Yellowstone National Park Family & Private Group Tours.

Yellowstone National Park is vast. Get the big picture!

By understanding the park as a composition of watersheds you’re on your way to understanding the park as whole. More than a series of loops and scattered trivia, the bulk of the park is comprised of the Missouri River watershed and the Yellowstone River watershed. Each represent the common views of the park: Think “Charismatic Mega Fauna” like wolves, bears, elk and bison AND geothermal features, like geysers and hot springs.

Of course, our bodies are systems, too, so experience the park through all your senses. Taste, touch, smell and feel yourself in the natural world. Interact!

The Yellowstone Watershed

The Yellowstone Watershed comprises the storied Northern Range including the Lamar Valley and the Upper and Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Think carnivores! We’ll eat lunch in the frontier feel of Cooke City, then soak in the warm waters of the Boiling River on our way back to Big Sky, Montana.

The Missouri Watershed

The Missouri watershed is home to some of the most famous geysers and idilic falls. Plus we’ll take a dip in real geysers’ water at the Firehole River swimming area (or chose a hike instead.)

Yellowstone National Park is vast! IAs a result, one would ideally one do both tours from Big Sky over two days, consecutive or not. You can also add a YNP Short Hike or kayak trip to spice things up. Of course, we are happy to help you build your ideal custom Yellowstone family tour from Big Sky, Montana.

See it as a system, with many themes!

With 2.2 million acres of designated wilderness and only 300 miles of road, no wonder people drive in loops! Yet the park showcases one of the least disturbed ecosystems in the world. So see it as an ecosystem, not a race track.

The Northern Range is often referred to as the “Serengeti of North America” and has the highest density of carnivores in the western hemisphere. And because it sits above a super volcano, the Park’s geology is spellbinding too. Indeed, Yellowstone National Park has among the highest density of thermal features found anywhere in the world!

The Madison watershed is home to Old Faithful and the Grand Prismatic, their warm and mineral rich waters draining into the Firehole River. Fairy Falls cascades hundreds of feet to join them, and soon the Firehole merges with the Gibbon River, after having run over its own spectacular falls of the same name. These two tributaries now form the Madison River of Lewis and Clark fame. (And later, Lake Hebgen just outside the park!)

Free flowing is important!

And the Yellowstone river is the longest free flowing (undamned) river in the lower 48 states. It effectively begins at picturesque Yellowstone Lake before cutting the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone in a violent process of hydrology you can hear, feel and observed at Upper and Lower Falls. After the falls, it is joined by Antelope Creek and Tower River under the proud Mt Washburn, and then by the Lamar River. It is this Northern Range of the Lamar and Yellowstone River that offer the greatest density of carnivores in the western hemisphere: the flat fertile valleys support thousands of ungulates, which are of course prime food sources for cougar, bears and wolves!

Above all, everything is connected, all actors good and bad. Thus it is worth noting that the Gibbon River was named after John Gibbon, who along with surveying the geology of the park in 1872, also led the deadly attach on the non-treaty Nez Perce in the Big Hole Valley five years later. How does this fit with our contemporary understanding? Discover more about this area, its riches and history on our Gems, Gold, and Big Hole Valley Tour.