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Montana

Choose Your Pace: A Walk on the Wild Side in Yellowstone

Program No. 4874RJ

Hike Yellowstone with a naturalist, exploring hidden trails, stunning landscapes, diverse ecosystems and glacier-carved peaks in the world’s first national park.

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6 days

5 nights

14 meals

5B 4L 5D

Check-In, Registration, Welcome Dinner, Orientation

Gardiner, MT

“Wonderland” Learning Session / Mammoth area hike

Gardiner, MT

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Gardiner, MT

Hike in the heart of Yellowstone, Old Faithful

Gardiner, MT

Yellowstone's Northern Range

Gardiner, MT

Program Concludes

Gardiner, MT

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At a Glance

Yellowstone National Park offers 1,200 miles of hiking, walking and backpacking trails that wind through the park’s 2.2 million acres of spectacular and mostly untouched terrain. Led by a naturalist, explore pathways that thread through Yellowstone’s matchless landscape of diverse flora, thermal features, landforms, canyons, cascades and waterways.

Activity Level

Outdoor: Choose Your Pace

Choose Your Pace: Each day, choose from 3 hiking options based on your desired level of challenge and pace, ranging from 3-7 miles (2-6 hours) on primarily dirt/rocky trails with uneven terrain; some walking/hiking on boardwalks with stairs and paved trails. 2-4 hours each day in SUVs traveling to trailheads. Elevations of 5,800-10,243.

Small Group

Love to learn and explore in a small-group setting? These adventures offer small, personal experiences with groups of 13 to 24 participants.

Best of all, you’ll…

Absorb a spectacular and mostly untouched landscape while hiking a fragment of Yellowstone's 1,200 miles of trails.
Enjoy tantalizing glimpses of the Great Caldera’s infinite wonders.
Experience an intimate look at the park’s wildlife, habitats and geology during field trips with an expert.

General Notes

Maximum of 12 participants in a hiking group. Participants are generally divided into three groups to hike. NOTE FOR UPCOMING SEASON (2025 DEPARTURES): We are aware of some disruptions within the Park Service and believe our programs in Yellowstone National Park can operate normally with minimal impact. Although the full effects of layoffs and hiring freezes for seasonal workers is unknown at this time, we have minimized our dependence on Park Service for lectures, clean-up and other services. We utilize lodging operated by both the park concessionaire and private hotels outside of the park. Neither are operated by the Park Service and shouldn’t be impacted by layoffs or hiring freezes. Our restaurants are also operated by residents of the gateway communities or employees of the park concessionaire. In accordance with the Leave No Trace Seven Principles, our groups pack out what they pack in and do not rely on Park Service for cleaning up after our visit. Finally, we don’t foresee Visitor Centers or sites in Yellowstone National Park to be closed due to staffing issues. We will of course be monitoring the situation through our partners within the gateway communities, National Park Service and the CUA office.

Featured Expert

All trip experts

Andrea Saari

Andrea completed her bachelor’s in Ecology and went on to work as a bird field biologist in the summers and a ski-bum in the winters. She has been in Big Sky since 2003 working as a ski and snowboard instructor, as well as a naturalist guide in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. These days she can be found on the trails within the Gallatin National Forest and Yellowstone National Park, interpreting how everything in the ecosystem works together and the important role humans play as stewards.

Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.

Denise Wade View biography

The love of the outdoors and wild places brought Denise Wade to Montana in 1984. For the past 11 years, Denise has worked as a naturalist and Nordic leader for Lone Mountain Ranch. She has an avid interest in ecosystem management and has taken many trips to Alaska, Mexico, Costa Rica, Europe, and within the continental U.S. following species habitat management patterns. Denise can be found regularly hiking or cross-country skiing around Southwest Montana and Yellowstone National Park.

Joyce Conners View biography

Joyce’s first forays into nature were in the sand hills of Nebraska. She quickly upgraded to the Colorado Rockies, and eventually the mountains of Montana, where she has lived for the last 40 years. Working at the Greater Yellowstone Coalition in Bozeman has allowed Joyce to become a bona fide Yellowstone expert, and she considers herself fortunate to lead groups through the park’s extraordinary beauty. Joyce loves hiking, gardening and non-technical mountain climbing. Make sure to ask her about her stories involving mountain lions, mountain goats and grizzly bears!

Andrea Saari View biography

Rick Bush View biography

Rick was raised in Wyoming and moved to Montana after college to work for the Bozeman Chronicle. His career includes working as a newspaper reporter, magazine editor, web developer and IT Manager. He has a degree in Journalism from the University of Wyoming and a Master’s degree in photography. He lives in Helena with his wife and is an avid bicycle rider and enjoys hiking, cross-country skiing, camping, and travel. When he is not Group Leading, Rick enjoys adventuring with Road Scholar as a participant.

Louis Spencer View biography

Louis Spencer spent more than 35 years in the Middle East as a student, teacher, traveler, and group leader. He studied in Beirut in the 1960s, traveled extensively in the region, then worked in Algeria, Iran, and Saudi Arabia for three decades. During that time, he led groups with an international travel agency to East Africa, Middle Eastern countries, and Asia. He also volunteered with Yellowstone Association for nine years before joining up with Road Scholar.

