Yellowstone Forever offers awesome tours into the park in addition to their gift shop. We took a tour with the Awesome Abbey to see some of the parks wildlife. We saw moose, wolves, bison, pronghorn, mountain goats and some saw a black bear. Abbey was informative and engaged. You could tell she cared that we had a great time. Yellowstone Forever's tours are very reasonably priced and they are a nonprofit that benefits park preservation and learning. Not only will you get a cool tour or merch from them but you are also supporting Yellowstone. read more

Private Tour Had a good visit with our guide, and she truly did her best, though she has only moved to the area one month prior to our tour. For one month she had obviously done her homework, but there is no way to learn/know everything to lead a tour in a month's time for the Park. Another sticky point was that we were supposed to have received an email to bring a lunch. (For $700, we expected that lunch would have been provided). So, last minute we scrambled to find something to eat at the only open food place, the busy Old Faithful Cafe. If we were to do it again, we would have driven our motorhome and listened to a driving app such as Just Ahead or the National Park Service app with hiking guides and audio tours within the park. read more

Yellowstone Forever - Majestic Bison - Community Service/Non-Profit Near Me - Gardiner, Montana

This review is about my tour with Yellowstone Forever, the Old Times on the Grand Tour Summer - but it was in September and seemed more like fall. Wow! is it in a nutshell. When I first decided on it, I thought it was the best way to get lodging within Yellowstone - and it worked out great for that. But it turned in to so much more. We had a wonderful driver, Melissa, and guide, Augustus, and our ride was an original 1937 Yellowstone coach - restored - named Hollywood. We were usually the center of attention when we pulled into the parking lots. The tour ran from check-in on Monday night to breakfast Saturday morning and included all of our meals, lodging, transportation and binoculars and scopes for us to use to spot wildlife. Some breakfasts and all lunches were boxed for eating while we were touring. The dinners were in the lodges in the evening and were more food than we could eat - appetizer, starters, entrees, desserts, non-alcoholic beverages. You could buy alcohol on your own dime though. I ate steak - bison, elk, beef, almost every night except for the trout meal. We stayed 3 nights in Mammoth Hot Springs, 1 in Old Faithful's Snow Lodge, 1 at the beautiful Lake Lodge which had the best dining too. We saw the major sites: the Grand Canyon of YNP and surrounds, most of the geyser basins - i.e., the Grand Prismatic including the overlook, paint pots, porcelain basin, Firehole Lake Drive, Yellowstone Lake and of course, Old Faithful, plus a whole lot more. We bonded with our fellow travelers and guides - 8 guests with the 2 guides made a total of ten of us on the bus. It turned out on this trip that the guests were all 'mature' couples about our age so we had a lot in common. There were early mornings and reallllllly early mornings, but they were worth it to beat the crowds or catch the fauna. The temperatures ranged from high 20's in the early morning to 70's in the afternoons, so we dressed in layers. It was great having the bus to keep our packs and gear in all day. We looked for wildlife in the Lamar and Hayden valleys - luckily spotting a pack of wolves - seeing and hearing them howl was amazing. Tons (literally) of bison. No bears this time, but pronghorns, swans, cranes, ducks, geese, ravens, jays, magpies, crows, osprey, hawks, nutcrackers, dippers, coyote and little critters like the golden-mantled ground squirrel, chipmunks and more. The elk were in rut so they put on a noisy and sometimes exciting show - especially at Mammoth Hotel every evening. Our guide booked a tour for us at the Yellowstone Research Library. When I saw this on the itinerary, I was not too excited, but it was very interesting. The topic for the month was crime in the park so we learned about Ed Howell - a poacher turned do-gooder who helped to preserve Yellowstone wildlife and catch stage coach robbers. The artifacts were my favorite with original souvenirs from early visitors (items left for 5 days in the springs that were coated with travertine - a horseshoe and a corn cob) and many items from Thomas Moran including original sketches. Stuffed beavers and bears, antlers, skulls and paws, and artifacts from when the military was brought in to protect the park. Amazing things! This was my first time to Yellowstone, but September seemed to be a good time to visit. The fall colors were beautiful - shimmering golden aspen leaves and red and golden brown grasses and low plants delighted our views. Some days were windy and dry, but we had little rain to deal with though we had a scattering of snow one morning! One really early morning in West Thumb it was foggy which made the geysers evening spookier. We flew to Bozeman, rented a car, drove to Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel for the tour check-in and stayed 2 nights there. We had free time in the evenings, so it was nice having our car at Mammoth. We left our car in the Mammoth parking lot and were transported by coach to Old Faithful and Lake Lodge. We were pretty tired in the evenings, but could do a little sightseeing after the tour which usually ended about 4 each evening. We returned to Mammoth for one last night and to pick up our car. We learned a lot too - history, biology, but in fun ways from our guides. I highly recommend this as an option for experiencing this amazing and fantastic park. Yellowstone is a must-see place and Yellowstone Forever offers a wonderful way to see it. read more

