I know I have sung the praises of Yellowstone in the summer, but it can be just as glorious in the winter. First of all, you'll have the park virtually to yourself. During winter, only the short road from the Montana gateway town of Gardiner to the Mammoth Hot Springs lodge is cleared for cars, but the park itself remains wide open -- and practically empty. A handful of cross-country skiers and snowshoers share this vast national treasure with just a few small groups touring by snowmobile or snowcoach (sort of a 1960s version of a public minibus crossed with a snowcat).

Secondly, with thick blankets of white snow as a backdrop, the wildlife is far easier to spot. Here a brace of elk with magnificent racks of antlers snuggle into snowy beds, there a red fox slinks through the woods by the side of the road. Trumpeter swans glide on the river, pronghorn antelope pause on their migratory routes to rest, large hares jackrabbit across the landscape, giant bison root through the snow for food, and bighorn sheep skitter up seemingly impossible cliff sides.

Yellowstone in winter does take a bit of planning. Between December 19 and March 9, only two hotels remain open in the park: the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, accessible by car, where winter rates start at $78 for a room with a shared bathroom, $105 for a room with private bath; and the Old Faithful Snow Lodge, accessible only by snowcoach or snowmobile, which starts at $180 for a lodge room, from $87 for a cabin.

Xanterra, the lodging company that operates both lodges (tel. 866/439-7375; www.travelyellowstone.com), offers a series of "Winter Getaways" packages. You can get two nights lodging at either the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel (from $109 per person) or the Old Faithful Snow Lodge (from $269 per person -- it includes the snowcoach ride in) in packages that also include breakfast, unlimited ice-skating (with free skates), various discounts, and a one-hour hot tub rental.

More active guests might consider a "Nordic Heaven" version that throws in a full day's ski rental starting from $159 per person (at Mammoth). If your conscience can square the use of snowmobiles in the park (which only allows operation of a limited number of the cleaner, 4-stroke snowmobiles each day) you can get a similar deal substituting for the skiing a guided snowmobile tour to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone or Old Faithful starting at $205 at Mammoth.

For longer or more in-depth educational vacations, contact the Yellowstone Association Institute (tel. 307/344-2293; www.yellowstoneassociation.org).

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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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It is, of course, a bit of a trip. You approach it from Bozeman or Billings, Montana, or from Jackson, Wyoming, and few of us live anywhere near those towns. But after a long drive through the American West, your exertions are repaid by what is, arguably, the top attraction of America.

Yellowstone! Its wildlife -- including majestic buffalo and elk -- are more diverse and numerous than in any other park. It is, according to experts, the last remaining fully-intact eco-system in the lower 48 states -- all in an area larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined.

Its geysers, steam emissions, hot springs and mudpots are sobering evidence that our thin crust of earth lies on top of molten rock ("magma"). Yellowstone itself is the largest volcano on earth, a vast "caldera" fifty miles in each direction that was pushed upward to an average elevation of 8,000 feet by an epic eruption occurring as recently as 640,000 years ago. When you walk through the park on boardwalks that protect you from the steam and boiling waters emerging from cracks in the land's surface, you are made to consider the transitory nature of humankind and of our civilization. At some point in the future, Yellowstone -- with perhaps the thinnest earth crust anywhere in the world, and more geysers than in Iceland or New Zealand -- will erupt again.

Generally, if you are to enjoy the magic of Yellowstone, you must schedule your visit for between May and the end of September. My own recent visit took place in September, and although one particular road -- the mountainous Bear's Tooth Highway -- was already closed by snow, almost everything else within Yellowstone was functioning normally, nearly all the lodges were open and thriving, and thousands of lightly-clad visitors (wearing "layers" and removing outside jackets and sweaters as the day warmed up) were reveling in the Park's extraordinary sights and phenomena.

Obviously, you will need a car. Though numerous national motorcoach tours go whizzing through in a day or two (what sacrilege!) and travel agents in the entrance town of Gardiner will even escort you on visits of five hours and less, it is ludicrous to schedule less than three days for a thorough experience. Each of a number of widely-separated areas -- Mammoth Hot Springs, the Canyon area, the Lake Area, Old Faithful and its surroundings, can each consume a full day of intensive and rewarding sightseeing. I'm still recalling the sight of giant herds of bison crossing the road in front of my car, the thrill of Old Faithful casting its plume of water and steam high in the air, the awesome vision of "the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone," a respectable runner-up to Arizona's.

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