Winter geysers at Yellowstone National Park.Credit: Guy Wilkinson
I'm in a bit of a pickle here, no doubt about it. Should I lose my footing I could fall into a bubbling thermal pool hot enough to practically dissolve me while only a few metres away, a 1000 kilogram bison has taken an unnerving interest in my skis.
Luckily, our guide Tim Wenzel seems unfazed. An adventurer who has kayaked the Mississippi River, traversed the Middle East and even worked as a janitor in Antarctica, he's in his element out here and assures me our visitor will soon lose interest.
Faithful erupting at nightCredit: Guy Wilkinson
Wenzel is leading a small group of us on a backcountry skiing tour through the Upper Geyser Basin region of Yellowstone National Park. As well as being North America's first national park, this area is home to the world's highest concentration of geothermal activity. In winter, visitor numbers remain comparatively scarce which is strange given the spectacle before me. Steam rises from vast plains of snow, thermal streams cut erratic paths and elk, bison and wolves roam free.
Happily, Wenzel's prediction proves correct and as the bison lumbers out of view, we make a bolt for our skis and continue. Backcountry skiing is relatively easy to pick up – I took my first two-hour lesson this morning – but it does require a certain degree of physical endeavour. It's hard to complain though, in the space of a few minutes, we slice our way past a geyser spewing a boiling column of steam, a wild coyote stalking its prey and a bald eagle swooping gracefully back to its nest.
By dusk we're back at our base, the Old Faithful Snow Lodge. The newest of the park's full service hotels, in winter it can only be accessed via a five-hour transfer from the park's entrance on board a specially built snow coach.
It's a slick set-up, somehow mixing flash and folksy in a pleasing way. There's a piano bar by reception, a cosy log fire with armchairs, a gift shop, ski centre and even an ice rink outside. Rooms range from plush premium lodge options to more rustic cabins dotted around the main hotel. When I'm given the keys to mine, I'm amused to be handed a plastic sled with which to haul my luggage.Besides the salubrious set-up and proximity to the wilderness, there's another major drawcard to the lodge. Just a five-minute walk away is Old Faithful, the region's most famous geyser.
Discovered in 1870 by the Washburn Expedition, it was named for the consistency of its frequent eruptions which now average every 74 minutes.
We get our first sighting at night, having picked our way through a snow trail beneath the cover of stars. A small crowd has gathered some 50 metres from the site, waiting with giddy anticipation or wrestling with camera tripods.
The eruption is as sudden as it is ferocious, a diminutive ripple of steam rapidly escalating into a cacophony of hissing white foam roaring towards the night sky.
Despite Old Faithful being named for its dependability, it's Yellowstone's sheer unpredictability that makes it such a special place. The next day we'll swap skis for snow shoes and trek through more backcountry, looking down from Observation Point at the steam of Old Faithful rising behind the treetops. We'll navigate a network of boardwalks past Solitary Geyser, Lion Group and beyond, through a landscape of dead trees standing like needles amid boiling indigo pools. It's part Narnia, part Mordor.
"There are so many things happening here, once you begin to connect the puzzle pieces of Yellowstone, the more you learn, the more interesting it becomes," says Wenzel. "This is one of the few places – especially in the "Lower 48" – that you can appreciate the solitude of an area, the wildness of an area, and gain an understanding that it's not humans who are in charge, it's nature."
TRIP NOTES
MORE
FLY
Virgin Airlines operates frequent direct flights from Sydney to Los Angeles with connections to Bozeman via Salt Lake City. See virginamerica.com
TOUR
Grand American Adventures offers a seven-day Yellowstone Winter Wildlife tour. Trip includes five lodge nights and one hotel night, professional tour leader and local guides, private vehicle and snow coach. Maximum group size 13, beginning and ending in Bozeman. Tour starts from $3989. Departure dates January 8, 2018, and January 29, 2018. See grandamericanadventures.com
STAY
Old Faithful Snow Lodge offers cabins and lodge rooms in the Old Faithful region of Yellowstone National Park. Frontier cabins from $US151, premium lodge rooms from $US305. See yellowstonenationalparklodges.com
Guy Wilkinson was a guest of Grand American Adventures.
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