21 August 1998 - Friday

The crew for this trip consisted of my son Joseph and myself. The morning started out cool and overcast with a few showers. The clouds broke up and cleared as we headed north back home. Just north of Blackfoot, Idaho the Grand Tetons appeared and escorted us past the last bridge over the Snake River as you start to head up to the high plateau and into the mountains. The valley was clear but ringed by thunderheads all around the mountain tops but they were high enough to allow us to see the Tetons. This time we were able to see the Tetons all the way up to just before the turnoff to Harriman State Park in Idaho in the Targhee National Forest. That particular area has a clearing on the east side of the road and it gave us one last glimpse of the Tetons as we drove the last 60 miles to the park.

We entered the park at just about 3:00 pm and headed east and north to Lamar Valley and our base of operations at Pebble Creek Campgrounds. Some good news for folks, Pebble Creek has not filled for the past week and Slough Creek is not filling until around 9:00 pm each evening. That was the latest word from the rangers taking care of the campgrounds. When we drove in from the northeast entrance, the campground board showed all campgrounds in the park had vacancies. So that is good news and hopefully will continue the rest of the summer.

There was very little traffic as we drove from West Yellowstone to Madison. We did not see the trumpeter swans on the Madison River. There were no signs of buffalo or elk either along this pleasant drive. They must of been back in the forest staying cool from the heat of the day.

The Madison and Gibbon Rivers were clear and low and looked great for fishing. We finally saw some elk as we were leaving Mammoth and heading east to Roosevelt. It was a little longer drive as Dunraven / Washburn was still closed, no one knew for sure when the road was going to reopen. They are working on repairs and all the rangers and visitors were hopeful it would open soon.

As we turned east at Roosevelt and headed towards Lamar Valley, we were excited to be home and to see the familiar ponds and bear rocks and black bear stumps as we trained our eyes across the hills and vales looking for wildlife. The muskrats were on the pond above the Yellowstone picnic grounds and ducks were on the first pond on the right or north just before the Specimen Ridge Trailhead sign.

There was no construction on the road from Roosevelt to Pebble. One single whooping crane was visible from the road and turnout just before the Lamar River bridge. The park service captured one of the whoopers and placed it in the southwest corner of the park in the Bechler region. Apparently there is a male whooper in that area and they are hopeful that the pair will bond and start a new whooper population in the park. That would be fantastic and exciting to see what will happen next spring. In the mean time, this single female is giving folks a chance to see and photograph her this year.

There were very few vehicles in Lamar Valley. The Lamar River was low and muddy. There must of been mountain thunderstorms that stirred things up to make this muddy brown tea.

Dragonfly by John W. Uhler - 22 August 1998 ©

We were excited as we looked for any signs of the wolves. We had received an email on Tuesday from some friends of ours that had seen the Druids back in the valley. We were hopeful that they were still around. We stopped at the picnic grounds, nothing, we stopped at the Lamar River Trailhead turnout, nothing again. The sky was filling with dark thunderheads and we figured we better get to Pebble Creek and try to find a campsite.

We left the turnout and drove east towards the Soda Butte Cone. I looked over to my left (the north side of the road), and there on the hillside stood two wolves, a black and a gray! We pulled over as quickly as we could and setup the spotting scope and grabbed the binocs. We were thrilled, what a greeting on the first day in the park! The gray walked back over the hill and disappeared. Folks came by and inquired into what we were watching, when we told them, they quickly parked and joined us. The black wolf walked east along the hilltop and walked into a small drainage. It then reappeared walking east along the hillside and then turned north and walked over the hill and out of sight. We were thrilled! These two were just east of the den site. We initially saw the wolves at 5:09 pm and watched them until 5:22 pm. These two wolves could of been this years pups, but there was no one around who had any definite info, so we could not determine this for sure.

We stayed and visited for a while and then packed up and headed to Pebble Creek. We had our choice of campsites at Pebble, it was just about vacant. We setup camp, cooked supper and then headed back to the Lamar River turnout. We setup the spotting scopes and scanned the countryside. We visited with some new friends and kept an eye out for any bear or wolf activity. One new friend, a young man by the name of Jim, was moving from Pittsburgh, Pa to Boise, Id. Jim had seen some of the pack the day before from this turnout.

