Advice from a Yellowstone guide
Beyond the Brochure
Beyond the Brochure is a free online seminar, hosted once a month by a Yellowstone Recreation Co. guide, created to help first-time visitors make the most of the park. Yellowstone is a one-of-a-kind and incredible destination, but can also be overwhelming and difficult to navigate. This seminar is designed to answer common questions, highlight mistakes to avoid, and provide insider tips and sample itineraries, plus a live Q&A so you can get personalized advice for your trip.
Who are we?
Yellowstone Recreation Co. is a Gardiner, MT based tour company dedicated to helping visitors experience Yellowstone National Park with depth and ease. We combine naturalist knowledge of the park’s wildlife, geology, and history with a passion for sharing its stories, ensuring every trip is both memorable, educational, and meaningful. From guided tours to curated resources, our goal is to help travelers go beyond the surface and connect with Yellowstone in a way that’s informative, enjoyable, and stress-free.
Your host for this seminar is Elijah Starkey, a co-owner of Yellowstone Recreation Co. and a dedicated naturalist guide in Yellowstone. As a year-round resident of Gardiner, Montana, and a professional Yellowstone guide, he has spent years helping visitors explore the park’s wildlife, landscapes, and history. Elijah’s deep connection to Yellowstone and his experience guiding first-time and returning visitors alike make him passionate about sharing insights that help travelers avoid common pitfalls and enjoy the park to its fullest.

What will we cover?

What is Yellowstone?
Most visitors attending this free online seminar likely already have some conception about what Yellowstone is, but we hope to build a better foundation for fully appreciating what Yellowstone has to offer. Yellowstone’s ecologic, human, and geologic history is rich far beyond what we can cover in one seminar, but we hope by building a better foundation of understanding visitors can better decide what it is they want out of their Yellowstone adventure and plan out a trip that will be more fulfilling.

What should I see?
Yellowstone would take more than a lifetime to fully explore. The park’s incredible concentration and diversity of large mammals is unparalleled in the contiguous United States. The area’s rich geologic history, from volcanism, to the formation of the Rocky Mountains, to recent glacial events, is enough to fill multiple days of touring.
In this seminar we try to give first-time visitors a foundational conception of what Yellowstone is, what there is to see in the park, and help visitors decide what interests them most about this incredible location.

Sample Itineraries
Yellowstone is massive. The park covers over 2.2 million acres, greater in area than Delaware and Rhode Island combined. In this seminar we offer two sample itineraries for you to consider, and to illustrate how to go about planning your trip to Yellowstone. What attractions should be visited within limited time, distances to be covered, possible set-backs (bison jams), and more are considered to help you understand how to navigate the park.

Tips for planning your Yellowstone adventure
This seminar offers tips on navigation, where to eat, wildlife spotting, wildlife safety, getting off the beaten path, and so much more. The talk also concludes with a Q&A to ask any questions not covered during the main body of the seminar, as well as exclusive opportunities for discounts on Yellowstone Recreation Co. guided tours.
How do I join?
Beyond the Brochure is hosted on the fifth day of every month through Zoom and invitations are sent out one week prior to, and the day of the seminar. You can receive these invitations by joining our newsletter below. The exact date and time of the seminar is subject to change, and any changes will be announced in the newsletter. Invitations will be sent out one week prior to and on the day of the seminar. If you have any difficulty with the process please reach out to us through our contact page on this website. We look forward to seeing you at the seminar and in the park!
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Your guide to Yellowstone.
Yellowstone Recreation Co. offers private, public, and personalized tours of Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone offers more than could be experienced in a lifetime, much less a day. We help ensure you get the most out of your time in Yellowstone.
Our experienced and passionate guides are pros at showing off this park we’re so proud to call our backyard. From the history, to the ecology, to the incredible geology, Yellowstone fascinates and inspires us. We hope you’ll join us for a day, so we can show you all this incredible and unique wonderland has to offer.