37 WINTER 2020 ISSUE 02 / VOL . 01

Filmmaker Ken Burns called the creation of our national parks America ’ s best idea in his series “ The National Parks .” Heading east from the town of West Yellowstone , our group crossed the road and followed the unplowed U . S . Highway 20 into the park . We motored a hundred yards up to the large entrance gate where a NPS employee checked our credentials and let us pass .

I ’ ve visited Yellowstone twice before during the summer months , and my fascination for the park grew stronger with each encounter . I didn ’ t know what to expect during the winter , but was already looking forward to seeing it all without the crowds of people , and unending streams of automotive traffic .

The scenery quickly became more rugged after entering the park ’ s western boundary . Even though we rode in a pack , all was quiet inside my helmet as I scanned my surroundings . To the right , Mount Haynes rose to nearly 8,000 feet . Our snowcovered trail , on top of the buried highway , paralleled the meandering Madison River .