Jim decided to drive west down the valley while we stayed put and kept an eye out here. About ten minutes after he had left, Jim returned with news that two wolves, a black and a gray were out just west of the confluence of the Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek. We moved down the valley and joined him in watching and listening to the two wolves and others at 8:24 pm. The gray wolf did its disappearing act into the tall grass and sage brush shortly after we arrived. The black laid on the cutbank of the river. He sat and howled and was answered back by three other wolves howling back at separate times. We enjoyed hearing the distinct difference in tonal qualities of the wolves' howls. We scanned the valley looking for the source of the other howls but had no success. We watched the black until it disappeared at about 8:45 pm into the river bed. We stayed until it became too dark to see, we talked and listened for any sounds of the wolves. It was a cool evening and coats were donned to fend off the temperature change.

We parted company and headed back to Pebble. Four wolves on our first day back was a great way to start a weekend trip. We have not been very successful on any of our previous Aug and Sep trips in seeing the wolves. This was a great improvement and we were hyped! We were also excited for friends who are coming to the park in the next couple weeks to have the Druids back and out in viewing and hearing range.

We hit the sack with the alarm set for 5:30 am, we decided to sleep in late... ha! There was no moon, so again the heavens were on fire with stars from mountain top to mountain top. It was great to feel the cool breeze, smell the campfire and fresh pine scented mountain air and feel at home. We drifted into a restful sleep.

Today we saw: Buffalo, ducks, elk, muskrats, ravens, a whooping crane and four wolves of the Druid Peak Pack.

Speyeriis aphrodite
by John W. Uhler - 22 August 1998 ©

Fireweed by John W. Uhler - 22 August 1998 ©

22 August 1998 - Saturday

We were up at 5:00 am and out of camp by 5:30 am. The great thing about camping at Pebble is that it only takes a little over five minutes to get to the Lamar River turnout. We setup our scopes and began the bear and wolf watch. There was a small herd of Buffalo off to our right or west of the turnout. There were also some antelope out on the large meadow west of us. On the top of Specimen Ridge a small herd of elk could be seen as the sun rose over the eastern mountains and began to warm them. We scanned each open area on the mountains and valley floor. The friends we had met the day before arrived and we all joined in the search. No bears or wolves appeared. As we watched the buffalo to the west of us, the herd kept growing and growing as they came out of the woods and a small ravine into view. They numbered about 250 by one reliable count. It was great to see so many buffalo together. The buffalo have moved back into Lamar Valley!

At about 7:45 am, a friend stopped by and reported that five wolves were out at the Lamar Picnic grounds. We packed and headed west. We arrived at 7:50 am and there were four blacks and one gray on the south side of the the Lamar River. They were on the bank just across from the west side of the picnic grounds. Two of the blacks and the one gray were collared. We watched them play and mouse and slowly move east down the valley and south into the trees. There was no one there with any telemetry gear so we could not identify any of the wolves for certain. There are only two gray wolves collared in the Druid Peak Pack, the alpha female, number 40F and 106F. This gray wolf did not lead the pack but followed two black wolves and did not look as large as 40F (I saw her last month), so chances are that the gray was 106F.

We could see a few of the wolves howl, but with the traffic on the road, I could not hear them. The two black uncollared wolves worked their way west down the valley and disappeared. The gray wolf followed at a distance and she laid down on a small bluff by some rocks and sunned herself. The last two collared black wolves lingered back behind the others and then disappeared from sight.

It was exciting to see the pack back after disappearing in late July south of Lamar Valley. Everyone was thrilled to see them and we invited all who wanted to get a close look through our spotting scopes. There were folks from Japan who were very excited to see the wolves and it was fun to share in that excitement and thrill.

The gray was still sleeping on top of the small rise as we headed to the Soda Butte Lodge in Cooke City for breakfast at 10:00 am.

We finally ran into construction east of Pebble Creek Campgrounds. There were about four spots where we had to stop and wait as the traffic was one lane. Fortunately, there was not a lot of traffic so the waits were fairly short and we made it in time for breakfast. They are closing the northeast entrance at 9:00 pm each evening.

After breakfast we headed back to Pebble and did last nights supper dishes and made plans for the day. We drove down to the Trout Lake trailhead and hiked back to the lake. It is a nice .6 mile hike. It is uphill, but it is not a long hike and the area is great. We spent the afternoon taking pictures and hiking around the lake and tried to spot some otters. The otters did not come out to play, but we still had a fun time on our first hike to this area.

We hiked back to the trailhead and decided to make a run to Tower to see if the black bears were out and about. They were off enjoying a non kodak moment somewhere else away from the maddening crowds no doubt. I was able to talk Joseph into an ice cream cone, but it was a hard sell - NOT!

