My 2025 Winter in Yellowstone workshop recently concluded, and what an absolutely fantastic trip it was! My clients were the best group of people I could ask for, they made every day a blast, and the wildlife delivered for us on so many levels. Each day had something special to photograph, and I’ve got plenty to share in this trip report, so let’s get into it!

Day 1: After picking up my clients in Bozeman, Montana, we drove south to Gardiner, a small mountain town right on the north border of Yellowstone, where we would be staying for the duration of the trip.

Before getting checked into the hotel, we decided to hit the ground running with some photography. Our first species was one of my favorites: bighorn sheep.

We spent roughy an hour with the sheep, and everyone came away with great photos. We left them just before dark, heading back to Gardiner in time to settle into the hotel before meeting back up for Welcome Dinner and Orientation.

Orientation was nearly 3 hours long, but this was necessary to prepare everyone for what was to come. I discussed how we would approach scenes, how we would use background and foreground creatively, and the challenges we might face when photographing wildlife in the snow, with a Q&A at the end. This ensured that rather than fumbling with settings and compositional concepts while amazing wildlife scenes were happening right in front of us, each client was set up for success before we even got out into the field.

Day 2: We woke up bright and early for our first of three days in Yellowstone’s Northern Range. This is the only section of the park that is plowed in the wintertime, allowing us to traverse it in a normal wheeled vehicle. This also happens to be the most wildlife-rich area of the park, meaning the photography opportunities would be plentiful.

This day began with a bang: a giant, ice-encrusted bull bison walking right down the road at us. This was the dream photo of the entire trip for multiple of my clients, and we had enough time to set our settings and plan our compositions before he began walking towards us, allowing for absolutely stellar captures on everyone’s memory cards.

As the bison ambled by us, we spotted a couple of bull moose in the willows to the east. It would require some walking to get to them, but if it meant possibilities for up-close moose photos, everyone was game to go for it.

Unfortunately for us, walking out there was not a guarantee for up-close moose photos, and by the time we got to them, the moose had begun to bed down for the day, hidden from our sight in the dense willows. It was only 10AM, but moose are crepuscular… they are generally only active at the edges of light, at dawn and dusk. No photos for us today. We’d have to start earlier and try again tomorrow.

Next, we drove back west, spending time with a herd of bison attempting to cross the almost-frozen Lamar River, a couple of different bird species, a few bison in gorgeous, golden evening light, and finally, ending our day with a massive bull elk that posed for us in the last light of the day.

Day 3: After our less-than-productive hike for moose yesterday, we knew we needed to get to the area where we had last seen them quickly. The sooner we reached them, the more time we would have to shoot before they bedded down for the day. We arrived at the location before sunrise, where we were greeted by 0 degree temperatures and a few large bull moose about a half-mile away.

The moose were feeding on willows, and they weren’t moving anywhere fast. If we wanted to get photos, we would have to hike to get closer. We layered up and set out through the 2 feet of powdery snow, trudging towards the moose and closely watching their behavior to ensure they were unbothered by our presence.

After an exhausting trek, we got ourselves into a patch of willows that gave us an incredible, eye level perspective on the moose. There were 6 massive bulls in front of us, all of which still had their antlers, and for the next hour, they gave us an absolutely incredible show.

I didn’t get many photos, as I was more focused on assisting my clients and watching the moose to ensure they were still comfortable with us, but the few photos I did get were just the photos you dream of when you imagine moose in a winter wonderland. My clients scored these same photos, and many more that were even better from this encounter. It was truly a perfect way to start our day in the park.

Following this, it began to snow heavily. We drove out into Lamar Valley, where we photographed a pair of coyotes, had lunch, and then shot a herd of bison that was on the move through the valley.

The snowstorm seemed to have slowed the wildlife activity, but we still managed to find a red fox resting in the snow and a golden eagle hunting ducks, both of which we spent time photographing before returning to Gardiner for the night.

Day 4: It was our last day in the Northern Range, and we wanted to make it count. Well before sunrise, we headed east into Yellowstone, arriving in Lamar Valley just in time to find a river otter with an enormous trout in its mouth. The photo opportunities weren’t fantastic, but it was still an amazing sighting and set us on track for another great day in the park.

Following this encounter, it didn’t take us long to find a group of 5 moose feeding on willows, this time right along the road. Much like yesterday, these moose gave my clients magical photos… there’s just nothing like a big, antlered bull moose in a snowy forest.

