Here are just three of our favorite areas around West Yellowstone.
Tepee Basin Located north of West Yellowstone and a bit of a trail ride on the Big Sky Trail but the area is well worth it. There are some fantastic tight canyons to match wits with and wide open meadows to open the throttle in. From the ridge tops you can look east into the Lee Metcalf Wilderness (off limits to riding) and a bit farther into Yellowstone National Park. You are riding along the Wilderness boundary in some places north of the trail so you have to be aware but there are excellent boondocking and hillclimbing areas.
South Plateau Trail This is a great early season ride area because there is usually always snow that stacks up in here. The trail, which heads south out of town, flanks the western boundary of Yellowstone National Park so there's not much wiggle room between the Park and the trail but there are pockets of great riding where you can bail off the trail into some deep powder. The Park boundary is marked but you have to be paying attention so you don't wander across the border. A bit farther down the trail, near where it meets with the Black Bear Cutoff Trail, is a burned out section of the forest, which provides some wide open cross country riding.
Mount Two Top Call us old-fashioned or sentimental but this is still one of our favorites. Mount Two Top (elevation 8,710 feet) is actually in Idaho but the Mount Two Top Loop Trail roughly follows the Montana/Idaho border and provides access to both trail systems in Idaho and Montana. The view from on top of Mount Two Top is one reason this area is so famous among snowmobilers. On a clear day you can see three states (Montana, Idaho and Wyoming), the Centennial Mountains (including Mount Jefferson and Sawtell Peak) in Idaho, the Teton Mountains (and on a good day the Grand Teton) in Wyoming, as well as Yellowstone National Park and Lionhead. Last winter we left West Yellowstone on the Two Top Loop headed south, but before we got to the Mosquito Cutoff Trail we hung a right and rode cross country toward Mount Two Top. It was an incredible ride up a canyon and through the trees on untouched, deep powder. It was one of those rides we'll think back to when we hear people say, "all the snow is tracked up," and we'll tell ourselves, well, they aren't looking hard enough.
You just don't have to look hard for a great snowmobile adventure in West Yellowstone.