We went to Roosevelt and checked the wolf log and added our sighting info. We had a nice visit there and found out that Rosy (a local black bear sow) and her cub of the year, had been making regular 6:00 pm appearances near the Petrified Tree just west of Roosevelt. We also found out that there were three large bull moose hanging out around Elk Creek, which is just west of the Petrified Tree. Since it was just about 6:00 pm, we headed to the Petrified Tree. We stayed and looked for Rosy and her yearling cub for about a half hour with no success. We decided to drive up the road and check on the moose.

As we rounded the bend past Elk Creek, we noticed a few cars pulled over, so we stopped and setup the scopes. There were two very large bull moose in view. One was in the shade and the other was cooling off by laying in Elk Creek. We stayed and visited with a few bear and wolf watchers that stopped by. We again shared the scopes with anyone who wanted a close up view of these two magnificent creatures. We packed up with the moose contently resting by or in the creek. We headed for Lamar. We saw some muleys just east of the Yellowstone Picnic grounds and we also saw a lone mule deer fawn in the rocks above the Lamar River just past the Slough Creek Campground road.

We setup our scopes at the Lamar Picnic Ground turnout and watched for bears and wolves. We heard that there was a grizzly still hanging out in Hayden Valley each afternoon and that is the only bear report we heard. One of our friends, Frank from Shelly, Idaho reported seeing a gray and black wolf earlier in the afternoon, but they both disappeared into the trees or many little ravines on the south side of the valley.

We watched and visited with folks until about 8:00 pm when we headed down to the Lamar River Turnout. We watched and listened there until the light was gone and then headed to camp for the night. It was a little warmer this evening. We cooked a late supper and enjoyed the evening before hitting the sack.

Damsels in Distress by John W. Uhler - 22 August 1998 ©

Today we saw: Antelope, buffalo, ducks, elk, hawks, a young eagle, two bull moose, a mountain blue bird, mule deer, ravens, a whooping crane and five wolves of the Druid Peak Pack.

Baneberry by John W. Uhler - 22 August 1998 ©

23 August 1998 - Sunday

We were up at 6:00 am and at the turnout by 6:20. Each day was clear and sunny with cool to cold mornings and cool evenings. This morning was no different. We had coats on as we scanned the countryside for any signs of wildlife. I tried really hard to turn a buffalo that was laying down into a grizzly, but it would have no part of it! They are stubborn animals... ha! We stayed there with friends until about 7:00 am and then slowly drove to the Lamar Picnic ground. A few folks were there watching, but no wolves or bears were out in view.

While visiting and watching with friends, we spotted six hawks. Four were in the trees at the picnic grounds and two were on or soaring near the river bank. The closest thing I can find to their appearance is the Swainson's Hawk. They were beautiful to watch fly and play. The two on the river bank were smaller, so I think they were two immature birds.

A coyote also made an appearance to let it be known, that even though the wolves were not around, he was if anyone wanted his picture. There were no takers at that time.

We stayed until 8:30 am, at which time we saddle up our Plymouth and headed west to Roosevelt for breakfast. We saw two trumpeter swans on a small overgrown pond just before the Specimen Ridge trailhead. This was the first time we had seen them in this area. They may be regulars to the area, but we had not seen them before. I hope they stay and that they had young this year. The ones down on the Madison, did not have any success in hatching their eggs this year. That is not good news and we hope next year is much more fruitful.

I am not going to say anything bad about Roosevelt, but we will eat breakfast there again. The service was good, the wait was long and the company was great.

We stopped at Blacktail Lakes and watched a coyote trying to catch his breakfast, but the birds were too fast for him. We saw several more coyotes on our long journey out of the park. We had a nice drive, (if one can say that when leaving Yellowstone), and look forward to our next visit. We had fun, saw some great wildlife and sights in the park, made some new friends and met some of our old friends from years past. All in all a great time, fun filled, exciting, but much too short!

One really nice reprieve on this trip was that the deer and horse flies were gone! There is something to be said for cold nights and mornings. It was much more enjoyable watching, listening and visiting without these pests.

Today we saw: Antelope, buffalo, Canada geese, coyotes, ducks, elk, six hawks, and two trumpeter swans.

The Towers Above Tower Falls
by John W. Uhler - June 1997 ©

Plebejus saepiolus
by John W. Uhler - 22 August 1998 ©

Wildlife Seen on This Trip

Antelope, buffalo, Canada geese, coyotes, ducks, a young eagle, elk, ground squirrels, a mountain blue bird, mule deer, the fun loving ever present ravens, red tail hawks, six Swainson's Hawks, trumpeter swans, one whooping crane, wolves - nine wolves of the Druid Peak Pack.