Yellow Wood Guiding offers private Estes Park Guided Tours of Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colorado.
To Book your tour, confirm the date is available on our online schedule by clicking Check Availability. Check the month you plan to vist. White and Bright Green Dates have availability, Red dates are booked. If the date is open and no one has emailed for the date prior it's yours.
Read over the details of the tour one last time to make sure you picked the best tour for you. Remeber all tours either start before Sunrise or end after Sunset so you have the best experience, best weather, and the least crowds.
Wildlife Tours Photo Tours Best of Rocky Tours Hiking Tours
Wildlife Tours Photo Tours Best of Rocky Tours Snowshoeing
You can only book a tour by emailing Tours@YWGuiding.com
(If clicking the button doesn't open your email, copy and paste or type the email address into your TO: section on your email)
Since every tour is customized we do not have an automated booking system. We need to tailor each trip just for you, from the start time, meeting location, and what tour type best fits your interests. Because of this, you can only book a tour via Email to make sure you have an excellent experience. We use email so we both have a copy of your confirmation, reduce errors, and avoid the challenges of poor cell signal in the mountains.
When you send the complete info and questions answered I will send you a confirmation email. If you have any questions be sure to read the FAQ's below and if you don't find the info on the tour pages or FAQ section please email.
What date and part of the day, morning or evening, would you like to book?
What kind of Tour you would like to book? Wildlife, Photo, Best of Rocky, or Hiking Tour
What sights or wildlife are you most interested in seeing, learning and/or photographing?
How long of a tour you would like: 4 hour (3.5 hour Winter), 6 hour, or 8 hour tour?
What Estes Park Hotel or Resort you are staying? (I will pick you up there)
I will recommend a early morning or evening start time once I know what kind of tour you wish. Please Confirm that time will work for you.
What are the first names and age of each guest that will be on the tour?
A cell phone number to reach you during your trip?
What Estes Park website or search engine did you learn about Yellow Wood Guiding?
No, Yellow Wood Guiding tours are very detail oriented with information at a high school and college level. Often children under 16 get bored due to the level of information and the pace as there can be a good bit of driving. There is a strict 12 and up age limit. We are often standing very close to the highway or 75 feet from potentially dangerous wildlife if you are not calm. If your kids are not extremely into nature and science a Yellow Wood Guiding tour may not be for your family. A good test to see if a tour is right for your kids is have them watch the linked video. If they think its cool, they would probably think a tour would be too: Yellow Guiding Tour Video
No, In the summer months I get about 1 cancellation per month and its almost always extremely last minute. I do not keep a cancellation list. Check the schedule to see if there are openings, if it's marked as booked it's booked. If you are planning a trip within 30 days, openings will not generally show up. Be sure to plan your summer trip at least 2 or 3 months out to have a good chance of booking your tour. Fall trips might need to be booked as early as February. Sometimes multiple people email for the same day, whomever completes the requested information first will get the reservation.
No, all tours are private and customized. Only the people you invite will come along.
Yes, all tours are limited to only 4 guests! There are 4 seat bealts, 4 sets of top of the line binoculars, and 4 sets of hiking poles. No exceptions and we do not allow cars the follow along as folks in the other car miss out on nearly the entire tour experience, and there is limited places to park on the private type of tours Yellow Wood Guiding offers.
The vehicle we use is a mid-size SUV Hyundai Santa Fe, so three people would be in the back seat on a 4 person tour. For some plus sized people this makes for a very tight fit. Our average tour is two people so using a giant SUV or van for most tours is not economically or environmentally friendly. Be sure you are going to be comfortable.
With two decades of guiding experience I've come to find miscommunication and human error are very rare, but about once a year bound to happen. I want to offer excellent service to all guests and I have strived to avoid and correct any scheduling errors but about once a year a date will get double booked or cancelled by mistake. Bookings are only via email so we can keep a copy and double check to reduce miscommunication.
If the guide doesn't arrive in 5 minutes of your scheduled time, please Text and Email. In the mountains signal is very spotty so calls rarely work. After 10 minutes it is safe to assume we had a scheduling error, in that extremely rare case I would highly recommend heading into the national park on your own, enter on Highway 34 Fall River Entrance, exploring the low valleys of Horseshoe Park and Moraine Park year round, and Trail Ridge Road in the summer months. If you can't contact me via text or email within 5 minutes I am likely outside of signal range. Average Human Error rate is about 4%, my error rate is about 0.27% , and I will do everything I can to make sure you have a great experience.
Yellow Wood Guiding is Authorized by the National Park Service, Department of Interior to conduct services in Rocky Mountain National Park. Fees for service are strictly for educational nature experiences and photography instruction, not transportation.