Day One
We take the 7:45am snowcoach from Mammoth Hot Springs. After a few stops along the way for sightseeing, we arrive at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge about lunchtime. We grab a hot lunch in the dining room, and then gear up to spend the rest of the day in the geyser basin. In our early years we were focused on skiing as much as possible; there are many irresistible trails through the snowy winter wonderland. Over time however, we have fallen deeply in love with the boiling water and steam that defines the place, the dynamic signs of the active volcano below. Nowadays, we set aside time for both geysers and skiing.
Our first stop is the visitor center for geyser predictions, as well as a quick peek at GeyserTimes.org. We map out a strategy, based on which geyser is erupting soonest. Old Faithful, Grand, Castle, Daisy, and Riverside are the regular predicted geysers. While we love to try to catch eruptions, these geysers aren’t necessarily the main attraction – for us the real substance is simply experiencing all the sights and sounds and smells of the geyser basin. Wandering along the Firehole River with steam rising from its banks makes you feel like you are in a steamy inferno. Bison graze and lounge in bare patches of ground heated by the thermals, and myriad un-named fumaroles and hot springs gurgle and sigh.
By the time we’re ready to warm up, it’s time for a glass of wine or tea in the lounge chairs of the lobby. Being at Snow Lodge is a social experience – we often run in to old friends guiding from West Yellowstone or Jackson that we don’t often see. Even strangers become friends; there’s something about grouping together in a cozy lodge in the middle of a snowy wilderness that seems to bring people together. You might strike up a conversation with a stranger while watching Old Faithful erupt, and then become friends as you share stories of your adventures when you see them back at the lodge.
After dinner we like to hang out in the lobby listening to the sounds of cello or piano until the urge for sleep overcomes us. We climb in to bed with a book and fall fast asleep after a long, full day.
Day Two
We are scheduled for a mid morning ski drop to Divide – from where we will ski 7-8 miles back to the lodge. Taking a later shuttle gives the air time to warm up, and more importantly, time to catch sunrise in the basin. We start early, roaming the geyser basin in near perfect solitude, surrounded by the bubbles and gurgles and soft sounds of water and steam. If it’s a cold morning, a heavy fog will set in until the sun climbs high enough in the sky to warm the air enough to clear it. We wander from the hotel out to Castle Geyser, across the Firehole, and wind our way back towards lion group and Old Faithful. If time is short, we’ll just circumnavigate Geyser Hill, and watch the sun rise over the basin.
We head back to the snow lodge for a buffet breakfast, and grab our gear to catch the 10:15 ski drop to Divide, when our driver will take us deeper into the winter wonderland. There are a plethora of trails in the Old Faithful area for both snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. You can choose to wind your way through silent woods on single track trail, or try out skate skiing on the unspoiled corduroy of the groomed track. You can take off right from the Lodge, or take a shuttle to a distant trail. There are a number of places you can get dropped, but the Spring Creek Trail is one of our favorites We meander along the creek through deep forests and narrow canyons before emerging at a bridge across the Firehole river. From there, it’s a quick 1 mile to Lonestar Geyser, where we’ll eat lunch and hope the geyser erupts (which it does every 3 hours or so). After that, we continue on the Howard Eaton Trail, which climbs gently through mature lodgepole forest and then descends briskly through an overgrown burn area back to the lodge.
After a shower (and maybe a nap, if we’re honest), we may try to catch another eruption, especially if we haven’t seen Grand Geyser – a fountain geyser that is one of our favorites. If we’re too tuckered out, or the weather is ridiculously crummy, we’ll hang out in the Lodge by the fire until our dinner.
If we happen to be at Old Faithful with our son, we will go ice skating on the outdoor rink. Each night the lodge staff start a fire, and the rink is lit underneath with multi colors. Slowly skating slow circles at night under gently fallen snow is quite the experience.
Day Three
We are scheduled for the 1:45pm shuttle back to Mammoth. You can leave earlier in the morning, but we like to have the extra time to have one more adventure before we go. If the sun is gorgeous, we will roam the basin taking photos. If the snow is fresh, we may take a shorter ski on one of the trails departing from the lodge.
Finally, we board the snowcoach that will take us home. We drift in and out of sleep as the coach floats through the winter landscape, tired, and happy.
And that’s our three-day Old Faithful Winter Itinerary!
Reservations can be made through Yellowstone National Park Lodges.
If you’d like a glimpse of winter in Yellowstone, see Perfect Park Day – Winter, and Experiencing Old Faithful’s Winter Magic.
