If You Want To See Yellowstone National Park In The Best Way Possible, Mark August 1st On Your Calendar

Years ago, I had an experience that I've never had before. Despite having been to Yellowstone National Park numerous times, having the chance to ride through the park in the dead of winter, straddling a Ski-Doo snowmobile was otherworldly. And not just because I was strictly on a snowmobile. 

No, it was singularly awesome because we practically had the entire national park all to ourselves. 

See, in the winter, Yellowstone National Park doesn't plow the roads. Park staff just shut the gates to cars and begin using snow groomers, as you'd find on ski slopes all around the world. It makes it so that only two vehicles can enter the park: tour guides with Arctic Trucks, and snowmobiles, like the Ski-Doo variety we were using. The snow was falling, the bison were out, the rivers were rushing, and while the spring, summer, and fall times are pretty, they're clogged with tourists and tourons, and it can get annoyingly busy. Not so in winter. 

And now, just ahead of fall, Yellowstone is getting ready to sell people snowmobile permits for this coming winter. So if you want to see the park in the most unique way, better mark your calendars right now. 

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According to the park's website, "Yellowstone National Park's winter landscape offers a magical experience for those willing to brave its cold temperatures. Most roads in the park are groomed for over-snow traffic via either snowcoaches or snowmobiles. The majority of visitors to the park travel these roads with commercially guided tours. However, the park has set aside four trips per day for groups that want to enter Yellowstone without commercial guides," adding, "This program, called the Non-Commercially Guided Snowmobile Access Program (N-CGSAP), allows one group of up to five snowmobiles through each of the North, South, East and West entrances per day. Trips can be 1, 2 or 3 days in length."

The permit applications go live on August 1st, with the application fee costing $6, and if you're successful, you'll also have to pay a $40 per day recreation fee, as well as the normal park fee. So it's not exactly cheap, but for what you're getting, which is something that felt priceless to me, I feel like it's worth it. Plus, you're supporting our national parks and public lands when they absolutely need it. 

Yellowstone National Park also states that if someone cancels, first-come, first-served spots will be offered through the park's site, as well as on-site, too. You can, however, also work with a Yellowstone snowmobile tour operator, which handles all this for you, including the snowmobile rental. This process, however, would let you just do it yourself. 

The park's snowmobile season officially opens December 15th, although that's conditional of the weather and snowpack, and depending on the entrance you choose to embark from, closes either March 7th (North) or March 15th (East, South, West). 

Snowmobile permit lottery results will go live September 4th, with the last day to apply being August 31st, and you'll have until September 30th to either accept or decline the pass if your name is pulled from the hat. But again, if you're going to see Yellowstone in all its glory, and without the throngs of people who are desperately trying to pet a bison (yeah, don't do that), the winter is the time to go, and using a snowmobile is the method I'd do again in a heartbeat. 

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