Zack Baker View biography

Zack Baker attended high school in Livingston, Montana, 52 miles north of Yellowstone. His love for the park started while snowshoeing and observing wildlife. At Montana State University in Bozeman, he earned a B.S. in plant science, but it was Yellowstone’s mammals that grabbed his interest. He led private wildlife watching, hiking, and photography trips, and drove snowcoaches in the winter. He joined up with Road Scholar in 2017 and is now the Program Director for Road Scholar at the University of Montana Western.

Heidi Schwandt View biography

Heidi Schwandt's upbringing on cattle ranches in Southwestern Montana gave her the freedom to explore the woods and mountains. A short stint with the Forest Service on a trail maintenance crew solidified her love of hiking. Heidi has been instructing Alpine skiing for more than a decade, including a women-only skiing program she piloted at her local mountain. Two decades as a 4-H volunteer have showcased her passion for connecting with people and inspiring them to learn by doing.

Virginia Kelly View biography

Virginia Kelly, a native Montanan, worked in Yellowstone, Yosemite, Sequoia, Lassen Volcanic, the Great Smoky Mountains, the Delaware Water Gap, and even the Washington Monument on a National Park Service travelling survey crew. With the Forest Service, Virginia was a land management planner in California, Oregon, Washington, and Montana. She served as executive coordinator for the federal Greater Yellowstone Coordinating Committee, and finalized her career with the Custer Gallatin National Forest in Bozeman, Montana. Virginia enjoys travel, hiking, camping, rafting, and cross-country skiing.

Suggested Reading List (8 books)

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You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.

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Choose Your Pace: A Walk on the Wild Side in Yellowstone

Program Number: 4874

Rough Trip Through Yellowstone, The Epic Winter Expedition of Emerson Hough, F. Jay Haynes and Billy Hofer

by Emerson Hough (Author) and Scott Herring (Editor)

Forest and Stream magazine sent one of its most talented writers, Emerson Hough, to Yellowstone in 1894 to document the decline in bison numbers. Hough, legendary guide Billy Hofer, pioneering photographer F. Jay Haynes and other incredibly tough individuals set out on a 200-mile expedition into Yellowstone's frigid, snow-blanketed landscape. Aboard cumbersome, 12-foot-long wooden skies, these tough men scoured Yellowstone's winter terrain to put together a thorough census of the park's bison and elk. Hough wrote up the expedition in a series of 14 articles which resulted in Congress ultimately passing the anti-poaching Lacey Act and helped turn public opinion against a proposed railroad through the park. His witty and entertaining articles are a wonderful description of winter travel in the park in 1894, immensely entertaining and historically significant. Includes nine historic Yellowstone National Park photos by F. Jay Haynes

Yellowstone Place Names, 2nd edition

by Lee Whittlesey

Yellowstone National Park Historian's well-researched and entertaining reference source for information on many of Yellowstone's place names and their origins.

After the Fires: The Ecology of Change in Yellowstone National Park

by Linda Wallace, Editor

The ravaging fires of 1988 caused many scientists to predict long-term devastation which did not come to pass. This scientific summary by wildlife biologists, ecosystem and forest scientists and landscape ecologists discusses the many things that changed and did not change in the Yellowstone area. Realize the role of fire in the ecosystem and the resiliency of nature.

Searching for Yellowstone: Ecology and Wonder in the Last Wilderness

by Paul Schullery

Eloquent, elegant, truthful and practical - an environmental history of America's best idea, Yellowstone.

Roadside Geology of Yellowstone Country

by William Fritz & Robert Thomas

Updated, classic roadside geology book for the Yellowstone Region explains current geological theories.

To Save the Wild Bison: Life on the Edge in Yellowstone

by Mary Ann Franke

The author brings clarity and revelation to one of Yellowstone's most complex struggles by tracing the history of bison and humans into the 19th century and further into the national parks era. Here's discussion of bison management and park policy - the battle over brucellosis, snowmobiles and groomed winter roads, desires of Native Americans, bison and predators.

Decade of the Wolf, revised and updated edition: Returning the Wild to Yellowstone

by Douglas W. Smith and Gary Ferguson

Research and storytelling meld to document wolf recovery in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Wolf biologist, Smith, and nature writer, Ferguson, provide an inside look at the Yellowstone Wolf Recovery Project ten years after the controversial decision was made by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services to reintroduce wolves into the park. Smith, wolf project leader who has worked with the Yellowstone Wolf Project since its inception, has studied wolves for 25 years. Ferguson, whose writing largely arises from intimate experiences, followed through the seasons, the first 14 wolves released into Yellowstone National Park. Their collaboration offers hard facts and 'impressionistic portraits of individual wolves that reveal their epic lives full of struggle and conquest.' Here is the history of the return of the top predator to Yellowstone.

Restoring a Presence: American Indians and Yellowstone National Park

by Peter Nabokov and Lawrence Loendorf

This first comprehensive account of Indians in and around Yellowstone corrects more than a century of ignorance. Detailed here is Yellowstone's native peoples and their story of a long engagement with a remarkable landscape.

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