However, to contrast yesterday’s moose, one of the moose we saw today had dropped its right antler, creating a very unique opportunity to photograph it with just one antler left. This workshop is timed very particularly, largely with moose in mind. It is early enough in winter to ensure that most of the bull moose still have antlers, but late enough in winter to ensure that there’s plenty of snow on the ground to create those wintery scenes everyone dreams of photographing. This timing worked perfectly for us this year… we had plenty of snow, antlered moose, and were essentially watching the antlers drop by the day!

Most of the rest of the day was spent on landscapes. The partly cloudy skies and constantly-shifting light created ideal conditions for landscape scenes, and everyone was able to make some nice photos.

We ended our final day up north with a herd of pronghorn, and then a mid-trip image critique and post-processing session. While enjoying a catered group dinner, I went through a selection of photos that my clients had taken and showed them how I would process each image in Lightroom. We discussed what each client was excelling at, what could be improved upon as the trip continued, and how to approach an edit depending on the lighting, species, and mood of the scene we had photographed. This editing session seemed to be a highlight for all of my clients… everyone pulled valuable information out of the Lightroom tools and editing concepts we discussed as we worked through their photos.

Day 5: It was time to explore Yellowstone in the most unique and exclusive way possible: via a privately-chartered snowcoach. If you’re not familiar with what a snowcoach is, here’s a photo.

Essentially, it’s a 13-passenger bus atop massive, studded, low-pressure tractor tires.

This was our ride for the next 3 days, and it was going to put us in position for some of the very best wildlife encounters of the trip.

What makes taking a snowcoach into the park so special, besides the fact that it’s just an interesting way to travel, is that it gives you access to areas of Yellowstone that are otherwise inaccessible. In winter, only the park’s northern road, between Gardiner and Cooke City, is open to private vehicles. The rest of the park, known as the interior, is closed to private travel and the roads are covered in snow. The only way to access this area is by taking a guided snowcoach or snowmobile trip, which are limited in number and managed carefully. This means that there are very few people in the interior in winter, and so you some of the most incredible wildlife encounters imaginable all to yourself.

We began our day with a red fox eating a long-tailed weasel, and we were the only people there watching it. This was incredibly rare… I’ve only seen a handful of weasels ever, and definitely not in the mouth of a fox before! My clients got some nice photos from this scene.

Next, we drove east to photograph one of Yellowstone’s most popular and iconic viewpoints: Artist Point.

Unlike in summer, when hoards of visitors fight for a spot at the viewpoint, we had the place all to ourselves. After photographing the magnificent Lower Falls and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, we just stood there for a moment, staring at the falls and taking in the silence, peace, and beauty of the vast landscape in front of us. With nobody else around, it felt like we had travelled back in time, to when this place was untouched by human life. It was an extremely fulfilling stop for everyone.

We drove south from there, soon entering Hayden Valley. Here, we enjoyed a brief encounter with a coyote, and then came across what might have been the best wildlife encounter of the entire trip.

A gorgeous red fox was running down the road. We stopped the coach and got out into the deep snow as it trotted in our direction. After stopping to mess with a bit of old bison scat, the fox came right at us, allowing for beautiful head-on face shots, then veered to the right, breaking trail through fresh, deep snow.

As the fox moved away from us, it must have heard the muffled scurrying noises of a rodent under the blanket of snow, because it suddenly doubled back and began listening intently, staring down at the snow beneath its feet.

Suddenly the fox leapt into the air and dove face-first into the snow, attempting to catch a rodent. It was unsuccessful this time, so it went back to listening, and we all quickly repositioned to photograph the scene.

It didn’t take long for the fox to attempt again, and this time, we were prepared to capture it. As we all sprayed off hundreds of frames, the fox pounced a total of 4 times right in front of us, giving us some of the most incredible fox photos imaginable.

These are now my favorite fox images I’ve ever taken.

What an experience! My clients and I were all ecstatic following the fox’s performance… for one of my clients, a pouncing fox was her number 1 dream shot for the entire trip.

As the fox moved on, we loaded back up into the coach and proceeded deeper into Hayden Valley.

A few miles ahead, we stopped to photograph a coyote. As my clients shot, I noticed a thundering noise to the right, and very quickly, it became clear where it was coming from.

A bison stampede!

