![]() ![]() (Although there are plenty of animal tracks-ermine, pine marten, wolf, snowshoe hare, bison, and coyote.) Skiing into the forest-here thick with 20- to 30-foot tall lodgepole pines growing back after the area was burned by wildfire in 1988-we haven’t even seen any signs of other humans. With the exception of my fellow adventurer, Piper Gillard, a guide with Yellowstone Expeditions, I haven’t seen another human since a snowcoach dropped us off at the Cygnet Lakes trailhead several hours ago. For the first time in my 26 years exploring Yellowstone, I have a sense of what the park felt like to its earliest white explorers. Still, there is nothing else I’d rather be doing. Nowhere does it go straight for more than five feet. Breaking trail is hard work, and, because of the tightness of the trees, the trail I leave behind me looks like the path of an intoxicated penguin. ![]() The fresh powder is about as deep as the spaces between the trunks of the immature lodgepole pine trees I’m tromping through on skis: 18 inches. ![]() Text and photography By Dina Mishev Approaching Yellowstone Expeditions’ yurt camp near Canyon Village in Yellowstone National Park. ![]() Yurting in Yellowstone Feel the wildness and quiet of winter in the park by staying at a small yurt camp that offers guided cross-country skiing. ![]()
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