Established as America’s — and the world’s — first national park in 1872, Yellowstone National Park remains one of the most beloved national parks within the National Park System today. Known for its breathtaking geysers and stunning vistas, Yellowstone also holds the largest concentration of mammals living in one location in the Lower 48. The overwhelming varieties of wildlife that call the park home draw in more than four million eager visitors each year.
While the peak visitation season is during the summer months, visitors aren’t always ensured top viewing. The number of tourists and vehicles moving through the park can disrupt animal movements, pushing them farther back from the roadways and hiding them from view. It’s a different story during the winter though. Park visitation drops to around 20,000 a month and roadways once passable during the summer are covered under a thick layer of snow. Most of the animals move toward the western entrance of the park near the Geyser Basin, where the ground is warmer, and areas with low snowdrifts along the Firehole and Madison Rivers, which are easier to navigate. It’s good news for winter visitors who want to tour the park and enjoy the its other natural features without scores of other tourists around.
The white blanket of snow throughout the park makes it easier to spot the animals from a distance, too. Meanwhile, less traffic and people density encourage the animals to roam more freely, allowing visitors to view them virtually uninhibited. Here’s a look at just a few of the animals you can expect to see during a wintertime visit:
Bison
As synonymous with the park as Old Faithful, the American bison are one of the park’s most popular — and most frequently sighted — animals. The bison, which have lived in the park since prehistoric times, meander through the two million acres of the park at their leisure, so much so that they’re known to cause a classic buffalo traffic jam for drivers in the winter and summer months as a result. Though herds can be upwards of 200 in the summer, they shrink in size in the winter to around 20. The smaller winter groups tend to stick toward flat areas of land — where they can easily use their heads as snowplows of sorts to navigate the winter terrain — and the hydrothermal pools in the geyser basin where both the ground and the air are warmer.
Elk
Bull elk are the most photographed animal in the park — even more than the bison! It’s largely due to the size of their antlers and the sheer number of them living within Yellowstone. Anywhere from 10-20,000 elk live in Yellowstone, however, less than 100 remain along the Firehole and Madison Rivers during the winter months. Because this specific group of elk is the only herd that occupy the park year-round, park rangers and researchers know quite a lot about them, including their seasonal movements. As a result, you’re likely to see them in the late evening along the ridges as you exit the western entrance of Yellowstone.
Coyotes
Coyotes and foxes take advantage of the cool weather to hunt mice and other small animals in the meadows. The low-lying areas and snowy landscape make them easy for tourists to spot them. Up until 1995 when gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park, the coyote’s only predator was the cougar. As a result, there is an incredible number of coyotes within the park — even today.
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