She didn't wear the Stetson hat and distinctive green-and-brown uniform of a park Ranger. Her only I.D. was a metal name tag pinned to her jacket. But the guide from the Yellowstone Association (www.yellowstoneassociation.org) who met us for breakfast at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel, and then spent the entire day escorting us by van and on foot through a vast swath of the Yellowstone wilderness, was as highly motivated, well-informed, and delightful, as any member of the National Parks Service.

Nearly every major U.S. National Park has a non-profit "association" which assists in the education of park visitors. Yosemite, for instance, has one, and Yellowstone has a particularly impressive one offering a wide range of "Lodging and Learning" programs -- "Trails through Yellowstone," "Yellowstone for Families," "Springtime in Wonderland," "Autumn in Wonderland," and several more -- that combine three or four nights of lodging and meals, in-park transportation by van, and expert instruction by naturalists, biologists and geologists, who can bring about understanding of the complex wildlife, geysers and hot springs in America's oldest national park.

Their full-time services, and the room and board you also receive in park cabins with private bath, can run as low as $150 a day per adult and $90 a day per child.

On our recent trip to Yellowstone, my wife Roberta and I opted for one of the Yelllowstone Association's one-day "Ed-Ventures" -- an intense eight hours spent wildlife-watching and hiking/walking among the thermal geology and unique scenery of this American wonderland in Wyoming. The "Ed-Venture" charge is $395 for up to seven people, and if you are lucky enough to have several others scheduled for the day of your "Ed-Venture", the entire experience -- including transportation and the constant services and lecture-commentary of a Yellowstone Association guide -- can amount to less than $60 a person.

There are, of course, numerous free-of-charge walking tours of 45 minutes or so that park Rangers also offer at different sites in Yellowstone, and we greatly enjoyed these quick interludes operated by idealistic park service employees. And there are some Ranger-led tours of up to six hours, for a modest fee. But the ability of the Rangers to conduct longer tours using transport has been severely reduced in recent years by cut-backs in appropriations mandated by Congress. And what once was free, no longer is. Fortunately, the Yellowstone Association, staffed in part by former Rangers, has taken up the challenge. Call 307/344-5566 to register for "Lodging & Learning"; call 307/344-2294 to register for a personal Ed-Venture. And for more elaborate group programs, operated by the Association, call 307/344-2591.

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