Home » Skiing in Cody means Yellowstone wildlife from your car window
A bighorn ram browses along the side of the Northfork Highway between Cody and the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park.

Skiing in Cody means Yellowstone wildlife from your car window

Yellowstone wildlife in the winter - A bighorn ram showing he's tough out the window of my car.
Bighorn ram showing he’s tough.

Want to see Yellowstone wildlife up close? …then go skiing.

A quick 50 mile drive west of Cody is our hidden gem of a ski area, Sleeping Giant. Even if you are not a skier or snowboarder (there is also great Nordic skiing and snowshoeing), the drive to the east gate of Yellowstone National Park is well worth the trip. The winter drive is better than the summer drive, by far, and here is why.

Not only do the mountains look better with snow on them, but when there is snow on the mountains, the Yellowstone wildlife has nowhere to go but down, and down is where the highway is. The Northfork Highway is one of the most beautiful roads you will find anywhere, add in a menagerie of bighorn sheep, bison, deer, elk, bald eagles, coyotes, and occasionally a wolf, and you are in for an extraordinarily rare visual treat. Where else in the world can you see herds of big horn sheep from your car window every single trip? And I do mean every trip.

Just outside the East Entrance to Yellowstone National Park, Sleeping Giant Ski Area offers some of the best family skiing you will find with priceless views.
Sleeping Giant Ski Area

The images of Yellowstone wildlife you see here are all shot through the window of my car with either a cell phone or pocket camera (no big lenses necessary) on weekend ski trips, my very jaded children in the back seat urging me on so we can get to the slopes. They do not realize how lucky they are, and how rare and special the road to Yellowstone is. Come and see it for yourself.

Yellowstone Wildlife in Winter - An Impressive Bighorn Ram on the road to Yellowstone sizes up my car
An impressive bighorn ram only feet away.
Yellowstone Wildlife in Winter - Another roadside attraction while driving from Cody to Yellowstone National Park. A bison lies down in the snow.
Another roadside attraction while driving from Cody to Yellowstone National Park.
Yellowstone Wildlife in Winter - A bighorn ram browses along the side of the Northfork Highway between Cody and the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park.
A bighorn ram browses along the side of the Northfork Highway between Cody and the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park.
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John Gallagher avatar

John Gallagher

John Gallagher is the Information Technology Department Manager at the Center. He has worked at the Center since before it had an Internet connection. Not that he doesn’t really like sweating the details of the hundreds of devices under his care; but his real passion is for what Cody, Wyoming has to offer. He spends as much time as possible riding his mountain bike and generally enjoying the great outdoor offerings of northwest Wyoming with his kids and dog in tow.

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