Welcome to the Camping Outside West Yellowstone, Montana Picture Tour

Visitation in Yellowstone National Park exceeded previous records with a total of 4,257,177 million visits in 2016.  The good news is, only 1% of the 4.25 million visitors enjoy Yellowstone Park during the Winter months of January through April.

Yellowstone National Park is at it’s VERY BEST in the Winter months.  Spending a Winter in Yellowstone might make people unfamiliar with the west, shiver with cold chills thinking about the arctic winds and plummeting temperatures. It’s time to reevaluate your perception of Winter in Yellowstone.  The last long frigid winter in Montana occurred in 1996.  Since then winter arrives late and leaves early.  The coldest winters I ever experienced were in the Midwest.  The high humidity in the Midwest, makes low temperatures feel even colder.  That same high humidity made me feel incredibly threatened by hypothermia during  a late August hike through the Glacier Peak Wilderness in Washington State’s Cascade Mountains.

Shift locations to southwest Montana and Yellowstone National Park and you find a different kind of Winter environment. The low humidity and bright sunshine makes enjoying the Winter outdoors so much easier.  A novice can make Winter mistakes during a Montana Winter and laugh about it. The same Winter mistake made in the West Coast Mountains or Midwest woods could result in grave consequences.

On this page we will see views the Gallatin and Madison River Valleys near West Yellowstone.   Some of the panoramas are dark to remind people that 28 visitors were lost in the August 17, 1959 Earthquake northwest of West Yellowstone.

The Gallatin River (Above) near the Taylor Fork Road off Highway 191. The six minute video (Above) shows you all the Gallatin River landmarks from Main Hall on the Montana State University Campus in Bozeman to the border of Yellowstone National Park.  Of course, we stop at the impressive ski area at Big Sky, Montana.

The Madison Mountain Range (Below) from the Wall Creek Wild life Management Area off Highway 287 south of Ennis, Montana. The short sunrise over the Madison River video (Below) was shot just north of West Yellowstone.