YELLOWSTONE WINTER WONDERLAND - 2010

7 days from Jackson to Jackson (AW)

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Vacation Overview

The only thing more impressive than Yellowstone in the summertime is Yellowstone in winter! Begin this spectacular escorted tour with a sleigh ride through the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, Wyoming, where as many as 10,000 elk congregate each winter—prime territory for wolves, eagles, and coyotes! Next, tour beautiful Grand Teton National Park before boarding a Bombardier Snocoach and entering Yellowstone National Park. Enjoy a guided walking tour of Yellowstone’s Upper Geyser Basin, the greatest geothermal basin on earth and home to Old Faithful. Continue via Snocoach to Mammoth Hot Springs, stopping along the way to see the famed Fountain Paint Pots and Gibbons Falls. View the thundering Upper and Lower Falls, which are nearly twice the height of Niagara, and keep your camera ready for bison, elk, bighorn sheep, deer, coyote, and gray wolves. Journey to Lamar Valley, known to the locals as the Serengeti of Yellowstone because of the wildlife that can be spotted here. Head to West Yellowstone, Montana, then motor through the western flanks of the Teton Range with views of the highest peak in the range—Grand Teton itself! Return to Jackson for free time and an overnight, the perfect end to a grand Yellowstone winter vacation!

Things to see on your vacation: View Vacation Photo Slideshow

A Vacation Story The “War” for the Grand Teton

In the winter of 1927, residents in the cattle town of Jackson, Wyoming began to learn of a mysterious business concern known as the Snake River Land Company that was rapidly buying up property around their picturesque valley, which is overshadowed by the dramatic Teton Mountains. Rumors soon began to spread that a plot was afoot to elbow ranchers out of the area and close off key cattle drives. Finally, in 1930, it was revealed that the company was actually a front for America’s richest man, the oil magnate John D. Rockefeller Jr. Rockefeller had visited the area three years earlier and had been stunned by its alpine beauty; a visionary philanthropist, he decided to purchase the whole valley floor from private owners and donate it to the United States Government for an extension of the Grand Teton National Park, which was then only a tiny enclave covering the remotest mountain zones. But tempers flared against Rockefeller’s secrecy; many suspected that the magnate might use the land for his own private ends.