© 2021 All Rights Reserved.
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All Yellowstone Guide Academy instructors are experienced guides & trainers, each with over a decade of experience in Yellowstone.
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Earn your nationally-recognized Certified Interpretive Guide certificate or your Professional Yellowstone Guide certificate.
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We present the latest information and ongoing research from one of the most studied and most popular National Parks.
Explore the foundations of interpretation – and beyond – in this nationally-recognized certificate program offered in partnership with the National Association for Interpretation. Engaging classroom sessions and targeted field sessions in northern Yellowstone will engage individuals who are new to the field of interpretation as well as more experienced interpreters looking to add formal training or additional tools to their interpretive skill set.
Are you an aspiring Yellowstone guide? Or an experienced guide looking to hone your interpretive skills and deepen your Yellowstone knowledge? Join us for the Professional Yellowstone Guide training course!
Build your Yellowstone guiding skillset, earn your Professional Yellowstone Guide Certificate, and network with other experienced and aspiring Yellowstone guides.
Earn your Professional Yellowstone Guide Certificate by completing the 5-day core Professional Yellowstone Guide Course including at least 1 elective or deep dive.
This course is aimed at new and experienced Yellowstone guides. Through targeted classroom sessions, plenty of field time in the park with veteran guides and trainers, and guest presentations from local experts, the 5-day core class will provide everything a new guide needs in order to begin their Yellowstone guiding career. In-depth Yellowstone information, “guide specialty” locations, and interpretive skills specifically for Yellowstone guides will provide even long-time guides with new tools to deliver the best possible Yellowstone experiences for their guests.
Additional course components, elective sessions, and information-rich Yellowstone “deep dives” offer a flexible and even more in-depth experience targeted to individual guides’ interests and goals.
Itinerary
Price: $695
Your Registration Includes:
Registration Does Not Include:
This class is taught by experienced Yellowstone naturalist guides, instructors, and guide trainers, each of whom has extensive experience teaching, guiding, and training in Yellowstone.
Ashea Mills
Ashea has spent 30 years exploring and sharing the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, helping people connect to a wild landscape and to themselves. After obtaining a degree in English Writing Arts and Theater, she found herself in Yellowstone, working seasonally and falling in love with one of the most dynamic landscapes on earth.
Ashea has led all ages and interests through the park as a Yellowstone guide, including children’s programming, driving snow coaches, skiing and hiking deep into the backcountry, geyser gazing, and road-based wildlife watching. Since 2020, she has become an expert in Virtual Touring, offering her Yellowstone interpretation in increasingly modern ways while the world adapted.
Ashea is a certified Leave No Trace Trainer and Wilderness First Responder. She is involved in many local and regional organizations pursuing smart growth, wise use of water, and maintaining a Wild Livelihood. Ashea is grateful to raise her daughter in such a wild space. Immersing in Yellowstone’s wildness and the surrounding public lands on skis and foot is where they find nourishment.
Brad Bulin, M.S.
Brad has been guiding in Yellowstone for over 20 years. He earned his Master’s in Wildlife Biology from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, and he is a certified trainer of interpretive guides through the National Association for Interpretation, which he enjoys as a way of passing on his experience as a Yellowstone guide. Before coming to Yellowstone, Brad was a formal educator, teaching K-12 and serving as school principal. He has authored The Grand Lady of Yellowstone and Other Yellowstone Wolf Stories, has had several wildlife videos broadcast on national television, and has conducted many wildlife presentations throughout the country. Brad loves to entertain as well as educate people in this fantastic park he now calls home.
Carolyn Bulin
Carolyn fell in love with Yellowstone on a family vacation over 25 years ago, when she watched the Druid Peak wolf pack successfully hunt an elk in Lamar Valley. She was instantly hooked, and she has now been living and working in Yellowstone for nearly 20 years. Carolyn holds a B.S. in Outdoor Recreation Leadership and Management with emphases in Ecology and Cultural Anthropology from Northern Michigan University, and she is a certified guide trainer and interpretive coach through the National Association for Interpretation. Carolyn and her husband own and operate Yellowstone Wildlife Profiles, which connects people to Yellowstone and the natural world through immersive educational experiences. Previously, she was a seasonal field instructor, year-round resident instructor, and program manager for the Yellowstone Institute. Carolyn has volunteered on snow tracking surveys for the Yellowstone Cougar Project, carcass surveys with the grizzly bear research team, and raven trapping and tagging operations. She has hiked and canoed thousands of miles through the GYE backcountry. During her free time, Carolyn enjoys exploring the GYE with her husband and two small children from their home in Gardiner, MT.
