Lamar Valley-the Serengeti of the West in Winter

This winter as usual I went to southwest Montana to visit family but I headed into a new to me part of the Yellowstone National Park this year. The Lamar Valley, near the Northeast gate, is considered the Serengeti of the West, and even in the winter it was clear why. My aim was to ski in the backcountry in hopes of seeing wolves where they were reintroduced into the park, and state. The skiing was great, deep and fresh which isn’t always the case in the park, but the wolves eluded us. That said we saw every other animal but the wolves, who were no doubt there, but chose to stay out of sight with their remarkable camouflage. We skied past buffalos wallowing in the snow, I saw coyotes and foxes, big horn sheep, antelope, elk and moose in the road on my way out of the park (which was slightly terrifying) and many birds of prey. And staying in super remote Silver Gate and Cooke City in the winter is well worth the trip as well. Going into Yellowstone when the park truly belongs to the animals gives you some inkling of what this place once was like before colonists so altered the ecosystem and rhythms of this place. It is absolutely worth a trip in this season, although only the North Gate of the park is open, in Gardiner, you can enter the park by snow coach or cross country ski at other points.