A CONVERT TO SNOWCOACHES

Critical Outfitter Now Embraces Yellowstone’s New Winter Tourism

By Randy Roberson, Guest Writer, 1-09-07

How can the country’s oldest national park have a “new” appeal in winter? After all, Yellowstone, which opened to winter visitors the week before Christmas, is a timeless place. A child visiting the park and watching a bald eagle soar over lodgepole pine forests or a column of boiling water bursting from the earth is likely to hear their mother or father remark: “Your grandparents saw these very same things 50 years ago!”

I grew up with this generational connection to Yellowstone. It was especially deep for me because I didn’t travel to the park in a family station wagon like millions of Americans. I was born and raised in West Yellowstone, Montana, right on the park’s doorstep. Today, I own a family operated tour business in my hometown, less than a mile from the park’s west entrance. I am beginning my 25th year introducing visitors to Yellowstone wonders that I have known my whole life. And I’m delighted and proud to say that it’s true: The park’s appeal as a winter destination is EXPANDING.

A much greater diversity of visitors is calling my business and other businesses in town to book trips into our nation’s famous snow-covered wonderland. Visitors of all ages want to see the largest concentration of geysers, mud pots and steam vents in the world. They want to see wildlife going about their lives in the harsh conditions of a Yellowstone winter.

I am not the only tour operator to remark on an obvious change. The new visitors include more seniors, families, couples, photographers, wildlife buffs, cross-country skiers and snowshoers. More groups are coming, ranging from ski clubs to wedding parties.

The broadening array of winter visitors has responded eagerly to the development of modern snowcoaches. Indeed the number of visitors booking snowcoach tours has grown 63 percent in the past three seasons and includes many who’ve come to the park for years to snowmobile.

What all of these customers are telling us is that they like being able to enter an often-frigid landscape in a heated coach. They like being relaxed and comfortable. It allows them to focus entirely on enjoying natural wonders they may see only this one time in their lives. They like that the new coaches are quiet, that conversation aboard them is easy. They like being perched high with enormous windows that afford commanding views out over Yellowstone’s meadows, rivers and geyser basins. And they like having a knowledgeable guide aboard who can tell them--and their children--about the park’s wildlife, geology and history.

This last autumn, I attended the largest convention of tour providers in the country, held at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. Travel experts from throughout the country told me that Yellowstone’s modern snowcoaches offer two key advantages. The first is the ability for groups to travel together easily. This is particularly important because groups increasingly want interpretation--an opportunity to learn and ask questions as they visit special places. The second advantage, they tell us, involves the rising sensitivity of travelers to their environmental impact; travelers want choices that allow them to protect the places they are enjoying.

As I write this, a third advantage is clear to me. Snow has been slow to accumulate on Yellowstone’s roads this winter. But our snowcoaches can operate either with wheels or rubber tracks. So we provide assured access even in winters of uncertain snow accumulation.

All the while, the best snowmobiling terrain in the country, immediately adjacent to Yellowstone, continues to beckon visitors who prefer this highly individualized experience of snowmobiling. More and more, this is what our customers are telling us: We found that the snowcoach was the best way to enjoy and learn about Yellowstone and access skiing and snowshoeing opportunities in the park’s interior. We’re also glad that 300 miles of trails remain available outside the park for snowmobiling.

Yellowstone National Park will turn 135 years old this March. As a West Yellowstone resident who’s witnessed change during a third of this time span, I believe the Park’s best days of winter access and enjoyment are just beginning.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Randy Roberson is owner of Yellowstone Vacations, a family operated business that has existed for a quarter century in West Yellowstone—a town still regarded as "the snowmobile (and snowcoach) capital of the world." For more information about his company, call 406-646-9564.

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