Afternoon: Check-in from 4-5 pm in Map Room

Dinner: Dinner served at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel Dining Room

Evening: Welcome, Introductions and Orientation in Conference Room. Optional Xanterra Parks & Resorts presentation/performance.

Lodging: Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel Cabins

Meals Included: Dinner

Begin a geological journey into Yellowstone National Park focusing on geology as the foundation for so much of what is beautiful, inspiring, and powerful about Yellowstone.

Note: Expect walks up to 3 miles per field day.

Breakfast: Breakfast at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel Dining Room.

Morning: An overview of the Yellowstone area puts things in perspective. Review and discuss geologic processes that have shaped Yellowstone's landscape through the ages. Consider plate movement, the Yellowstone hotspot, and how Park's unique ecosystem and diverse habitats are a direct result of glaciations, tectonic and volcanic activity.

Lunch: Lunch at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel Dining Room.

Afternoon: Five field days in Yellowstone offer an exploration of a portion of Yellowstone's 2.2 million acres where wonder awaits around each bend in the road or trail. Field exploration will begin with an acclimation walk on the Mammoth Terraces, discovering the large complex of hot springs on a hill adjacent to Fort Yellowstone and the Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District. Discover how the ever changing travertine terraces have been created over thousands of years as hot water from the spring cooled and deposited calcium carbonate. Visit the Albright Visitor Center and Museum, built by the US cavalry during "Fort Yellowstone" times, which includes history-themed exhibits-Native Americans, mountain men, early exploration, Army days and early National Park Service. Also included: predator-prey themed exhibit, Moran Gallery (reproductions of Thomas Moran watercolors), Jackson Gallery (original William Henry Jackson photographs and 1871 Hayden Survey photographs), theater, information desk and Yellowstone Association sales area (good selection of Yellowstone-related books, also prints, note cards, games, films, photographs, maps, etc.) Expect walks up to 3 miles per field day

Dinner: Dinner at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel Dining Room

Evening: Optional Xanterra Parks & Resorts presentation/performance.

Lodging: Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel Cabins

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Prepare for adventure at Norris Geyser Basin, Madison River Canyon Earthquake Area, then on to Old Faithful.

Note: Expect walks up to 3 miles per field day.

Breakfast: Breakfast at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel Dining Room.

Morning: Check out. Travel to Norris Geyser Basin to enjoy a walking exploration here at Yellowstone's oldest, hottest and most active thermal area. The basin is situated at the intersection of three major fault lines; evidence shows that thermal features have existed here for the last 115,000 years. A scientific drill hole at Norris registered the highest temperature ever recorded in Yellowstone at 459 degrees F. Walk a portion of either the Porcelain or Back Basin Trail. The group will then veer just outside the park to take in the Madison River Canyon Earthquake Area.

Lunch: Enjoy sack lunches in route to Madison River Canyon Earthquake Area.

Afternoon: The expedition will continue at the Madison River Canyon Earthquake area where on August 17, 1959 an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale caused massive landslide which formed Quake Lake. The dynamics and physical history of the earth changed dramatically in less than a minute and moved 80 million tons of rock in this area. Adventurers will head back into the heart of Yellowstone National Park to the Old Faithful area to check in at Old Faithful Lodge Cabins. Nearby is Old Faithful Geyser, Geyser Hill and Firehole River, all of which can be explored and enjoyed by utilizing walking paths and boardwalks.

Dinner: Dinner at Old Faithful Inn Dining Room.

Evening: Free evening or optional geyser walk.

Lodging: Old Faithful Lodge Cabins

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Time to explore Old Faithful Geyser Basin and its hot springs, fumaroles, geysers and mudpots and then Yellowstone Lake, North America's largest high elevation lake .

Note: Expect walks up to 3 miles per field day.

Breakfast: Breakfast buffet at Old Faithful Inn Dining Room.

Morning: Old Faithful Lodge Cabins check out then more adventure. Expect color, pungent sulfur, hissing, bubbling, spouting and sizzling as you take the morning to further explore the Upper Geyser Basin where the world's best known and most beloved hydrothermal feature, Old Faithful, holds forth offering thousands of gallons of water and billowing steam, gushing skyward with each eruption. Enjoy a Geyser Hill walk in this land like no other, this land that holds one half of the world's geothermal features - geysers, hot springs, mudpots and fumaroles! Interpretation reveals the secrets of geyser basin plumbing. Bring camera, binoculars and a walking stick if you use one.

