Much of our time in Montana during this recent trip was spent near Yellowstone National Park. As we wanted to take full advantage of Sage Lodge’s proximity, we asked the Andrew Harper Travel Office to have the hotel organize a private snowshoeing tour.

Encompassing more than 2.2 million acres of untouched wilderness and nearly 60 percent of the world’s geysers, Yellowstone was designated America’s first national park by President Ulysses S. Grant in March 1872. It is a paradisiacal destination for outdoor-adventure enthusiasts, bird-watching aficionados and animal lovers in all seasons.

The terrain teems with free-roaming moose, elk and bison, and we saw plenty of each during our three-hour outing. Travelers also visit to see gray wolves, successfully reintroduced to the park following the near decimation of the species. We encountered a group of television reporters and photographers who had come out to admire the largest pack, a group of 15 wolves, which had just been spied by rangers.

Yellowstone Wildlife (slideshow below)

Our guide encouraged us to customize our tour, and unfortunately, tracking wolves would have consumed its entirety. When we mentioned bears, she beelined to an unmarked location where she had seen a den a few weeks earlier. She set up a scope, and we were lucky enough to spot a black bear poking his head and nose out of his home. Nearby, we gazed down from a travertine terrace onto the steam-wreathed, sculptural geothermal features of Mammoth Hot Springs.