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Good stop. Loacated in an historic general store building near the park entrance, there are natural history displays, info, gift shop, and most importantly, clean restrooms read more

When you pay for a tour of Yellowstone, you except it to be amazing. My experience completely blew away my expectations. I had wanted to visit Yellowstone in the winter but with my amazing ability to get in bad situations I knew I needed to go with people who knew the park. I booked a tour with Xanaterra and the Yellowstone Association providing the naturalist. Our group was made up with 10 people from around the world, all of whom I truly hope to keep in touch with. Out guide, Josh, managed to find wolves, mountain goats, foxes, coyotes and so many other animals. I would like to think I have a good eye for critters but I would have missed half of the things he found. Josh also provided valuable knowledge and information about the park and region in general. The lodging is nice, a little warm at Mammoth but great at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge. The skiing, snowshoeing and hiking was amazing. I haven't laughed so hard or had so much fun in a long time!!! Wonderful experience all around!!! HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend this to anyone even thinking about it!!! read more

Went to the store first hour of arrival in Gardiner hoping to have a better plan for our visit in the park. We were so glad to meet Deborah. She was so patient and informative on sharing her knowledge and experience in sharing what she knows about the park. That certainly helped us in creating the best park activities. read more

I arrived at the Lamar Buffalo Ranch excited to begin my Wilderness First Responder course. I'd had wilderness medical training before (as a member and eventual leader of a search and rescue team) and really enjoyed it, so I thought this would be a similar experience. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. On the first day of the course we were learning how to use a blood pressure cuff. For some reason, the instructor decided it was appropriate to list everyone's blood pressure on the blackboard. High blood pressure runs in my family and I've had it since I was 18, so I wasn't exactly thrilled for everyone to know my reading. My reading was the highest of the class, which was no surprise to me. Then the instructor took it a step further and got me in front of the class to take my pressure for herself. What's going to happen when you get someone who is already embarrassed and put them in front of a class like a guinea pig?! That's right- their pressure is going to increase! She didn't seem to realize this, had no bedside manner to speak of, never bothered to ask me about my pertinent medical history, and she never once stopped to consider my privacy. If this were a college course I would have immediately dropped the class. Some instructors are good, others don't practice what they preach. But, I tried to blow it off. That night after class we were doing more patient assessments and the instructor came over and told the group she was going to measure my blood pressure, in front of the class, again the following day. I asked her nicely not to do this, as it embarrassed me. She was very stern in her reply, "No, I'm going to take your blood pressure in front of the class every day." As you can imagine, this was more than a little off putting. Again, I asked her nicely not to do this and again she gave me the same reply, never once asking me about my medical history. A heated argument ensued. After our little altercating in front of the class, I had no desire to continue on. I left early the following day. I asked the Yellowstone Association (siting my reasons) for a partial refund which was denied. If you're like me and interested in wilderness medicine, I strongly suggest you take a WFR course. However, you should avoid the Lamar Buffalo Ranch. I have a feeling they'll be contracting this instructor again, and she'll go on pretending she's a doctor. read more

I signed up for a Wilderness First Responder course with the Yellowstone Association. I had medical training before (as a member and eventual leader of a search and rescue team) and really enjoyed it. I thought this would be a similar experience. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. The two instructors were arrogant and condescending and seem to lack medical training themselves. They also seemed to revel in humiliating the students in front of the group- going so far as calling them "creepy" and "out-of-shape". If this were a college course I would have immediately dropped the class. I asked the Yellowstone Association for a partial refund (siting my reasons) which was denied. If you're like me and interested in wilderness medicine, I strongly suggest you take a WFR course. However, you should avoid the "non-profit" Yellowstone Association and their egocentric instructors. I just took another WFR course with the University Of Utah and the experience was night and day- the instructors were professional, the class was fun, and the cost was about HALF what the Association charges. Check it out read more