All posts by fhessler

Mountain Man Guiding is now booking private Yellowstone National Park tours for the 2024 season. We provide private Wildlife, Geology, Hybrid and Day hike tours. If you are interested in seeing the park a certain way let us know. We can do a half day of wildlife watching in the morning and some sightseeing in the afternoon. Hybrid tours are a great way to discover the park in an overview with a little of this and that.

Yellowstone National Park is a large place with lots of different aspects that come into play. With the Grand Loop Road being 142 miles and the other entrance roads adding to that number it can be very overwhelming. We take that into consideration and love that we drive while you observe. Making your way through the park can be confusing and go by fast if you don’t know what to look for and where to stop. Our Private Yellowstone Tours circumvent that situation.

Weather you are interested in seeing the all the different types of geothermal features, historic places in the park, wildlife, historic Fort Yellowstone, the travertine terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs, or other features we will do our best to make your trip a memorable experience for all. Our tours are fully customizable to fulfill your needs.

We love to share our knowledge and enjoyment of everything that is Yellowstone National Park with you and your party. Send all inquiries to [email protected] , we would love to hear from you and spend some time in the park!

Remnants Of The Past

When you think of Yellowstone National Park the first things that come to mind are Old Faithful, grizzly bears, wolves, waterfalls, canyons and all the other things that are associated with an outdoor wonderland. These are only the tip of the iceberg of what this place has to offer in those areas. One thing that often gets overlooked is the rich history the grand old park has to offer.

Yellowstone National Park was named the world’s first national park on March 1st, 1872. There were three expeditions that led to this dedication. Before the expeditions trappers and prospectors were the majority of the white folk that crossed these lands. They were most likely looking for beavers to trap or gold and other precious metals. The lands were still home to the natives at this time and the area was home to bands of the Crow and Shoshone in closest vicinity along with other tribes using the area as a hunting and gathering grounds.

The first human related site documented by archaeologist dates back to 11,000 years ago. There are sea fossils that are 350 million years old found in the Madison Limestone formation. Did you know that redwood trees once grew in Yellowstone? These are but just a sampling of the vast history this place has to offer.

If you’re interested in exploring Historic Yellowstone we would love to show you around the park.

Mountain Man Guiding is now booking 2024 tours.

Please inquire at: [email protected]

Did you know that they used to feed bears with the hotel food scraps in Yellowstone National Park?

There we’re actually “Bear Feeding Platforms“ with amphitheater style seating that were built to entertain the tourists. These food scraps would be put out at certain times of the day so that the guests could watch the bears do their thing. Those bruins would show up like clockwork for the all you can eat buffet, sometimes dozens of bears.

Eventually the park realized this wasn’t the best for the bears and put a stop to this. There were also dumps inside the park which didn’t help with this problem. The Trout Creek dump in Hayden Valley closed in 1970 ending the bear feeding era.

Today we try and keep our bears as wild as possible. There are bear proof trash cans all over the place. At some campsites there are metal bear proof containers to store your food in while away from canp. At backcountry campsites there are “bear poles” which are essentially a strippd down lodgepole pine suspended in the air around 20 or so feet in the air. You bring some rope to suspend your food and other smelly objects in the air when away from camp, sleeping or not attending to those objects when in camp.

Thanks for following along on the trail of the Mountain Man!