Congratulations! You’ve decided to experience Yellowstone the old-fashioned way, as our ancestors did, on foot and fully submersed in a real wilderness environment. You will happily leave the roads, cars and tourists behind. And you will experience the real Yellowstone, a wondrous and primitive landscape like no other. That’s because over 95% of the park is primitive roadless (undesignated) wilderness, and as soon as you hit the trail you will be in the wilds. Moreover, the Yellowstone landscape is so varied that no two of our Yellowstone guided hiking tours are alike! But with so many wonderful treks on the Big Wild Adventures Yellowstone schedule to choose from, how might a person decide where to begin?
Well, there are no easy answers, but rest assured that if you are like most of our clients, you will be back. We have many clients who’ve been on all or most of our Yellowstone treks, including trips some multiple times! That’s because each area of the park is not only unique, but a given area is also always different from year to year due to weather, water conditions, snowpack, wildlife movements, varying flower bloom times and more. But at least for your first guided Yellowstone hiking adventure, consider the timing. Of course, some folks are locked into a particular vacation slot and that, above all else, will determine their trip choice. But also consider this: we at Big Wild schedule our Yellowstone treks in accordance with the optimal time slot for each area of the park. For example, trust us, you wouldn’t want to go into the Heart Lake area in late June or early July due to standing water, mud and swarms of mosquitoes. But by August, that area of backcountry is perfect, with drier trails and few biting insects, which is why we run our Southern Yellowstone Heart Lake & Snake River Wilds trek later in August. By the same token, our Northern Yellowstone Wildlife and Wildflower Extravaganza trip is ideal for June, because it is in drier country with spectacular blooms of spring wildflowers and lots of wildlife that haven’t yet spread out into high summer ranges. But by mid summer, this landscape is hot and dry without much shade, awaiting the autumn rains, snows and cooler weather — which is why our second Northern Yellowstone trip is always scheduled for mid to late September.
