trip. Please follow my adventures on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, and Youtube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"White <\/a>
White Dome Geyser. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Bald <\/a>
Bald eagle nest along West Entrance Road. <\/div> <\/div>
\"Along <\/a>
Along Firehole River, Upper Geyser Basin. <\/div> <\/div>
\"Biscuit <\/a>
Biscuit Basin Trail, Upper Geyser Basin. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Biscuit <\/a>
Biscuit Basin Trail. <\/div> <\/div>
\"Morning <\/a>
Morning Glory Pool, Upper Geyser Basin. <\/div> <\/div>
\"Biscuit <\/a>
Biscuit Basin Trail. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Giant <\/a>
Giant Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Upper <\/a>
Upper Geyser Basin. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Upper <\/a>
Upper Geyser Basin. <\/div> <\/div>
\"Coyote, <\/a>
Coyote, Midway Geyser Basin. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Midway <\/a>
Midway Geyser Basin. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Fountain <\/a>
Fountain Paint Pots. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Elk <\/a>
Elk along West Entrance Road. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Upper <\/a>
Upper terraces, Mammoth Hot Springs. <\/div> <\/div>
\"Upper <\/a>
Upper terraces, Mammoth Hot Springs. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Upper <\/a>
Upper terraces, Mammoth Hot Springs. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Upper <\/a>
Upper terraces, Mammoth Hot Springs. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Upper <\/a>
Upper terraces, Mammoth Hot Springs. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Upper <\/a>
Upper terraces, Mammoth Hot Springs. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Upper <\/a>
Upper terraces ski trail, Mammoth Hot Springs. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Upper <\/a>
Upper terraces ski trail, Mammoth Hot Springs. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Upper <\/a>
Upper terraces ski trail, Mammoth Hot Springs. <\/div> <\/div>
\"Upper <\/a>
Upper terraces, Mammoth Hot Springs. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Bison, <\/a>
Bison, northern Yellowstone. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Tower <\/a>
Tower Falls ski trail. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Yellowstone <\/a>
Yellowstone River. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Tower <\/a>
Tower Falls ski trail. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Tower <\/a>
Tower Falls ski trail. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Tower <\/a>
Tower Falls. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Yellowstone <\/a>
Yellowstone River. <\/div> <\/div>
\"Bison, <\/a>
Bison, northern Yellowstone. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Canyon <\/a>
Canyon Rim ski trail. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Grand <\/a>
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Lower <\/a>
Lower Yellowstone Falls. <\/div> <\/div>
\"Lower <\/a>
Lower Yellowstone Falls. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Grand <\/a>
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Virginia <\/a>
Virginia Cascades ski trail. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\n

Skiing two-and-a-half miles up an almost flat valley\u2014with one fun, long downhill that\u2019s not very steep\u2014we\u2019ll pass through an area that\u2019s home to one-fourth of the active geysers in the world and the greatest concentration of them. When we reach Old Faithful after a few leisurely hours and a lot of comments of \u201cthat\u2019s awesome!\u201d, we\u2019ll rendezvous with the snowcoach for the ride back to the town of West Yellowstone, Montana, where we\u2019re staying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We set out down the Biscuit Basin Trail, following the tracks of previous skiers, though completely alone for now. Across the open valley, white steam clouds billow into the sky from scores of geysers, hot springs, and fumaroles, giving the landscape the look of Hell bursting up through the Earth\u2019s surface. Steam freezes to lodgepole pine trees, sugar coating some of them while long icicles hang in bunches from others. Elk graze the patches of ground kept open by the heat from thermal features. Bald eagles soar overhead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nate and Alex throw snowballs\u2014mostly at me\u2014and every few minutes point excitedly to another geyser spitting or erupting scalding water. We gaze into one of Yellowstone\u2019s most famous features, the 23-foot-deep, sky-blue mouth of Morning Glory Pool. A short while later, as we\u2019re watching steam and hot water spurt from the 12-foot-tall mound of Giant Geyser, Nate shouts and points at a plume shooting skyward just a few hundred feet away: Riverside Geyser, named by the 1871 Hayden Expedition, sends a 75-foot-high arc over the Firehole River for as much as 20 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"
Alex Lanza skiing through the Upper Geyser Basin in Yellowstone.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Two winters in a row, we\u2019ve come to ski tour in Yellowstone with the kids. I\u2019ve been here several times previously on my own, including 10 years ago with Penny and Nate when he was a baby, pulling him bundled against the cold in a sled. Besides the Upper Geyser Basin, I\u2019ve skied most of the groomed trails in the park, from the Lone Star Geyser Loop in the park\u2019s southwest corner to the north\u2019s Lamar Valley and Blacktail Plateau Drive, with views of the snowy Gallatin Range. I\u2019ve meandered nervously, alone, through a vast herd of bison, and seen trumpeter swans, coyotes, bald eagles, river otters, wolf packs guarding a kill and howling atop a ridge, and more elk than I could estimate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides having half the world\u2019s thermal features and the most diverse collection of them\u2014more than 10,000 geysers, hot springs, mudpots, and fumaroles\u2014Yellowstone offers a window on pre-settlement America\u2019s bountiful wildlife any time of year. But winter has always been my favorite season here, and not only because the crowds of summer have evaporated. Snow cleans up and quiets the landscape. Wildlife congregate in the valleys and thermal areas\u2014the bison, elk, deer, and others seeking open ground for grazing and browsing, and wolves, eagles, and coyotes following the prey. The Lamar Valley is the best place in the country for viewing wolves\u2014people often see them from the roadside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can help you plan the best backpacking, hiking, or family adventure of your life. Click here now<\/a> to learn more.<\/h4>\n

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