ESCORTED TOURS YELLOWSTONE IN WINTER DESTINATIONS G
urgle-gurgle. Whoosh- thump-whoosh. Blurp-
gurgle-pop. Yellowstone is every bit as beautiful as I’d expected from its photos of frost-bearded bison or wolves picking their way through the snow, but I had no idea until now that it came with sound effects. Things might seem calm on the
surface, but this is a landscape where the very ground at your feet bubbles and gurgles with volcanic energy, where towering plumes of steam erupt at faithful intervals or with alarming unpredictability, and where herds of bison and elk roam free while humans must stick to the rules. More than half of the world’s geothermal features and North America’s biggest supervolcano are scattered across its 3,500 square miles, and it’s that unique volcanic activity that first caught the attention
of explorers. So incredible were their tales of steaming fumaroles and bubbling mud pots that they were dismissed as fantasy for more than 50 years, until organised expeditions to the region finally revealed them to be true, prompting Yellowstone’s designation as the first US National Park in March 1872. That was still way ahead of
its time, decades before the formation of the National Park Service, which celebrates its centennial this summer. Yet that park status not only saved its unique geothermal features from interference, but also helped turn this huge area into a protected landscape where all kinds of wildlife are free to thrive. So why visit in winter, when the mercury is well below zero and several-feet-deep snowdrifts persist from October to May? The park hit a record high of 4 million
I feel a bit like Alice… the surroundings are so unfamiliar that I can’t quite be sure it’s still the same planet
visitors last year, but only 3% of them came in the winter months, so while it might mean packing a few extra layers, it’s well worth it for the untouched snowy scenery and the lack of crowds to interrupt the view.
w POTENTIAL ENERGY Tauck calls its escorted tour Wonderland: Yellowstone in Winter, and wandering past its gushing geysers and bubbling mud pools – sometimes dubbed
‘paint pots’ because of their distinctive colours – I feel a bit like Alice, having slipped into surroundings so surprising and unfamiliar that I can’t quite be sure it’s still the same planet. In fact, this region is so other- worldly it was used as a setting for Spock’s home planet Vulcan in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Of course I didn’t get here
by falling through a rabbit hole, but rather by flying to Bozeman, Montana, an hour and a half north of the park, and accessible with a connection from US hubs such as Seattle, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Salt Lake City, Denver and Chicago. That lengthy flight is well
worth it to see the park’s wintry landscapes first-hand, from the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, impressive in summer but an entirely different spectacle blanketed in thick snow,
3 March 2016
travelweekly.co.uk 61
FAST FACT The National Park
Service will mark its 100th anniversary on August 25
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