09 May 1997 - Friday

We were able to make another fast, furious and fabulous trip to Yellowstone the weekend of 9/11 May 97. We arrived at Mammoth at about 8:30 pm and had a nice drive through the park from West Yellowstone. We saw elk and buffalo along the way. The spring runoff has started and is in full swing, a lot of the meadows are lakes at this time. We saw a young moose as we headed down into Mammoth.

We checked in at the Mammoth Hotel and went to meet some friends, Richard and Joanell Feit, from Minnesota. We had been communicating via email for over a year on the net, but had never met in person. We talked in the Mammoth dinning room until about 11:00 pm. We made plans for Saturday and then hit the sack. We had a fantastic weekend with these new friends, fellow wildlife watcher and Yellowstoners!

10 May 97 - Saturday

We were up at 5:00 am and by 5:30 am we were on the road headed for Lamar Valley. We stopped at the turnout just past the Specimen Ridge Trail sign and did some glassing for the Rose Creek pack. This is the turnout where we had watched them on our April trip. We saw very few wildlife on the ridge. A few elk were down low on the mountainside grazing contentedly, so we decided to move down the valley.

We pulled into a turnout about a mile east of the Lamar River bridge and joined a group who had spotted some wolves. We watched the alpha female (#9) of the Rose Creek Pack as she lay near some rocks in a small clearing. As we watched her, three of her pups (two black and a gray) came out and played! We were thrilled. These are the first pups I, my wife Carlene and others among us had ever seen. It was great! As we were watching, to our surprise, the alpha male (#8) stood up and stretched and posed for us. He is a gray wolf and blended in so well with the rocks and terrain, that we didn't even know he was in the clearing until he stood up. This all happened around 6:30 am and we watched them play and run back into the trees and appear and disappear on and off until about 9:30 am when they disappeared into the forest. This was a first and very exciting experience for all those who were there to share it.

Now some interesting news on the Rose Creek Pack, they have two litters of pups! One litter is located on the south side of the road. These pups were mothered by the alpha female and fathered by the Alpha male. It is believed that there are six or seven pups in this litter. Female #18 is believed to have had seven or eight pups on the north side of the valley in another den, also fathered by the Alpha male. Researchers are very interested to see if this pack will split up permanently to a Rose Creek 1 and 2 or will come back together. Also, some thoughts on the reason # 19 and her pups were killed, one theory is that they were sired by her brother and not the alpha male. Another theory is that the Druid Peak Pack killed her. I personally believe the first theory. The saga continues.

Researchers are also watching the Druid Peak Pack as three females are showing denning habits. So this is really going to be an interest spring in Yellowstone for wolfers and wildlife watchers!

We then headed down into Lamar for some more wildlife watching. We stopped at a couple turnouts and watched the elk and buffalo and antelope along the road. Then a lone wolf appeared and slowly made his way through the buffalo and elk herds that were grazing in Lamar. He got fairly close to the animals and they charged him and ran him off. He walked up to a buffalo that was lying down. As he got close the buffalo stood up, lowered his head and ran him off. This wolf was called both number 38 and 31. Wolf number 38 is the alpha male of the Druid Peak Pack and number 31 is a lone wolf. I tend to feel that it was 31 as it was a lone wolf and he did bring down a cow elk by himself. Also, the Druid Peak Pack normally hunts as a pack, but this is my own personal feeling after listening to both points of view. Either way, he was a lone wolf and did take down a cow elk.

On our way towards the northeast entrance, three beautiful big horn sheep came down near the roadside just west of the confluence of the Soda Butte Creek and the Lamar River. I shot up a lot of film and it was a treat to see them so close. They were in no hurry, just walking, grazing and lying down for a short break. I can't wait to get the film back and hope to have some photos up soon. I love the bears and wolves, but I get excited just being there and seeing all the different wildlife.

We then headed to Cooke City for breakfast. There is an amazing amount of snow in Silver Gate and Cooke City. They average 600 inches of snow in Cooke City. We had breakfast at the Soda Butte Lodge in Cooke City. I really wanted some blueberry pancakes, but the restaurant didn't have any, so I kidded the waitress enough, that after she had served us all, she presented me with a bowl of "generic blueberries." She had taken some cherry pie filling, added some blue food coloring and put some whipped cream on top. We all had a good laugh and the "generic blueberries" weren't too bad!

It was a beautiful drive through the northeast corner of the park. The weather was absolutely perfect, clear and warm and amazing for this time of year in Yellowstone - I'll take it anytime. The whole weekend was picture perfect and I could not have asked for anything better. We were running around in tee shirts and loving it.

