Yellowstone Adventure Tours

Yellowstone Adventure Tours Yellowstone Adventure Tours is the #1 tour company specializing in small private tours of Yellowstone

Hello! This winter we will be using our suburbans to offer private shuttle service from West Yellowstone or Island Park...
12/23/2024

Hello! This winter we will be using our suburbans to offer private shuttle service from West Yellowstone or Island Park to any airport, Bozeman, Big Sky, Idaho Falls, Jackson Hole, etc. Please spread the word. Thanks everybody and Merry Christmas!

Last week was the last day that we were able to see this big grizzly bear on a carcass in Yellowstone's northern range. ...
04/26/2023

Last week was the last day that we were able to see this big grizzly bear on a carcass in Yellowstone's northern range. He was feeding on this bison carcass for 13 days! We watched him cross the road and disappear into the mountains. Excited to see more bears in the upcoming weeks.
Explore Yellowstone with us and join us on a trip!

05/22/2022

Bonus footage from yesterday wolf sighting. A gray wolf from the Wapati lake wolf pack scavenging an elk carcass.

It’s fair to say that our longest tenured guide Steve Merlino at Yellowstone Adventure Tours has an infatuation for griz...
05/13/2022

It’s fair to say that our longest tenured guide Steve Merlino at Yellowstone Adventure Tours has an infatuation for grizzly bears! Posted today are some of his most recent photos from the past few weeks in Yellowstone and Teton National Parks.

•Steve has been living in Southwest Montana since the late 90s and has been photographing grizzly bears in Yellowstone for over two decades! He has graduate school education in Environmental Studies. He has spent so much time photographing grizzly bears that he has become familiar with certain bears habits and annual routines.

Lately he has been spending a lot of time Yellowstone and Teton National Parks. Late April and May are some of the best times to view grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem! Follow to view more of his photography.

• The past two years he has spent a month in Katmai National Park, Alaska photographing coastal brown bears feeding on spawning salmon that famously leap over a six foot waterfall to get to their spawning grounds. You can view those photos and more or order a print at his website: ecowildimages.com

Book your private tour today and request Steve!

Happy belated Birthday to Yellowstone National Park! On March 1st 1872 President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowston...
03/06/2022

Happy belated Birthday to Yellowstone National Park! On March 1st 1872 President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act into law making Yellowstone the worlds first national park.

However, did you know that Yosemite was actually preserved as a park before Yellowstone? The Yosemite Act of 1864 reserved Yosemite Valley from settlement and entrusted it to the care of the state of California but as a state park. Disappointing with the results of state management 26 years later in 1890 Congress made Yosemite a national park.

It’s entirely possible that Congress may have preferred to make Yellowstone a state park in the same fashion as Yosemite. If it was not for an accident of geography which put it within the boundaries of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Arguments between the three states on how to properly manage Yellowstone Park resulted in a decision by congress to federalize Yellowstone lands. Thus, making it the worlds first national park.

Grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem have a very high percentage of in meat in their diet compared to the ...
01/30/2022

Grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem have a very high percentage of in meat in their diet compared to the diets of other bear populations (40% meat and 60% vegetation). This can be attributed to the large concentrations of ungulate species living inside the ecosystem such as: elk, bison, mule deer, whitetail deer, pronghorn, big horn sheep, and moose. For comparison meat provides as little as 3% of a grizzly bears diet in Glacier National Park and Denali National Park.

The generalist diet of Yellowstone grizzly bears enables them to feed across diverse habitats and adjust to seasonal/ yearly variations in the availability of food.

Like humans, grizzly bears are omnivores and are generalist feeders in which anything that is palatable may be part of their diet.

They have been documented eating 175 different plants, 37 invertebrates, 34 mammals, seven birds, and four species of fish.

This flexibility in their diet allowed them to once roam all over North America from the great plains westward to California and central Mexico north throughout Alaska and Canada. Today, the grizzly bear is found in only about 2 percent of its original range in the lower 48 states.

All photographs were taken on tour in the summer of 2020.

Members of the Wapati Lake Pack taking a stroll through the Lower Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park. • See...
01/24/2022

Members of the Wapati Lake Pack taking a stroll through the Lower Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park.

• Seen on tour September 9th, 2021

This may have been the craziest things we have ever seen a tourist do in the park. This man thought it would be a good i...
01/23/2022

This may have been the craziest things we have ever seen a tourist do in the park. This man thought it would be a good idea to drive off the paved road and towards excelsior geyser to get a closer view. His early 2000s Ford Expedition 2x4 ended up getting stuck in wet soggy clay from runoff hot spring water. He certainly had a lot of explaining to do when the rangers showed up!

