Trip Summary
Step into the heart of America’s Old West on an extraordinary journey led by a premier guide from Orbridge’s Expedition Leader team—many of whom have served as U.S. National Park Rangers—along with experienced local guides whose expertise brings the landscapes, wildlife and history of this region to life like no other. This immersive tour blends breathtaking scenery with rich narratives, offering a deep connection to the land, its people and its past.
Event Itinerary
Day 1: Arrive in Rapid City, SD
Day 2: Rapid City • Badlands National Park • Custer State Park
Day 3: Mammoth Site • Crazy Horse
Day 4: Mount Rushmore • Spearfish Canyon
Day 5: Spearfish Canyon • Cody, WY
Day 6: Cody • Yellowstone National Park
Day 7: Yellowstone National Park
Day 8: Yellowstone National Park • Grand Teton National Park • Jackson
Day 9: Depart Jackson
Tour Highlights
– Marvel at local history. Admire the grandeur of Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Memorial and visit the world's largest mammoth site.
– Appreciate nature's inspiration. With endless panoramic vistas, dramatic geological wonders, lush grasslands and a myriad of flora and fauna, the Old West is the perfect backdrop for relaxation, contemplation and reflection.
– Gain perspective and insight. This journey is led by a premier guide from Orbridge’s Expedition Leader team—many of whom have served as U.S. National Park Rangers—whose expertise brings the landscapes, wildlife and history of this region to life like no other.
– Explore at leisure. As time allows between scheduled touring, explore Yellowstone's variety of thermal features, hiking trails and visitor center and museum independently.
– Rest in comfort. After fulfilling days, retreat to well-appointed properties and various landmark lodges that are national treasures themselves.
Meet Your Faculty Expert
Peter Orner
Chicago-born Peter Orner is the author of three novels published by Little, Brown: THE GOSSIP COLUMNIST’S DAUGHTER (2025) THE SECOND COMING OF MAVALA SHIKONGO (2006), and LOVE AND SHAME AND LOVE (2010), and three story collections also published by Little, Brown: ESTHER STORIES (2001, 2013 with a foreword by Marilynne Robinson) LAST CAR OVER THE SAGAMORE BRIDGE (2013), and MAGGIE BROWN & OTHERS (2019).
Peter’s essay collection/ memoir, AM I ALONE HERE?: NOTES ON READING TO LIVE AND LIVING TO READ (Catapult, 2016) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He followed it up with another collection of essays, STILL NO WORD FROM YOU (2023), which was finalist for both the the Vermont Book Award and PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay.
Peter is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Northeastern University School of Law, and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. Peter is also a former member of the Bolinas, California Volunteer Fire Department in Bolinas, California and current member of the Norwich Fire Department, Norwich, Vermont. Peter holds the Professorship of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College, and lives with his family in Norwich.
Peter also regularly teaches on the fiction faculty at the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. For many years, Peter was a professor in the MFA Program at San Francisco State University where he also served as acting chair of the department. He's also taught at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop (Visiting Professor), Northwestern, the University of Montana (William Kittredge Visiting Writer, 2009), Washington University (Visiting Hurst Professor, 2008), Bard College (Bard Fiction Prize Fellowship, 2007), Miami University, and on the law faculty of Charles University in Prague.
Peter's fiction and non-fiction has appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic Monthly, Granta, The Paris Review, The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, The Southern Review, Ploughshares and many other publications. Stories have been anthologized in Best American Stories and twice received a Pushcart Prize. Peter has been awarded the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy in Rome, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a two-year Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship. He's also received a California Book Award (LOVE AND SHAME AND LOVE), the Goldberg Prize for Jewish Writing (ESTHER STORIES) and has been a finalist for the Pen/ Hemingway Award ESTHER STORIES, the Los Angeles Times Book Award (THE SECOND COMING OF MAVALA SHIKONGO), and the Northern California Book Award (LAST CAR OVER THE SAGAMORE BRIDGE) . In 2017-2018, Peter was a Fulbright U.S. Scholar in Namibia where he taught at the University of Namibia.
His work has been translated into French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Turkish, and Japanese.
Peter is also the editor of three non-fiction books/oral histories for the Voice of Witness Series: UNDERGROUND AMERICA: NARRATIVES OF UNDOCUMENTED LIVES (VOW/ McSweeney's, 2008), HOPE DEFERRED: NARRATIVES OF ZIMBABWEAN LIVES (VOW/ McSweeney's, 2011) (co-edited with Annie Holmes), and LAVIL: LIVE, LOVE AND DEATH IN PORT-AU-PRINCE (VOW/ Verso Press, 2017) (co-edited with Evan Lyon).
Peter also wrote introductions for the re-issue of Mavis Gallant's novels, A FAIRLY GOOD TIME, (New York Review of Books, 2016) and Gina Berriault's story collection WOMEN IN THEIR BEDS (Counterpoint, 2017)
A film of one of Peter's stories, "The Raft," (with screenplay by Peter and Rob Jones) and starring Ed Asner premiered at the Woods Hole Film Festival in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 2015, and has been screened at festivals around the country.