Yellowstone Yearround Adventures




We are Yellowstone Yearround Adventures; we want to help you experience the wonders of Yellowstone on our Wildlife Tours, Geyser and Waterfall tours, Day Hikes and Snowshoe Treks. Our family owned and operated business is a permitted Yellowstone / Grand Teton National Park concessionaire based at the north and original entrance to Yellowstone National Park, Gardiner MT. Our goal is to provide you with quality and rewarding vacation while in Yellowstone. We want those who visit the area to leave wanting to come back and explore Yellowstone again and again.

Rick KeatsRick Keats, owner and founder of Yellowstone Yearround Adventures, has been guiding in and around Yellowstone National Park since 1997. His love for the area bloomed when he worked as a law enforcement officer in Cody, WY. After 20 years, Rick was ready for a change and started his own seasonal rafting company on the Missouri River in Cascade Montana. The lure of Yellowstone was great and he also worked part time for an established company in West Yellowstone, as a tour guide by van in the summer and snow coach or snowmobile guide in the winter. He guided rafters and fishermen on the Missouri River for two seasons, before selling the business to move to West Yellowstone and guide year round in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Rick especially enjoyed taking visitors to the northern range of Yellowstone on the Evening Wildlife Tours. It was a thrill to spot animals in their natural habitat that most people could only see in zoos or on TV. He often lamented that the tours would be so much better if he didn’t have to waste so much time driving from West Yellowstone. When Carol became the Postmaster in Gardiner, Rick quickly moved from West Yellowstone to Gardiner and started his own tour business, Yellowstone Yearround Adventures.

Rick is a contract Elderhostel instructor for the University of Montana, Western in Dillon, MT. He developed and conducts well-rounded classes encompassing the hydrothermal features, geology and wildlife of the area surrounding the Yellowstone caldera, including Quake Lake and Mesa Falls. He has been a guide for the annual Popular Photography Mentor Series in Yellowstone for 3 years. Rick has completed a course on Snow Tracking and Rare Mammals in Yellowstone with Dr. James Halfpenny. He attended a week long Lewis and Clark Academy at the Interpretive Center in Great Falls MT to further his knowledge of the history of the Yellowstone area. To ensure safety during winter treks Rick attended a Gallatin National Forest class on Avalanche Awareness and Safety, which included rescue techniques.

Carol KeatsCarol Keats is a 4th generation Montana native, her family still owns and operates the Sweetgrass Hills area ranch they homesteaded in 1911. She enjoys going up to the ranch to help with big events such as branding. Because of her agriculture background, Carol works hard to make sure the food served on tours is wholesome and uses as many locally and naturally grown products as possible. She is currently Postmaster in Gardiner, MT and has worked for the US Postal Service since 1985.

When Rick and Carol met, he invited her to vacation with him in Yellowstone. Her reply was that she had been to Yellowstone, “I drove from Billings over the Beartooth Highway, spent the whole day in the park with my kids and stayed the night in Bozeman.” Her attitude was “been there, done that” but her love for Rick won out and she spent a weekend in Yellowstone. She was hooked, after her weekend, she started looking for a position in the Postal Service anywhere near Yellowstone National Park. Most of Carol’s responsibilities with Yellowstone Yearround Adventures are behind the scenes, but once in a while she gets out of the office and into the park on a tour. Carol has also contracted with the University of Montana, Western in Dillon, MT as a Coordinator for the Elderhostel program, and guided with the Popular Photography Mentor Series one year.

We are certified in CPR and Rick and Carol have completed the NOLS Wilderness First Aid course. We want you to come enjoy Yellowstone with us; there is nowhere else on earth like it.


For the past few months we had been dreaming about this trip, our second, to Yellowstone. Now that the children are older, we were going to focus on the wildlife of the park and we were just hoping, at best, to glance at a distant wolf or grizzly through binoculars. We were excited and knew your services would help us, but were not quite prepared for what happened. In two days, we saw at least 16 grizzlies, a total of 4 wolves, golden eagles, mountain goats, pronghorns, big horn sheep, baby owls, ospreys and of course, legions of elks, bison, etc.  Unbelievable! Getting up at 4:45 a.m. was not too, too bad, knowing that Rick would be right there on time, waiting in his comfortable van, and that he would have freshly brewed coffee, delicious homemade breakfast burritos and rolls all ready for us! What an unexpected treat. Rick knew exactly where to go and when as if all the fantastic scenes we witnessed had been staged just for us. He taught us so much, and no nicely, about the history, biology and life of the park and the animals, and proper animal-watching etiquette. In fact, after a couple of days we were starting to be able to spot a few animals on our own. The scopes he provided were of top quality, easy to use, and we were even able to take a few pictures through them. Our trip was fantastic and varied Rick knew how long to stay at each site, what to look for and where, when we were hungry or needed to stretch our legs! He was patient with us and put our safety first at all times. We were impressed too by the excellent relationships he had with the park rangers, other biologists and were proud to even be introduced to a world famous documentary film maker whose work in the wolves of Yellowstone we were familiar with! This note would not be complete without a special mention of the food we were served homemade everything, fresh and delicious, served on a table cloth in a picturesque picnic area. How could you beat that? These two days flew by so fast thank goodness we have over 250 photos and a couple of short movies of the grizzlies that we are going to look at again and again for the next few years!

With my best regards,
Veronique Lagrange

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Yellowstone Yearround Adventures | P.O. Box 746, Bozeman, Montana 59771 USA | Phone: 406-585-9041 | Fax: 406-585-9041

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