Seen on tour July 2nd, 2021


A female cinnamon black bear with two cubs born last spring. Two or three cubs per litter is the common. Four cubs born ...
01/20/2022

A female cinnamon black bear with two cubs born last spring. Two or three cubs per litter is the common. Four cubs born into a litter is rare. If only one cub is born then it could be a signal that the mother did not successfully put on enough fat reserves prior to hibernation to give birth to a larger litter.

Seen while on tour June 6th, 2021.

Black Bears (ursus americana) inside Yellowstone National Park can exhibit multiple color variations. About 50% of the ...
01/16/2022

Black Bears (ursus americana) inside Yellowstone National Park can exhibit multiple color variations. About 50% of the population has a jet black color phase and the rest are a mix of either brown, blond, or cinnamon. Each color phase has its own advantages and disadvantages. The black color phase will have better camouflage in dark old growth forests, heavily vegetated areas, and at night. The lighter color phases gives these bears the ability to forage longer in open meadows during the middle of the day because their coat does not absorb as much heat/ solar radiation from the sun compared to black bears that are jet black.

•all photos were taken on tour from summer 2021

08/26/2021

🌈 Can you taste the rainbow? There is a 15 to 20 minute window of time every morning in August where the sun perfectly hits the lower falls to get a large and beautiful rainbow underneath the 308 foot waterfall. I hope it brightens your day!

I was very fortunate to stumble on this longtailed weasel near the mud volcano parking lot. They are one of the most di...
06/20/2021

I was very fortunate to stumble on this longtailed weasel near the mud volcano parking lot. They are one of the most difficult animals to photograph as they are hard to see in the summer months. In summer the ermine is brown, with a whitish throat, chest, and belly. In colder climates the winter coat is white, except for the black tail tip. In moderately cold climates the fur becomes only partly white. Ermines feed on small mammals, birds, eggs, frogs, and occasional invertebrates. Small prey is seized at the base of the skull, larger prey by the throat.

Fact: The winter-taken pelts, prized for fineness and pure colour, are among the most valuable of commercial furs. During the reign of Edward III (1327–77) of England, the wearing of ermine was restricted to members of the royal family.

Cinnamon colored female black bear grazing on some road side grasses and flowers. In Yellowstone black bears can come in...
06/20/2021

Cinnamon colored female black bear grazing on some road side grasses and flowers. In Yellowstone black bears can come in three different color varieties (black, blond, or cinnamon). 50% of the population in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is of the black variety.

Both species of bears found in the park can give birth to a litter of cubs that was sired by multiple males during the 6-8 week breeding season in the spring.

If a impregnated female goes into hibernation with the optimal amount of body fat (30% or higher) she has a higher chance of giving birth to a large litter. Two or three cubs is a normal litter size if her body condition going into hibernation is healthy. Four cubs is very rare but it happens reference bear 399 in the Tetons. Giving birth to one cub is a sign that she had an inadequate diet during the summer/ fall prior to hibernation.

06/07/2021

Just your standard bison jam….

06/07/2021

Combo geyser platter! Old Faithful to Beehive to Old Faithful, yahoo!

A gray wolf scavenging the last bit of remains of an old bison carcass. Photo credit
05/14/2021

A gray wolf scavenging the last bit of remains of an old bison carcass. Photo credit

Elk crossing! The current estimated population of Rocky Mountain Elk in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is between 30,...
11/06/2020

Elk crossing! The current estimated population of Rocky Mountain Elk in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is between 30,000 - 40,000 elk. Did you know that between 1932- 1968 75,000 elk were removed from the park by NPS rangers?
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Elk from Yellowstone were sent to Canada and other states to restore their dwindling elk herds that had become dangerously low due to over hunting compounded by a lack of hunting regulations in the 20th Century. In fact some Elk were even shipped internationally to countries that do not have natural elk populations to cultivate a hunting industry and increase tourism. These international countries include places as far away as New Zealand and Argentina! 🌈

When the Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) went on the endangered species list in 1975 their population has made a ...
11/04/2020

When the Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) went on the endangered species list in 1975 their population has made a slow but steady recovery. Prior to 1975 the US Fish and Wild Service estimated there was less than 200 grizzlies living south of Canadian border. Currently the population estimate in the 48 states is approaching 2000 grizzly bears.
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November 1 was the last day that you can drive a vehicle from Yellowstone National Park in Grand Teton National. Derek was able to capture these pictures of this foraging bear off a dirt road in Grand Teton National Park. Also pictured road side road fox that must get feed a lot by passing tourists. This fox was extra friendly and approached quickly as he thought he was going to get fed some leftovers.