We then drove back down Lamar, stopping to glass the valley and hillside and visit with friends. We saw coyotes, geese, canvas back ducks, hawks, other birds that I couldn't identify, and a badger. What a tremendously exciting day and it was only half over!

We went back to Mammoth for a short break and then headed to Hayden Valley via Mammoth to Norris to Canyon to Hayden. There is still a bunch of snow from Canyon to Fishing Bridge. We were thinking of doing a little hiking, but without snowshoes or cross country skis, it wasn't going to be a go. We saw three coyotes, a blue heron, a pelican, a few buffalo and elk, but not nearly as many as we had seen in years past, this was probably due to the amount of snow. We had a fly over by a bald eagle just north of the mud volcano area which we took as a good omen.

There have been bears feeding on winter kill buffalos in the Le Hardy area. Part of the trail in the mud volcano area is closed due to bear activity on a winter kill that is right on the trail. We stopped at most of the pullouts and scanned for wildlife and talked to wildlife watchers. We did not see any bears but a few others had sighted a sow and two cubs on a ridge top on the west side of Hayden. We stayed in Hayden until about 7:00 pm and then headed back to Lamar.

We arrived about 8:00 pm at the turnout where we had watched the wolves earlier. The wolves had been in and out of view for a while before we arrived. A griz had also shown up for a little while and then disappeared behind a hillside just before we got there. The female wolf and two pups came out and we watched them play and interact. They went back in and most of the crowd began to leave. There were a few of us that stayed on and just chatted about wildlife, Yellowstone and life. We had a great time. As we were visiting, the griz reappeared walking down the hillside towards us, he was quite a ways off, but we could see him without the binocs or spotting scopes. He walked down to an elk kill and began to feed. We watched in awe as he was a beautiful bear. He sat, and laid down and just moved around the kill and ate while we and the ravens watched.

When he had finished feeding, he slowly walked down the hillside parallel to us and disappeared in a gully. We were thrilled and captivated. We again began to visit as the sun was setting and dark was surrounding us. While discussing our good fortune of the day, when to our utter surprise and joy, the wolves howled... what a thrill, talk about something that just made your hair stand on end and goose bumps. The wolves then barked and then one more deep group howl and it was over... I thought I had died and gone to heaven! This was another first and one of my fondest desires, to hear the wolves howl. What a day! I will never forget this day and the experiences we had and shared with some great great friends!

We then headed back to Mammoth and on in to Gardiner to find some food to eat. All the restaurants had closed and we finally found a bar that was still serving food. We made it back and into bed about midnight. What a Day!

11 May 1997 - Sunday

We were up at 6:00 am and off to Lamar. We went directly to the turnout by the Rose Creek den and had just missed the griz as he had come back and fed at the kill. The alpha female was again lying near some rocks below the tree line. We watched her and the pups play, we counted six pups. We shared our spotting scope with anyone who was there and wanted to get a good view of the wolf and pups. It was cool. We met some more friends and just had a blast visiting together. Two couples from Idaho Falls who had watch the wolves and bear the evening before pulled up and told us the rest of the story of their experience last night. On Saturday evening, they left just after the bear disappeared.

As they were driving back towards Roosevelt, and just about .5 mile from where we were, the griz that we had just watched was sitting of the north side of the road. They stopped and grabbed their video camera and have some great film of the griz. He walked across the road, sat down again for a spell and then slowly walked around two spring pools and out of sight. Man were they fired up! I couldn't believe their good luck. We watched their video and felt the excitement of their experience. The two couples and myself went down to where the griz had crossed the road and found his tracks in some mud near one of the pools. We took pictures of the prints and had a fun visit together. To say they were a little pumped about their opportunity to see a griz that close would be an understatement!

I went back and watched the wolves and visited with friends on the roadside. Two coyotes came up on a hillside on the north side of the road and made a ruckus. I guess they were feeling left out with all the attention the wolves and pups were getting. I returned later to the pools with Steve Braun of Yellowstone-Glacier Adventures to make some measurements of the griz prints. The front paw print measured 7.5 inches wide and 8 inches long. See the griz tracks and bird photos below from this trip.

It was a fun weekend and a thrill of a lifetime that I will treasure forever. I am still excited and flying high, I know it is hard to believe, but I can't wait for June to get hear as we will be spending the first week of June in the park with family and friends.

We saw - Antelope, a Badger, a Bald Eagle, Bighorn Sheep, a Blue Heron, Buffalo, Canadian Geese, Coots, Coyotes, Deer, Ducks, Elk, a Grizzly, a Pelican, Red-Tailed Hawks, Sandhill Cranes, and the alpha male and female of the Rose Creek Pack and their pups, and one of the Druid Peak Pack (#38) or a lone wolf (#31).