West Yellowstone – Reconnect with nature in and around Yellowstone National Park

Backpacking among colorful wildflowers

West Yellowstone

In and around Yellowstone National Park, you can get back in touch with wildlife.
West Yellowstone is a great place for outdoor adventurers who want to take their time. West Yellowstone, Montana, is right next to the western entrance to Yellowstone National Park. It has four seasons of outdoor activities and scenery that you can’t avoid. With more than 400 centimeters of snowfall a year, winter is the most important season here. You can do any snow sport you can think of. In the spring, wildflowers, rivers, and new animals come into bloom. The summers are perfect for fishing, camping, biking, hiking, and watching the stars. Fall has fewer people, beautiful leaves, and chances to see animals in action.

Check out Yellowstone National Park.
Not far from town is the oldest national park in the United States. West Yellowstone is the nearest place to get to Old Faithful, one of Yellowstone’s most famous natural sights. But there’s more to do there! Monument Geyser Basin has hot natural chimneys that you can hike to. Gibbon Falls has a 26-meter drop, the Firehole Falls summer swimming hole is a great place to swim, and you can fish in the Madison and Firehole Rivers. At different times of the year, you might see bald eagles, elk, or bison. Please keep in mind that road access changes throughout the year based on the weather. Check the park’s website to see what the current conditions are.

 

The great outdoors and western adventures
Montana is the perfect place for a cowboy. Join a real chuckwagon dinner at a dude ranch, complete with cooking over a campfire, cowboy poems, and stories told under the stars. At the Wild West Yellowstone Rodeo, from June to August, you can see brave cowboys get on wild horses and bulls. West Yellowstone has a lot of outdoor activities, such as horseback rides in the mountains, fishing, hunting, and boating around Hegben Lake. The area was shook by a huge earthquake in 1959. A boulder blocked the Madison River and made Earthquake Lake. At Earthquake Lake & Visitor Center, you can look at interesting pictures and displays. After that, you can go boating and fishing on “Quake Lake.”

 

Local Experiences You Can’t Miss
The Yellowstone Historic Center is in a historic train depot and has a collection of old vehicles, like stage coaches and snow plows, that show how people used to move to and within the national park. There is a very rare chance to see grizzly bears and three packs of wolves safely at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center. The bears don’t sleep, so you can see them all year. Red Lodge Aerial Adventures has ropes courses and zip lines where you can have a day of high-altitude, high-speed fun. For thrill-seekers and families traveling with older children, it’s the right thing to do. Take a break from being outside and watch a Hollywood hit or the beautiful nature documentary “Yellowstone” on the Yellowstone Giant Screen theater, which is appropriately named because it is six stories tall.