“Wait, wait!” our wildlife guide, Forrest Rowland, quieted us.
“Listen.”
We froze in place, ears cocked towards the dark figures slinking across a nearby icy ridge. We held our breath. Then, the stillness of the landscape lit up with the howls of a half dozen voices. The wolves of Yellowstone were sending their greetings across the snow.
The Montana EarthCruiser Adventure trip was designed to bring our owners together to develop winter driving and overlanding skills while enjoying some of North America’s most iconic scenery and wildlife watching. Over a week’s journey, we explored the frozen waterfalls of Hyalite Canyon, practiced winching in the remote Crazy Mountains, took in some world-class wildlife watching in Yellowstone National Park, and were treated to a few luxuries along the way.
We spent our first morning together experimenting with changes to tire pressure while navigating the icy and snowy roads leading into Hyalite Canyon. This area is world-renowned for its ice-climbing opportunities, with athletes gathering here from all over the world to test their skills on the blue ice of its frozen falls. A short hike took us to the magical Grotto Falls, and afforded us stunning views of the nearby peaks.
Montana’s Crazy Mountains may not get the same level of attention as some of the state’s other recreational destinations, but that may be due to them remaining a bit of a well-kept secret. Home to bears, mountain goats, and even the elusive wolverine, the Crazies are crowned by the crowned by 11,214-foot Crazy Peak. Known by the Crow Tribe as Awaxawapiia, they are today home to some of the oldest ranches in the state. We were lucky to experience them in complete solitude as the evening temperature dipped into the single digits, making us grateful for the cozy confines of our vehicles.
Montana’s snowy backroads also gave us a chance to practice recovery skills. EarthCruiser team member Julien led the group through winching and traction-mat placement. Everyone got involved, including Max the Labrador, who helped the team dig. The deep snow and narrow roadway provided an excellent classroom. The group worked each problem, using different tools and techniques to move the vehicles over and through the landscape.
After a couple of days of skill-building, we were ready for a bit of luxury and stopped for a soak in a local hot springs before making camp just outside Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone Forever, the park’s official nonprofit partner, was generous enough to permit us to camp at their field campus for the night. The Overlook, as they refer to it, is perched on the ridge of the Yellowstone River Canyon, with jaw-dropping vistas of the park below. Bison and elk herds passed nearby as we met with our local wildlife guide, Forrest, who gave us an overview of the next few day’s adventures.
In the morning, we were treated to an all-day, private sno-coach tour of the park, led by a naturalist and assisted by Forrest’s eagle eyes and keen wildlife knowledge. We made our way over the snowy road south through the park, stopping to watch herds of bison plowing through the deep snow. We timed our arrival at Old Faithful just in time for its eruption and explored the Artist Paint Pots and other hydrothermal features along the way. As this road is only accessible by park vehicles in the winter, we rarely had to share the views with others. Best of all, just before exiting the park, Forrest found us a pair of wolves which we observed for nearly a half hour all to ourselves.
We revisited the park in our vehicles the following day, driving the road through the Lamar Valley and concentrating on finding wildlife. Again Forrest found us wolves, this time a half dozen members of one of the park’s known packs. It was here we were treated to their song, one of those moments that truly feels blessed by nature. The EarthCruisers proved worthy wildlife-watching vehicles, providing panoramic views of bison, bighorn sheep, and moose.
Yellowstone Forever again granted us a very special place to stay, allowing us to spend the night at the historic Lamar Buffalo Ranch. As no campgrounds were open this winter due to the area’s recent flooding, we were the only persons spending the night inside the northern half of the park. The evening was made even more special thanks to Chef Mike Lagodny.
Mike is an experienced wildlife guide, but before he started guiding, he was a chef. And while he currently spends most of his days with a pair of binoculars, he still knows his way around the kitchen, and there’s no doubt food remains his love language. Mike joined us for our evening at the Lamar Buffalo Ranch to share his knowledge of local, sustainable foods.
In the cozy kitchen of the historic Lamar Buffalo Ranch, Mike taught our group how to prepare local buffalo tenderloin, duck dumpling soup, elk burgers, three types of fish, and quail. He directed our group to finely chop herbs, bring our cooking surfaces to the optimal temperature, and turn them at the exact right moment. He orchestrated a feast enjoyed by our group and the Yellowstone Forever volunteer staff.
Since we’d explored the park via sno-coach and our EarthCruisers, it seemed appropriate that on our final day in the park, we’d set off on foot. After a classroom lecture on the basics of wildlife locomotion and track morphology, we donned snowshoes to follow the trails of animals through the landscape. We examined scratches in trees left by a bear and rubbed by bison and followed the trail of a coyote on its morning hunt.
Finally, it was time to leave the park, but we weren’t quite done with wildlife yet. We departed the area via the Old Yellowstone Trail, a rough dirt track that follows the Yellowstone River north from Gardiner. This morning’s driving lesson was that of patience, with ‘traffic jams’ of hundreds of bison, elk, pronghorn, and bighorn sheep, leaving us in awe.
Our final evening was spent tucked into a narrow canyon on a small private ranch dotted with reclaimed historic log cabins. We toasted a group member’s milestone birthday, and all agreed there were fewer better ways to welcome in a new decade than in the quiet, serene beauty of this landscape in the winter.
There are still two places left for the upcoming EarthCruiser Adventure through Alaska this June and a few spaces remaining for both upcoming trips through Africa – we recommend you book now to avoid being left out!