George Bumann, M.S.
George has been a lifelong observer of nature, a researcher, guide, artist, and educator for almost 40 years. After completing a M.S. in Wildlife Ecology, the last 23 years have been spent here in Yellowstone, during which time he has helped over 15,000 people learn how to enjoy the wonders of animal language to deepen their knowledge and appreciation of the natural world through in-person and online courses and his new book, Eavesdropping on Animals: What We Can Learn from Wildlife Conversations. George is also an accomplished sculptor. His nature-inspired artwork can be found in collections throughout the United States and around the globe, including the permanent collections of the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana, among others.
Rob Harwood
Rob was first captivated by the grandeur of Yellowstone as a 9-year-old on a family vacation. His first memory of Yellowstone’s wildlife was watching the famed Druid Peak wolf pack hunting in Lamar Valley during the height of their reign. Over the next two decades, the pull of Yellowstone grew ever stronger as he racked up hundreds of miles exploring the trails of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. He spent three seasons working for one of the park’s main concessionaires before relocating to Gardiner permanently as a full-time guide. He is passionate about sharing Yellowstone’s eminent wildlife, geology, and natural history with others. Rob is also an avid landscape and wildlife photographer with 13 years of experience behind the camera lens. He loves the challenge of capturing the raw beauty and truly wild fauna of Yellowstone in photographic form. In addition to guiding, Rob enjoys climbing in the Tetons, backpacking throughout the GYE and beyond, and trying amazing new foods from around the globe. Rob is a Certified Interpretive Guide and Certified Wilderness First Responder. He studied Outdoor Recreation Leadership & Management at Northern Michigan University.
Shauna Baron, M.S.
Shauna saw her first wild wolf while volunteering for the Yellowstone Wolf Project in 1996 and has been working to protect wolves and wild places ever since. For over 25 years, she has focused her career on outdoor education and wildlife conservation, including work as a biologist for the USFWS Red Wolf Recovery Program in North Carolina, forest carnivore researcher for the University of Vermont, and volunteer at Colorado-based Mission:Wolf.
Shauna has a Bachelor’s in Biology and a Master’s in Science Education. She is a published author, and her educational speciality is developing nature therapy programs for disabled veterans, inner-city youth, and autistic groups. Recently, she was the editor for the Yellowstone Wolf Charts and Genealogy publications as well as launching Yellowstone Trip Planning, an online venue for visitors wanting to make the most of their time vacationing in Yellowstone. When Shauna isn’t in the field guiding or helping others plan their trips, she can be found with a scope to her eye or a book on her lap.
Tyrene Riedl
Originally from Portland, Oregon, Tyrene fell in love with Yellowstone and its ecological diversity during her first visit to fish in the park in 1996, while pursuing a BFA in Acting in Ashland, Oregon. It was a life changing experience, and in 2002, she made the choice to give up her dreams of Broadway to live the dream of moving to Yellowstone. Since 2007, Tyrene has worked in the park as an Interpretive guide, snowcoach driver, fly-fishing guide & instructor, Interpretive Trainer, and outdoor educator. Tyrene is a Certified Interpretive Trainer through the National Association for Interpretation, and she finds inspiration in guiding both new and seasoned park visitors to find a deep and personal connection to Yellowstone as well as encouraging them to discover what wildness means to them.
Don't have time for a multi-day class? Register a la carte for half-day or full-day sessions geared toward guides and covering specific Yellowstone guiding topics in-depth. Choose the sessions that meet your goals, or add half-day electives or a full-day deep dive to your Professional Yellowstone Guide Course registration for a truly customized training experience.
Electives are half-day field- or classroom-based sessions covering specific topics for Yellowstone guides.
Rates: $99 for your first registration unless otherwise noted. Discounts offered for subsequent registrations.
Eavesdropping on Yellowstone’s Wild Conversations – In the Field with George Bumann
May 7 | 6 a.m. – 12 p.m. | Field | $129
Search for wildlife along Yellowstone’s Northern Range through new eyes – and ears – by learning how to decode the wild conversations happening all around you. What can the coyote or the raven tell you about where the wolves are? How can the movements of bison or elk help you find the bears? Spend the morning in the field with renowned naturalist and animal language expert George Bumann learning how to tune in to Yellowstone’s wild conversations to help you become a better guide and enhance your own enjoyment of the natural world.
