Skiing Yellowstone
 

Has anyone done any skiing in Yellowstone? Jim

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Skiing Yellowstone
 

James wrote:
Has anyone done any skiing in Yellowstone? Jim

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Yes.

Skiing Yellowstone
 

LoL...

CARE TO ELABORATE ?

Skiing Yellowstone
 

James wrote:
Has anyone done any skiing in Yellowstone? Jim

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Yes if you mean Yellowstone as in National Park.

The road from West Yellowstone to Old Faithful is groomed (for
snowmobiles and the snow coaches) and is skatable although motorized
traffic beats up the trail. If you ski from Old Faithful to West
Yellowstone the 50K will be generally downhill but a lot of flat. (You
can ride a snow coach to Old Faithful).

Whoever does the road grooming also sets some classic track near Old
Faithful, but again, the snow machines tend to run over ski tracks.
Most of the trails around Old Faithful are classic skier set track.

The geology of the geyser basin (as in Old Faithful) results in wamer
ground conditions that West Yellowstone and the snow transforms faster
than outside the basin.

The park website has sketch maps of the ski trails.

Snowmobile restrictions (of a couple of years ago) required "best
available technology" meaning mufflers and 4-cycle engines, and
liscened guides to keep watch over the snowmobilers. The rules also
limited them to something like 900 per day.

There are better places to ski with respect to snow, but Yellowstone is
hard to beat re scenery and wildlife. We had difficulty conforming the
to the Park's wildlife separation distance rule when a couple of bisons
started running down the trail we skiing.

Edgar

Skiing Yellowstone
 

Edgar wrote:

There are better places to ski with respect to snow, but Yellowstone is
hard to beat re scenery and wildlife. We had difficulty conforming the
to the Park's wildlife separation distance rule when a couple of bisons
started running down the trail we skiing.

Edgar

Edgar - Congratulations on respecting the critters' and their buffers -
so few people do this at all.

The wildlife approach rules:

The rule is for humans to not approach within 75 feet of all non-ursine
animals and within 300 feet of bears. That does not mean that we must
run away when any of these animals wanders to within 75 / 300 feet of
you...just behave with reasonable dignity and intelligence, and we are
unlikely to have any conflicts.

If I were on a trail at an appropriate distance from bison, and they
began running *toward* me, I would get off the trail proper at an angle
away from the critters and let them pass. In winter, the rutting
season having passed, it is very unlikely that they are after *you,*
assuming you have left them a buffer.

Bruce Jensen

Skiing Yellowstone
 

Edgar wrote:

James wrote:
Has anyone done any skiing in Yellowstone? Jim

--

Yes if you mean Yellowstone as in National Park.

The road from West Yellowstone to Old Faithful is groomed (for
snowmobiles and the snow coaches) and is skatable although motorized
traffic beats up the trail. If you ski from Old Faithful to West
Yellowstone the 50K will be generally downhill but a lot of flat.
(You can ride a snow coach to Old Faithful).

Whoever does the road grooming also sets some classic track near Old
Faithful, but again, the snow machines tend to run over ski tracks.
Most of the trails around Old Faithful are classic skier set track.

The geology of the geyser basin (as in Old Faithful) results in wamer
ground conditions that West Yellowstone and the snow transforms faster
than outside the basin.

The park website has sketch maps of the ski trails.

Snowmobile restrictions (of a couple of years ago) required "best
available technology" meaning mufflers and 4-cycle engines, and
liscened guides to keep watch over the snowmobilers. The rules also
limited them to something like 900 per day.

There are better places to ski with respect to snow, but Yellowstone
is hard to beat re scenery and wildlife. We had difficulty
conforming the to the Park's wildlife separation distance rule when a
couple of bisons started running down the trail we skiing.

Edgar

Thanks. We live in Idaho are thinking about making a trip over. Jim

--

Skiing Yellowstone
 

Jim,
We found a great way to ski the park and get away from the snow machines
was to stay in the park at Old Faithful Snow Lodge. You can catch a
snow coach in, and then you can ski around to the geyser basins, to
Mystic Falls, Kepler Cascades and Lone Star geyser. You can also catch
a snow coach to the trail head for Fairy Falls (and then ski back to the
lodge along a power line if you want to avoid the road) and you can
catch a snow coach over to the Canyon area if you'd like to ski that
area. You can do the same basic thing by staying in Gardiner or Mammoth
(which has some advantage since you can drive there, but the ski
conditions are generally better in the Old Faithful area), but its a
long way from the north entrance to Old Faithful in a snow coach. It is
also a long way on skis from West Yellowstone to Old Faithful and there
is a lot of traffic, even in the winter, along that road.

James wrote:

Has anyone done any skiing in Yellowstone? Jim

Skiing Yellowstone
 

Kent Fletcher wrote:

Jim,
We found a great way to ski the park and get away from the snow
machines was to stay in the park at Old Faithful Snow Lodge. You can
catch a snow coach in, and then you can ski around to the geyser
basins, to Mystic Falls, Kepler Cascades and Lone Star geyser. You
can also catch a snow coach to the trail head for Fairy Falls (and
then ski back to the lodge along a power line if you want to avoid
the road) and you can catch a snow coach over to the Canyon area if
you'd like to ski that area. You can do the same basic thing by
staying in Gardiner or Mammoth (which has some advantage since you
can drive there, but the ski conditions are generally better in the
Old Faithful area), but its a long way from the north entrance to Old
Faithful in a snow coach. It is also a long way on skis from West
Yellowstone to Old Faithful and there is a lot of traffic, even in
the winter, along that road.

James wrote:

Has anyone done any skiing in Yellowstone? Jim


Thanks, Jim

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Skiing Yellowstone
 

James wrote:
Has anyone done any skiing in Yellowstone? Jim

Thanks, Jim

I was there two years ago on snowshoes:
http://www.grandshelters.com/trip-re...of-geysers.htm
We headed west of O.F.
Going up the sides of the lava flows is generally an avi hazard.

Ed Huesers
Http://www.grandshelters.com