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Videos

Grizzly bear in Yellowstone. We saw this on a recent tour and felt very lucky to come across this beautiful bear. Same guy I saw a while ago on the bison carcass. #Grizzlies #grizzlybear #yellowstone #yellowstonenationalpark

Grizzly bear sighting in Yellowstone. Seen on a recent tour, we felt lucky to come across this bear following the powerline. He was scent marking the pole before disappearing into the trees. This is the same bear I saw at the pond on the bison carcass. #grizzlybear #Grizzlies #yellowstone #yellowstonenationalpark

Grizzly bear on a bison carcass in the Northern Range. . There is nothing more humbling than being in the presence of a large grizzly bear. With the bison skull in front of him, he looks really intimidating. . Every day more and more grizzlies are spotted in Yellowstone, spring has finally arrived ! . #grizzlybear #yellowstone #yellowstonenationalpark #bear

This week we saw the first bison calf of the year. Soon there will be many more roaming Yellowstone Nationalpark. Spring is really exciting season as there is a lot of activity and many different species give birth to their babies. #bison #yellowstone #yellowstonenationalpark

Bonus footage from yesterday wolf sighting. A gray wolf from the Wapati lake wolf pack scavenging an elk carcass. #yellowstonenationalpark #wolf #yellowston

🌈 Can you taste the rainbow? There is a 15 to 20 minute window of time every morning in August where the sun perfectly hits the lower falls to get a large and beautiful rainbow underneath the 308 foot waterfall. I hope it brightens your day! #skittles #yellowstonenationalpark #waterfalls

Just your standard bison jam…. #buffaloburger #eatmorebison

Combo geyser platter! Old Faithful to Beehive to Old Faithful, yahoo! #geyser #geysergazing

On September 18, 1870 the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition entered the Upper Geyser Basin along the Firehole River. During a day and a half of exploration they named seven geysers they observed erupting. The Beehive was one of them. The following is Langford's description of the Beehive in his 1871 account of the expedition: A hundred yards distant from The Giantess was a silicious cone, very symmetrical but slightly corrugated upon its exterior surface, three feet in height and five feet in diameter at its base, and having an oval orifice twentyfour by thirty-six and one-half inches in diameter, with scalloped edges. Not one of our company supposed that it was a geyser; and among so manywonders [sic] it had almost escaped notice. While we were at breakfast upon the morning of our departure a column of water, entirely filling the crater, shot from it, which, by accurate triangular measurement, we found to be two hundred and nineteen feet in height. The stream did not deflect more than four or five degrees from a vertical line, and the eruption lasted eighteen minutes. We named it "The Beehive." •Eruptions of Beehive Geyser last about 5 minutes and are 200 feet (61 m) high. The fountain maintains its full height for the duration of the eruption, dropping just slightly near the end. A roaring steam phase concludes the eruption and can be heard a quarter-mile away. The interval between eruptions range from 16-18 hours to one day during the summer. Winter eruptions are very erratic. There are occasions in both summer and winter that there are a series of eruptions that are quite regular. These eruptions have an interval of 10 to 20 hours with longer intervals near the end of the series.[4] As of summer 2009 Beehive was having predictable eruptions every 11 to 14 hrs. #beehivegeyser #yellowstonenationalpark #geysers #oldfaithful #youngsporadic

This is a video of 1 second per day throughout our entire first season! Thank you to all the families that booked a tour with us this summer. In my first summer of operation I never EVER expected to almost completely sell out and receive such a positive response from all of you. It will be a summer that I will never forget. It was a ton of very early mornings with just a little bit of sleep, coffee stops, sunrises, sunsets, bison jams, bear jams, 1 owl jam (seriously), Old Faithful not erupting on time, walking the boardwalks, talking about geysers/paint pots/hot springs, and seeking out the cleanest and best smelling flushing toilets available in Yellowstone National Park! Thanks again to everyone who decided to make Yellowstone Adventure Tours apart of your summer.

Scratch that itch big boy! #yellowstonenationalpark #parklife

Impatiently awaiting Yellowstone’s most predictable and famous geyser to erupt. It’s eruption cycle is every 94 minutes +/- 10 minutes but this eruption was 5 minutes beyond the normal time frame. #oldfaithful #jellystonenationalpark #yellowstonenationalpark

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