Spotlighting a Winter's Journey: Yellowstone National Park

When the crowds of Yellowstone National Park dwindle as the earth is covered in a striking blanket of white; a dramatic environment of fire and ice remains.

An adventure into this place known as “Wonderland” in the winter time is other-worldly. Bison, elk and wolves all endure the wrath of Mother Nature as they wander through the snow covered valleys. The geothermal features are simply jaw dropping in this frigid environment with billowing clouds of steam rising in every direction, waterfalls stand frozen in time as if by magic, and the water of geysers erupts into the brisk air instantly transforming into diamond dust twinkling as it falls back to the ground. 

With over four million visitors a year, the majority of which traveling in the summer months, some of the Yellowstone charm can be taken away by the sheer crowds of people.

The most refreshing aspect of winter in Yellowstone for me is the silence and solitude. A visitor gets to experience this place like it was meant to be, like one of the first explorers discovering this enchanting area for the first time.

Vehicles of another class come alive as the snow piles up and most of the roads close to traditional cars. Snowmobiles, snow coaches, and other captivating snow crawling machines provide the transportation into the heart of the Park. As you travel into the depths of Yellowstone via one of these tremendous machines, it feels as if you are on a great polar expedition into a land of fire and ice.

Cross-country skiing and snow shoeing trails replace the standard hiking paths in the winter; it is exhilarating to investigate the wild thermal features with skis or snow shoes underfoot. The cozy Snow Lodge greets guests from the bitter cold, and there is nothing like having a warm drink and sitting around the fireplace of the Lodge after a full day of exploration.

Taking a Yellowstone winter tour gives you the chance to experience the raw power of Mother Nature.

This place can be brutal, beautiful, and captivating all in one; a place where super-heated water erupts into arctic air and where wildlife pushes snow in a constant struggle to survive. Yellowstone in winter is a place where silence and solitude dominate the Parks interior. In my opinion, you have never really seen Yellowstone until you’ve been there in the winter. 

Cowboy-

Over-snow winter travel opens this year on December 15th, so get your plans in order!

Why Airbnb Hosts Should Travel

Corey with his sister Kayla outside Refugio Frey after enduring a four day blizzard in Patagonia Argentina—

Embrace the spirit of adventure.

Travel is at the core of Headwaters Hosting. We encourage our team-members to get out of their nest as much as possible, to gain new perspectives and bring back fresh energy to our team. A refreshed mindset allows us to do more creative work. Exploring new places allows us to put ourselves in our guests shoes as we discover completely foreign environments. It gives us a chance to take pointers on what other hosts are doing in the world and how we can incorporate some of these heart-warming attributes into our own practices while hosting travelers at home.

Both managing partners at Headwaters recently returned to Big Sky from their most recent cultural immersions. Alison from Mumbai, India and Corey spent a month in the Southern Hemisphere skiing and exploring Patagonia Argentina and Chile with his sister.

If you are open and willing, travel will make you an incredibly more well-rounded human being. It will teach you compassion for others and test your core beliefs. It allows you to gain an outside perspective on your own life, your own goals, and what energy you want to bring to the table upon your return home.

When you set off on a journey, it can help to be as clear as you can about what you’d ideally want to get out of your wanderings. Good trips should be transformational and their effects long-lasting, but in order to be so, we should take a moment—in the departure lounge or at home the night before, when the suitcases are packed—to reflect on what we really want to derive from heading out into the world.

Alison embracing the culture in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Through travel we have found that the core Airbnb concept of ‘belonging anywhere’ is true. From an Earth view, we are all humans on this little green planet and accepting foreigners as family is just natural to us. Airbnb has redefined what a good travel experience is through allowing local people to host travelers versus corporate enterprises or big hotel chains, this gives a guest a full immersion while out on the open road. We encourage everyone, Airbnb host or not, to get out there and explore. For us it is necessary, we will continue to travel and bring back new ideas and unique ways to allow our guests to live more like a local rather than travel like a tourist.

Happy Trails,

Corey

Reflecting on a day of skiing the active Villarrica Volcano this past October while hitching a ride back to Pucón, Chile.