Yellowstone Private: Old Faithful & Iconic Lower Loop Journey

This was our second worthwhile tour with Tied to Nature in Yellowstone park. John B. Was a wealth of knowledge as our guide! He took us to all of the important stops (waterfalls, geothermal locations, and more) and filled us in on the important history and science of all of these areas. There wasn’t one question of ours he couldn’t answer. John spoke clearly so everyone in the van could hear and was engaging with our three kids too! We had a wonderful day touring and definitely feel that it was more than worth the investment to get the most out of our time in Yellowstone.

John Bybee accompanied us on our private and comfortable tour of Yellowstone. My husband is disabled and can’t walk more than a block or two, and John knew this and accommodated our needs perfectly! We saw everything we were hoping to see (escort a moose!) and John’s encyclopedic commentary was really appreciated! He could address nearly everything we asked about ! Complete with dates and names (often including middle initials!) of individuals including explorers and Presidents, wives and children.. John’s fund of knowledge is incredible! He knows his botany too! And I think history is his strength. But his geological knowledge base seems astounding, too. He is personable and polite and patient. We couldn’t have asked for a better guide. We had John for three tours and after day 1, we were so happy to see him each time. Two tours in Yellowstone and one in Grand Tetons. Wonderful, all. (We had a wildlife tour with Bryan. I’ll review that under that topic. Equally good and very different skill set.)

We have been telling all our friends about this wonderful tour and our guide, John. It was a private tour for 14 of us ranging in age from 4 to 72. So glad we started with pick up at 6 AM otherwise we would not have seen the wildlife that John pointed out for us—moose, coyote, elk, prong horns, etc. He knew the best spots and the most interesting topographical features to see. We hit Old Faithful at the perfect time and he had lunch waiting for us in the shade of the Old Faithful Inn Deck. The younger kids were full of questions one after the other. And our pregnant daughter wasn’t feeling well. John was patient and went with the flow. All of us loved that day and will remember it for a long time to come.

We toured with Jarrod and not only was he a fantastic tour guide, but he's also just a great guy and fit in well with our group. Very knowledgeable and took us to the best places for our one-day tour. Got to see ample wildlife and had an overall wonderful day at Yellowstone. Highly recommend Tied to Nature!

I am so glad that my sister and I followed up with booking a tour with Tied to Nature, as recommended by friends! Jared, our guide, was so knowledgeable and knew just where to take us to see everything we had hoped to. I know that we would not have seen half of the places he took us to. I am always the driver, so I miss a lot that way. It was wonderful to have a driver, so I could take in the majesty of the park. The pictures we got were amazing! He truly made it a memorable trip. Thanks Jared, and Tied to Nature! I will recommend you to everyone I know that is making that trip. ps....the sandwiches and snacks were a welcome treat!

Had a great time! Brian the guide was wonderful, easy going and knowledgeable. We experienced so many wonderful things. Highly recommend!!

Our tour with Scott was A+ and our family learned so much about the history of the park, the animals, and the science behind the natural features. Highly recommended.!

It was just my husband and me with our Tied To Nature guide, Jarod. He was our MOST AMAZING personal guide. He did all the work so we didn't have to. He got us in the park before the crowds. We didn't have to struggle with maps or with trying to drive while sightseeing. He expertly maneuvered traffic and parking to make sure we saw all there was to see. He had a high powered scope which made it possible for us to view wildlife from far away. He showed us waterfalls and grizzly bears and wolf dens and buffalo and volcanic eruptions of all sizes--including Old Faithful. He was our personal photographer and took amazing pictures throughout the day--then sent them to us after our tour was over. He had drinks and snacks in the van and a wonderful lunch packed for us which we had at the Old Faithful Inn--a simply breathtaking venue and so much fun. While we traveled from site to site, Jarod talked to us about the most amazing topics. He was a wealth of knowledge about all things Yellowstone. I wish I had recorded everything he said! Jarod even helped us plan our next two days since we would be on our own. That ended up being easy for us since he taught us the best way to see Yellowstone! We had Jarod for eight hours but the time went by too fast. In closing, we would wholeheartedly recommend a private tour with Tied To Nature and we would recommend Jarod for THE BEST DAY EVER!!

We took Yellowstone tours with Tied to Nature this week, a day on the lower loop with stops at Old Faithful, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone with spectacular waterfall views from both close and far away vistas. The large, new van had plenty of room for us, from 8 to 68 and from 4 ft to 6’8”. Our guide for both days, John Bybee, was knowledgeable and a great driver navigating crowds and stopping at so many sites we had to write them down. Never telling us where we were going he would ask if we wanted to go here or there. Tied to Nature are the guides on the side not the sage on the stage. From his early arrival at 6:15 the first day for a 6:30 pickup, no waiting, to our secluded lunches where we ate at picnic benches with sweeping views, Tied to Nature made us feel like we were the only people in the park. Not 20 minutes into our first day our guide spotted a bald eagle flying low over the river next to the road, the bird watcher’s holy grail. Several Black Bears were eating wildflowers on the side of the road where we stopped and watched from across the street. We sounded the same when we saw a bear as we would riding a rollercoaster. Day 2, the day a new geyser feature emerged in Biscuit Basin, we toured the upper loop where we spotted many animals from the van and stopped to view vast herds of buffalo with our Tied to Nature binoculars and John’s Zeiss scope with a large screen attached, giving us amazing views of an Osprey couple feeding their babies in a huge nest and wolves chasing Bison then the Bison herd chasing the wolves. He later sent videos he recorded from the Zeiss of the encounters to go with our 300+ pics and videos. We have lasting memories of our trip. There were hundreds of barn swallows in mud nests under the eaves of a 140 year old barn and corrals used to house the original Bison brought to Yellowstone in the Lamar Valley, don’t stand under the eaves. The Sandhill crane was a rare sighting and a yellow striped Marmot posed for us on a nearby rock. Elk, Mule deer, a Black Wolf and 2 pups from the Junction Butte pack and an American antelope shared their meadows with us. Canadian Geese flew over as a badger scooted by our van. 8 year old Stella had her eyes closed in the van riding between stops I assumed she was sleeping. She told me later she was actually listening to John’s calm descriptions of the animals, thermal features and history. She didn’t miss a story. When John brought out the Zeiss spotting scope with the large screen attached to the viewfinder we had clear views of wolves and buffalos over a mile away and of Osprey feeding chicks in the nest. Other park visitors gravitated to the Zeiss even though they had their own scopes also because of John’s calm, friendly descriptions even as you could hear other guides shouting to their groups some with mic amplifiers, as they spotted animals. John would simply step back from his screen and quietly describe animals and history, still attracting curious visitors. I thought at first, “Hey, that’s our guide” but soon realized the beauty of Yellowstone is a shared experience for all. I felt a sense of pride when a women and her young daughter approached John and asked how to get to Gibbon Falls. When we arrived there and saw them I was glad they found it because of our friendly group. We booked our tour over a year ago, giving us plenty of time to watch Adam Brubaker’s Podcasts and Ken Burn’s Yellowstone documentaries giving us a perspective on the importance of the area for the Shoshone, Blackfoot and Sioux people, the first citizens of Yellowstone. Thanks to our friend and nature photographer Seth Brandes for recommending Tied to Nature, we won’t forget our special days in America’s Serengeti!

Brian Barton was our guide. Brian was very knowledgeable of the sights we visited and of the park in general. Because of his expertise in wildlife behavior we were able to get spectacular video of a black bear. He timed our arrival to Old Faithful perfectly. Brian made the tour very enjoyable.