Best time to visit Yellowstone National Park without the crowds: Go in the winter.

Troy Nedved, now the general manager of Big Sky Ski Resort in Montana, once worked at Yellowstone National Park. While working, he was called to help a buffalo calf that had fallen into a creek and was presumed to have drowned.

“We usually don’t interfere with nature, but maybe it happened because some people were filming nearby, so they asked me to help,” Nedved said.

A trained first responder, he began administering CPR. Result? “I could see his chest rise and fall, so I knew we were going somewhere, and then, yeah, we got him back.” Perhaps, while we are crawling, one of these bison is the same one that Nedved brought back from the brink.

On the other side of this coin, above the river, is a red spot and a rib cage – all that remains of a lone bison and his encounter with a pack of wolves. It’s no surprise that bison travel in herds, instinctively causing their young to stick to their mothers like paint.

We stop in a small clearing where Matt and the two Ts have telephone service. He contacts the park rangers—who don’t have an exact time—and discovers that the next predicted strike on Old Faithful will occur at noon, give or take 10 minutes each way.

So we head to Old Faithful, named for its regular and predictable eruptions and the centerpiece of a sprawling complex that includes extensive car and bus parking areas, a couple of hotels, a visitor center and an interpretive center (complete with shop, of course). ), as well as viewing platforms and paths around the main geyser and its neighbors.

And indeed, towards noon there is a stream of steam rising into the air, each eruption stronger than the previous one. Old Faithful is one of about 500 geysers in the park, and after seeing it do its thing and wandering around it along the boardwalk, we hop back on the bus and head to a few more geyser fields.

At first glance it’s a wasteland, but look closely (and listen to Matt’s interpretations) and you’ll see busy little bacteria at work in the water, coloring it all with the chaos of a Jackson Pollock painting guarded by long-dead but perfectly preserved trees.

You can wander the park at your own pace, but if you want to gain a deeper understanding of this natural wonderland, its geology and wildlife, a tour will take you there without having to battle the crowds in winter.

Details

Tour
Tours depart from West Yellowstone, Montana, approximately 90 minutes from Big Sky Ski Resort. Winter tours last nine hours and run from mid-December to mid-March. From US$230 ($345) per adult. When snow conditions permit, self-driving snowmobile tours are also available, starting at US$340 ($515) per adult. Park admission ($20/$30) is additional for all tours. Tip: For wildlife viewing, bring lightweight binoculars or a monoscope. See yellowstonevacations.com.

The writer was a guest of Visit Big Sky and Big Sky Resort. See bigskyresort.com.