Discovery Channel experience with Obsidian Cliff Tours and Stacy Nolan!
October 7th
Husband and I did a one-day private tour of Yellowstone. Stacy contacted me a few weeks prior to tour to understand our goals for the day - wild life spotting, hiking, main tourist attractions, photography, etc. We wanted to see wildlife and fit in some of the tourist areas if time allowed.
Stacy picked us up at our hotel in West Yellowstone (they can pick up from most areas near the Park) at 7:30 with awesome breakfast sandwiches and juice to eat on our drive out to Lamar Valley (I think it was about 1.5 hours). I’m not a breakfast sandwich person but these were really good, on fluffy English muffins. We also ate lunch in the van to save time.
Several things that stand out about Obsidian Cliff Tours and Stacy:
Covid awareness - van was clean and Stacy wore mask in the van (not the case with other tours we took). Additionally, Stacy reminded us to not touch railings and put masks on when we were in the midst of other tourists. Fortunately this didn’t occur often as Stacy took a route that was opposite to that followed by most park visitors,
Stacy has a radio to listen to park rangers dealing with animals on the road and wandering near tourists. He also speaks to his guides and other guide companies to learn where recent wildlife have been hanging out. As well, he knows animals’ favorite hangouts from his many years of experience. As a result, we saw a lot of wildlife, including bison, elk, wolves, pronghorns and coyotes. The only animal we missed were bears. We were actually in a bison stampede! Stacy definitely fulfilled our request to see wildlife!
I greatly appreciated Stacy stopping at the best bathrooms in the park (large, clean, regularly maintained, with running water)!
I felt very safe with Stacy’s driving and safety precautions when we were in the woods.
Stacy regularly took photos and videos of the highlights of the day and forwarded them to us. Great photos for our album. He even shared photos of bears that he had seen a few days earlier.
Omg, so much knowledge about the animals, the geology, ecological efforts and the Park’s history. For example, we learned why many dead trees are white at the bottom of the trunk (the Bobby socks effect), why large bison herds are comprised of mostly females, how views on wildfires are changing, and so much more. I highly recommend you take the tour to find out the answers these questions and many more.
Stacy is a great story teller about events that have taken place in the park and on his past tours. He kept us wanting more.
The tour lasted nearly 12 hours and I realized the following day, when I looked at the map, that we had covered the entire Park, including the major tourist sites with the exception of Ol’ Faithful and the Prismatic spring. I specifically asked Stacy to skip these since we could easily view those on our own. We covered more ground than we ever would have on our own!