Snowmobiling in Yellowstone

Jordan and I drove down to West Yellowstone on Tuesday for a guided snowmobile tour of Yellowstone National Park. Neither of us had ever been to the park. The weather was perfect, a bluebird day. Temps were in the low 30's at the start, and the high almost reached 50.

My expectation was the most thrilling part of the tour would be seeing the Thermal basins, and Old Faithful Geyser. Turns out, the best part was the wildlife. A herd of Bison walked right by us, headed the opposite way on the snowmobile trail. A little scary to say the least. We saw a ton of Elk too.

The hot springs, mud pots, and geysers were no disappointment. The bright sun brought out the colors, and the thermals produced great steam. The guide was pretty good, and filled us in on the history of the park, and how it is constantly changing. He also told us some horror stories about people dying and being seriously injured by venturing off the boardwalk, and falling into a hot spring. The water in the springs is 180-200 degF, just below boiling point at that altitude. Jordan was so fascinated by the stories, that we bought the book "Death in Yellowstone". The guide suggested it, as it tales accidents and foolhardiness which has led to over 300 deaths in the park over the years.

One of the stories chronicles an unleashed dog jumping into a hot spring, and the owner jumping into save him. The dog drowned, and the owner suffered an excruciating death over the next 14 hours from his burns.

Another guy innocently wandered off the boardwalk, and was walking on what appeared to be safe ground. Suddenly he broke through the thin crust into a hidden hot spring up to his knees. He survived, but suffered 2nd and 3rd degree burns to his legs. The guide said he screamed all the way back to the first aid station, several miles away.

He talked about a woman who was feeding a bear, who was standing on it's hind legs, with his paws resting on her shoulders. The park ranger kindly told her not to feed the bears. She responded "You damned park rangers are all alike. These bears are friendly, and pose no threat." Just then, the bear simply decided to come down off her shoulders, but in the process, unintentionally tore her chest open with it's claws. She then sued the Park. Nice.

8 hours on a snowmobile was a long time, but I would recommend it to anyone. We had a great time.