Our family took this tour and one challenge right away was that since we were staying at Canyon Lodge at Yellowstone, was figuring out where to meet the tour group. I contacted the tour operator and she was very friendly and patient, and we agreed the best place was to meet at the Craig Thomas Visitor Center at 8 AM. Because of the distance and having to drive a large potion when it’s still pitch black (there’s a reason despite the thousands in the park, the roads are pretty much deserted at night because it’s not a great experience), we had to leave a little after 4 AM (we also made a 20 minute stop at Jackson Lodge to grab breakfast since food was not provided on the tour). So we arrived around 7:45 and they arrived a little after 8 with other people aboard.
As for the tour itself … we were pretty disappointed. The tour time for us was barely three hours instead of four, and a very large portion was just driving around. Even my daughter asked me ‘was that really it?”. We made perhaps three stops during that time and that was about it. Two of the stops were more along the lines to see if we could spot animals, so it wasn’t like we hit the ‘must sees’ either. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and told stories about the area, how the park came about, and so on, but lots of it I’ve already heard or seen before. He did provide a good recommendation for lunch.
Considering the large amount of effort we had to go through to make the tour on time, it definitely wasn’t worth it and we would have been better off just doing our own tour.