By Emma Heller
Each spring, the Yellowstone Scenic Tours guide team heads into Yellowstone National Park for three days of training. As a guide who has worked for other guiding companies, I can say that not many other companies provide this type of in-depth training for their guides! Yellowstone boasts a diverse ecosystem, geological, cultural, and history. Because of this, we are always learning something new! New information on wildlife, geothermal activity, and much more comes out every year, and it is essential to stay up-to-date. This is why we believe that training each year is imperative.
To broaden our knowledge and to stay informed about changes in Yellowstone, our fearless leader, Laura, provides the Yellowstone Scenic Tours guides with three days of extensive yet fun training each spring. In prior years, Laura has hired seasoned guides from Yellowstone Forever, the official nonprofit partner of Yellowstone National Park, to provide us with training. This year, we did things slightly differently from prior years.
Our first training day consisted primarily of Laura wrangling up all the guides. Many of the guide team live in Big Sky, but you’ll also find us in Bozeman and Belgrade too. After the roundup, we all set out for Gardiner, Montana, the North Entrance of Yellowstone Park. There the team stayed in preparation for an early wake-up, which is necessary for wildlife watching.
With wheels up at 5:30 a.m. on our first day, we made our way to Mammoth Hotel, where we met our guide Carolyn from Yellowstone Wildlife Profiles. Carolyn is a Northern Range expert based out of Gardiner who works closely with the Park. This was our opportunity to use Carolyn’s knowledge to improve our own and to see how a veteran guide runs tours. The morning started off peaceful and quiet; let’s be honest, we weren’t quite awake yet! Not far into our travels, that changed when we turned a corner to find a sow grizzly with her two cubs! The early bird gets the worm or, in this case, sees a griz (aka grizzly bear) with two cubs! Dawn and dusk are the best times to see bears and wolves. This encounter sure woke us up, and from there, we kick-started the day with information on bears from Carolyn, and amazing Park facts kept flowing throughout the day!
Photo by Stephen Seleb
Next, Carolyn showed us where to find a black bear den and the Junction Butte wolf pack den at Slough Creek. She provided us with geographical and historical information about Lamar Valley and Tower Falls and short hikes to go on. After a successful morning in Lamar Valley, we returned to Mammoth Hot Springs to learn about its unique thermal features that are unlike others in the Park. We also learned more about Mammoth’s rich history as the Park’s headquarters and the original entrance to Yellowstone. After a full day of learning, we went to Lake Yellowstone, where we stayed in the cabins and enjoyed dinner at the luxurious Lake Hotel dining room.
Photo of the group and Carolyn looking at the Junction Butte wolf den.
Tuesday morning began with coffee and breakfast by Lake Yellowstone, where we often picnic during tours. I cannot think of a better way to start the morning! Other trip highlights of the day include stopping at LeHardy Rapids to see the Harlequin ducks, checking out the Great Blue Heron Rookery at Nez Perce Ford, walking West Thumb Geyser Basin, and guide presentations.
This year instead of going out with Yellowstone Park guides as we’ve done in the past, we gave presentations to each other on what we are the most knowledgeable or interested in. This is an excellent way for us to share our knowledge of a topic, get feedback from our peers, and learn from each other! Topics included: Native American history, Lookout Point trees, astrobiology, the best times to go to Yellowstone and what we should have in our guide pack, patterns in nature, fish in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and watershed. These are just some of the topics you’ll learn about on a tour with us!
To close the day, we stayed at Old Faithful, giving us some unique evening entertainment. After dinner at the Old Faithful Inn, we watched Old Faithful erupt at dusk, and then we walked around Geyser Hill. It shined a different light on the thermal features and was a highlight to be there at a different time than we are used to. We wound down for the day by listening to a piano performance in the lobby of the Old Faithful Inn, which somehow made the building more magical and majestic than it already is.
The Yellowstone Scenic Tours team enjoying the evening at the Old Faithful Inn.
Photo by Porter Elliot
As we reached our last day of training, you could see a sparkle in everyone’s eyes with anticipation for the guiding season. After a short hike, we started towards our home base in Big Sky, Montana, to prep our vans for the season.
Training left us all feeling confident, humble, and excited for a summer in our favorite place. As guides, we rarely see our co-workers because we are with our lovely guests all day. Spending three days together for training is a fun way to get to know each other better, build a sense of camaraderie, and ensure that everyone is on the same page with Yellowstone Scenic Tours’ values and the tour quality we aim to provide. Our goal is to give the area's best Yellowstone National Park tours! We are excited to see you all this summer for high-end, informative, and, most important, fun tours in Yellowstone National Park. See you this summer!