Lunch: Enjoy sack lunches in the park.

Afternoon: Depart for Yellowstone Lake via Craig Pass and West Thumb Geyser Basin. West Thumb is the largest geyser basin on the shores of Yellowstone Lake. It is speculated that its heat source is only 10,000 feet down! Thermal features here extend under the surface of the lake as well as along the shore; several underwater geysers were discovered in the early 1990s. Interpretation and exploration reveal geologic secrets. Glacial till! Vent! Dome! Magma chamber! Tilt! Check in at Lake Lodge Cabins then begin to enjoy the grounds of the beautiful Lake area. Expect walks up to 3 miles per field day.

Dinner: Dinner at Lake Hotel Dining Room.

Evening: Here's an opportunity to enjoy Lake Lodge lobby and fireplaces, shopping, walking or Lake Hotel's spacious, glassed-in Sun Room where one may enjoy the grand view of beautiful Yellowstone Lake, music and conversation.

Lodging: Lake Lodge Cabins

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Prepare for wonder! Travel through the Hayden Valley, see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and then back to Mammoth over Dunraven Pass.

Note: Expect walks up to 3 miles per field day.

Breakfast: Breakfast at Lake Hotel Dining Room

Morning: Lake Lodge Cabins check out. Exploration will progress northward along the Yellowstone River through wide open Hayden Valley to the mighty Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, 20 miles long, 800' to 1,200' deep and 1,500' to 4,000' wide. The visit will begin at the Canyon Visitor Education Center, which features exhibits on Yellowstone's super volcano. A walk along a trail of the canyon will reveal extraordinary colors of muted scarlet, pale yellows, greens and blue created by hot water acting on volcanic rock. Experience close views of both 109' Upper and 308' Lower Falls and scenic overlooks to stun the senses. Examine the canyon's geologic story - of glaciers, a volcanic eruption, lava flows and huge ice dams. Watch for ospreys soaring on high; view their nests, five to six feet wide, built on pinnacles towering among the canyon walls. As stated by an early expedition member, "There are perhaps other canyons longer and deeper than this one, but surely none combining grandeur and immensity with peculiarity of formation and profusion of volcanic or chemical phenomena." Expect walks up to 3 miles per field day.

Lunch: Enjoy sack lunches in the park.

Afternoon: The days excursion will forge ahead through a magnificent landscape on the way to Mt. Washburn and then breathtaking vistas of a big country rolling down Dunraven Pass on the way back to Mammoth. Check into Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel Cabins.

Dinner: Dinner at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel Dining Room

Evening: Optional Xanterra Parks & Resorts presentation/performance.

Lodging: Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel Cabins

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Prepare for another day in Paradise visiting the Tower area and Lamar Valley.

Note: Expect walks up to 3 miles per field day.

Breakfast: Breakfast at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel Dining Room.

Morning: The expedition heads eastward to the Tower area. Your naturalist discusses Yellowstone's "forests of stone." Appreciate Tower Fall and Tower Creek's graceful 132-foot plunge among volcanic pinnacles. This area is known for its black bear habitat. While sightings cannot be guaranteed, you'll want to keep your eyes "peeled" and your binoculars handy.

Lunch: Sack lunches in the park

Afternoon: A fitting final destination to your week of discovery is a visit to Lamar Valley's beautiful, wide-open reaches. Here is rich habitat and its wealth of wildlife. Here are the hoofed, winged, clawed, antlered and horned ones. Here is evidence of an ancient flood that scoured the valley. Here is diverse vegetation of grasses, shrubs, willows, cottonwoods, aspens; here are coniferous timbered ridges, sagebrush covered hills, mixed forest habitat and rich, riparian areas. Stay alert and keep binoculars at the ready. You'll see pronghorn, elk, bison, meadowlarks and sandhill cranes; perhaps beaver, moose and wolf. Expect walks up to 3 miles per field day.

Dinner: Dinner at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel Dining Room.

Evening: Closing and reflections on Yellowstone's life zones and understanding how a landscape's "geologic bones", combined with climate and elevation, result in splendid and diverse vegetation and wildlife.

Lodging: Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel Cabins

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: 6:30-10:30 a.m. breakfast buffet at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel Dining Room

Morning: Airport shuttle departs at 8 a.m.

Meals Included: Breakfast