Last of Season Snowmobile Ride in Yellowstone NP

Gari & I got a great opportunity to snowmobile again in Yellowstone National Park.  Two things made this ride very unique. First, this was going to be a private or unguided ride, which we learned is very rare; and second this was the last week for snowmobile riding in the park this season.  The ski slopes seen below are those of Snow King in Jackson (Hole), Wyoming.  That shot was taken from the hotel we stayed in that was just north of Jackson.

This was the plan, our friends Paul and Joyce have their own snowmobile and they know all the spots.  Paul had scored a private pass to ride in Yellowstone and they invited Gari & I to come along.  We were very excited!  Our last and also our first ride in Yellowstone was guided and we rode with a guide and group of a dozen sleds.  That was great, but this exclusive ride seemed like a dream.  It turns out the park only issues one permit per day per park gate, which is four gates at one pass each gate.  So we would be one of 4 people to be permitted to ride unguided that day.  It is very hard and lucky to get picked for even one private pass per year.  Paul & Joyce have figured out a way to increase their odds of obtaining a pass.  This year they scored two passes.  If you want to know how they do it you will have to ask me privately.

We decided that we would ride up to Jackson and get a hotel the day before the ride.  Of course we had to go into Jackson and look around before we had dinner at the restaurant, Local.  We stopped in the famous Millon Dollar Cowboy Bar for a look ourselves. Giddy up!


 YeeHaw!

We headed out of the hotel early in the morning and were in the park riding by 9 AM.

The week leading up to the ride, we had very warm temperatures and a lot of our snow melted at home.  We were wondering if we would be able to ride or even if it might rain on our ride.  Fortunately for us the snow was great at the higher elevations and instead of rain we got a pretty nice gentle snow, accumulating to up to four inches during the ride.  It turned out to be great ride and a fantastic day.  Paul, Joyce and Gari at an early sightseeing stop.
Gari heads to the canyon edge to get a better look.
That view!
Off we slid toward the geyser area...
The Buffalo were gathered at the geyser area near the historic Yellowstone Lodge.
Paul & Joyce lead the way to the next stop.
We rode toward the West Thumb area of Yellowstone Lake
Past the Continental Divide at 8391 ft elevation

There was a warming hut and more thermal features at the West Thumb area.  Most of the snow was melted around the thermal features; no surprise there!

Lewis Falls as the Lewis River flows out of Lewis Lake.

Video of the Lewis Falls can be seen here:https://youtu.be/L6otYML1leM?si=f24pygq174EUG4yv

Lewis River looking south.
Gari, Joyce & Paul checking out Lewis Falls up close.
Lewis River looking north.
Paul & Joyce and Steve getting ready to load up the sleds.
Paul loading his sled on the tilt trailer.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

August 2025

Image
 It seems like we've been busy, but don't have too many pictures to show for it.  We've worked on a few small projects around home and one very big project.  In the picture below Steve proudly displays the Dinger Improvement Project.  This consisted of painting the PVC riser, re-setting the internal re-bar that supports the riser, re-manufacturing the Dinger mount out of Trex board as the original plywood mount had degraded over the last 2 years, cleaning and servicing the Dinger itself, re-engineering the attachment of the fancy address sign,  and then reinstalling everything so it is now plumb.  What is a Dinger you ask?  It is a proximity sensor that alerts us with a DING inside when anything or anyone comes up our driveway.  The big project was the addition of a small storage building.  Below the materials arrive a week before construction would start.  The Crew lead on this build was Freddy, so we affectionately call this new additi...
Read more

October is Gone

Image
The Mystery of the Bicycle - it appeared across the street one day.... stayed there for a couple months... then as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared.  Never saw anyone ride it, we just watched it sit until it was there no more. We finished our summer and introduction to fall this year with family & dear friend visits in and around Yakima, WA.  Our plans were up in the air going into the trip, during the trip and returning from the trip!  We pretty much have been living day to day with a general sense of where we want things to go.  We must like the flexibility and adventure of it all.  Not really knowing what will happen from day to day is a good way to watch and appreciate all the amazing things that just seem to happen.  Things seemed a bit hectic as we prepared ourselves and thoughts for the big 2025 family visit.  The summer season is somewhat limited in eastern Idaho, so everyone is trying to fit in all the summer they can before the cold...
Read more

Ski

Image
This being the year of our 30th Wedding Anniversary, we decided to attempt some bucket list activities.  We survived a snowmobile ride in Yellowstone National Park last month, and this month it was a skiing excursion.  Not to Yellowstone, but to a much closer location to home at Kelly Canyon Ski Area.  Kelly Canyon is a local Idaho Falls family ski area.  It is located about 25 miles outside of Idaho Falls and about the same distance from our home.  It has been there a long time, in fact our next door neighbor worked there as a teenager and he is my age... almost 😁 We have not had a huge snow year this winter.... so far, but we did receive 5-10 inches of snow just 2 or 3 days prior to deciding to head out to Kelly Canyon.  That turned out to be a good plan, the snow was outstanding!  Kelly Canyon is situated at about 6,500 ft elevation, which is about 1,000 ft higher than our homesite.  During the winter it is not uncommon to have snow cloud bott...
Read more