Fire and Rain: Yellowstone Fire Ecology through the Stories of the Fires of ‘88 – In the Field
May 7 | 8 a.m. – 12 p.m. | In the Field
The fires of 1988 were one of the most significant events in the evolution of Yellowstone National Park, but the Summer of Fire did not stand alone in Yellowstone’s history. Examine the ecological and human stories that coalesced to erupt in – and grew out of – the largest wildfires to date in US history, as well as the lessons of fire ecology and natural process management that we learned from that smoky summer.
Yellowstone: 11,000 Years to Today – In the Field with Ashea Mills
May 7 | 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. | In the Field
Join veteran guide Ashea Mills as we explore Yellowstone through the lens of its indigenous human cultures, both ancient and modern. We will journey across landscapes and time that have served as market, kitchen, home, and spiritual pathways.
Aliens Among Us! Life in Hot Water – In the Field with Shauna Baron
May 7 | 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. | In the Field
Join Shauna at Mammoth Hot Springs to learn about the fascinating organisms that thrive in this unique environment. We will explore their colorful characteristics and the special adaptations that enable them to withstand high temperatures. Together, we will witness firsthand how these incredible organisms create some of the most beautiful natural sculptures on Earth.
Yellowstone National Park is home to some of the most unusual creatures on Earth. Wherever there is hot water, there is life! The hydrothermal areas are inhabited by a diverse array of heat-loving microorganisms that thrive in the park’s extreme conditions, forming colorful communities known as microbial mats. These organisms play a crucial role in the park’s ecosystem and have even contributed to important scientific discoveries, such as the technique used in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and the ongoing search for life on other planets.
Yellowstone Cold: Snow, Climate Change, and Wolverines – with Dr. Jim Halfpenny
May 11 | 8 a.m. – 12 p.m. | Classroom
Join Dr. James Halfpenny for an exploration of COLD in Yellowstone, the animals that depend on it, and how Yellowstone cold is changing over the years.
Classroom-based lectures and discussions will include:
YELLOWSTONE SNOW: Learn the basics of snow science to interpret the loss of permanent snow and glaciers in the GYE and see the continuous monitoring of snowpacks since the 1950s.
CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE GREATER YELLOWSTONE ECOSYSTEM: Learn how to find the data on weather and climate in Yellowstone including snow, rain, melt out, streams, fire, etc. We will look for answers to the following questions and more: What does the data tell us about what has happened? What do the models tell us about what may happen? Will there be food for grizzlies in 2050?
THE LAST COLD: A documentary of my personal experiences with the loss of cold temperatures and the impacts of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
WOLVERINE UPDATE: This is the emerging story about the secretive and elusive wolverine based on cutting-edge research and imaging.
Deep Dives are full-day field-based excursions that explore one area of the park or one topic in-depth. Designed by guides for guides to enrich your guided experiences!
Rates: $129 for your first registration. Discounts offered for subsequent registrations.
Natural History & Ecology of Wolves & Bears
May 9 | 6 a.m. – 4 p.m. | In the Field with Shauna Baron
Most tour guests have two species at the top of their wish-list: wolves and grizzly bears. Join us to immerse yourself in the world of wolves and bears, gaining the most up-to-date and in-depth information about these charismatic species and learning where and how to find them even on the quietest days. This session is designed to complement the Lamar Valley field day of the Professional Yellowstone Guide course, and repetitive information will be kept to a minimum.
Principles of Environmental Education for Yellowstone Guides
May 11 | 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. | Classroom & In the Field with Tyrene Riedl and Carolyn Bulin
Environmental education brings the landscape alive for guests of all ages and gives them the knowledge and inspiration to care about the natural world in Yellowstone and beyond. Through classroom and field sessions, you’ll explore best practices of education including the 5 E’s model of instruction and Bloom’s taxonomy of learning, see these educational practices modeled in real-world field situations, and explore techniques for how to engage your guests through multiple learning styles and multiple senses, how to connect guests to the park by fostering a sense of place, and how to meaningfully and intentionally incorporate fun games and activities for all ages into your tours.
© 2021 All Rights Reserved.