We rushed back to the safety of the coach as hundreds of bison came barreling down the hill at us. They thundered by the coach, sprinting as if their lives depended on it. Over the course of 30 minutes, probably 400 bison ran by, the largest herd I had ever seen in the interior in winter.

We got some beautiful images from this scene, but, despite searching thoroughly, never found out what exactly had sent the bison on the run. Something had definitely spooked them, but no other coaches in the valley seemed to know what either.

We continued south to Mud Volcano, where we shot some landscape scenes in the thermal basins before turning back north to search for wildlife in Hayden again.

Our drive back featured another fox, this time quite a bit further away, and a few beautiful trumpeter swans. Not as exciting as the drive south had been, but great to shoot nonetheless!

By now, it was getting late in the day, so we proceeded back to the Mammoth area, where we got a last encounter for the day with a large bull elk, and then disembarked from the snowcoach.

Day 6: Another day in the interior via snowcoach. An early start put us in position to photograph a pair of bald eagles at sunrise, which allowed for some nice images for my clients.

We then continued south, today deciding to focus on the southwest side of the park. This area is highly influenced by thermal activity, and we would spend much of our day along the Firehole River and in its surrounding geyser basins.

These basins can be great for finding wildlife, as the thermal activity keeps the snowpack lower and warms the rivers enough to prevent them from freezing, providing ideal winter habitat for bison and waterfowl.

After photographing some of the bizarre and dramatic winter landscapes the geyser basins offered, we found an enormous bull bison walking down the middle of the snow-covered roadway. We had him all to ourselves for a few minutes, and everyone got nice photos out of the scene.

Next, we moved further west, where we found a few trumpeter swans, and then spent time tracking ermine and pine marten, unfortunately to no avail.

Snow began to fall heavily as we got later into the day, and despite looking relentlessly, we couldn’t find much else to photograph. It had been a slower day than the past few, but still incredible… it’s hard to have a bad day in the interior!

Day 7: This was both our last day in the interior and our last day in the field. Given our lack of success along the Firehole yesterday, and our incredibly productive day in Hayden Valley the day before, we decided to go back to Hayden in search of wildlife today.

At first light, we landed ourselves in the perfect position to photograph a herd of bison traveling down the road at us… a great way to begin our final field day.

My clients wanted to learn a little about shooting video to go with the photo instruction, so we stopped with a different herd of bison further down the road. Here, I walked them through the settings and concepts to think through when shooting video. Once everyone had practiced with video a bit, we went further south to look for owls and other birds.

We were unable to find any owls, so we decided to hike down to the banks of the Yellowstone River, where we spent some time with North America’s only aquatic songbird: the American dipper.

Small and agile, these birds thrive in quick-moving mountain streams, where they specialize in hunting aquatic insects at the bottom of the waterway, even in winter. They are one of the more unique birds in Yellowstone, and are so much fun to watch and photograph.

The dippers made for some good images, but we still hadn’t had anything too incredibly unique for our last day. However, that was about to change.

Upon returning to Hayden, we found something I’d never seen before: a red fox hunting among a herd of bison.

To watch the fox navigate its way through the herd, successfully catching rodents under the snow as it went, was incredible. And to make things even better, a pair of coyotes soon moved in from the north and walked right next to the herd. At one point I could almost fit fox, coyote, and bison all in one frame with my 500mm!

We spent quite a bit of time here, and everyone got interesting images. I shot a lot of video of this scene, some of which might eventually make it into a YouTube video, if I can make a good story out of it.

After everyone got their fox fill, we moved on and shot the pair of coyotes again, this time further down the valley, and then a few interesting landscape scenes, using the harsh shadows the sun was creating to our advantage to make for more compelling images.

We ended our final day at Roaring Mountain, where with the last light of day, we made some landscape images.

Day 8: After a group breakfast, I took my clients back to the airport in Bozeman, where we said our final goodbyes and parted ways.

Trying to get a group photo… but we couldn’t keep a straight face!

What an incredible week. I truly couldn’t have asked for a better group to be out in the park with, and I’m very happy they were able to get so many great images from the week and learn a lot on the process. I hope I get to work with each of these folks again… until next time Winter in Yellowstone 2025 crew!

Thank you all for reading, I hope you enjoyed the story and the photos, and have a great rest of the week.

Evan

Trip Report: Winter in Yellowstone 2025 Workshop

Field Notes from Alaska