We booked this tour based on previous reviews in TripAdvisor. We made the reservation seven months in advance due to the popularity of this experience. The tour exceeded our expectations. When we made our online reservation, we got a personalized confirmation. A few weeks before our trip, we received a communication confirming our upcoming tour. The day before our trip we were called by Miriam, our personal guide to confirm details. She asked us what time we would like to begin our tour, and we asked for her recommendation on what would be best. My wife and I were traveling with our two twelve year old granddaughters and they were most interested in seeing animals. Miriam said that for that experience, leaving early would be best. We said that we would be ready at whatever time that she recommended, so we were picked up at our cabin in West Yellowstone at 5:00 am the following morning. She arrived about 5 minutes before the pickup time and texted that she was outside. When we came out to meet her, she had hot beverages and muffins and granola bars available. (It was 37 degrees and light snow.). Inside the large Dodge Ram Crew-Cab truck were a variety of snacks, water and beverages for us as needed. Miriam explained to us that she was a Native American that grew up in the area, her father had been a geologist in the national park and she was a naturalist. She knew every spot to find each type of animal. We could have never found all of these on our own. We saw hundreds of bison, herds of antelope, numerous elk and mule deer. We saw three black bears and one grizzly bear. We got to watch three wolves try to separate a newborn bison calf from the herd, but they were then chased off by a large bull. We saw ducks, geese, swans, ravens and magpies. We saw horned sheep on the hillside. The only thing that we did not get to see was a moose although Miriam went to several areas that she knew where they had been spotted. All the time that she was showing us these animals, she was giving us the history of the park, talking to us about the geothermal phenomena and telling us about her many personal experiences here over the years. She had a choice of meat and cheeses for lunch or we could have chosen to go to a restaurant in the park. At the end of our tour, she gave us a detailed list and order of visit for other areas in the park that we did not visit with her. Our tour lasted from 5:00 am until 3:30 pm when she dropped us off at our cabin in West Yellowstone.
Many people wonder why do a guided tour as you can drive yourself and see the sights. Due to her expertise, we saw more in one day that most travelers see in multiple days plus we got the narrative along with the sightings. It added a tremendous amount to our enjoying our trip and was well worth the cost of the excursion. I would recommend this service in general and Miriam specifically to visitors to Yellowstone.