Our Labor Day trip to Yellowstone has come and gone. It went entirely too fast! Our trip was great thanks to new Yellowstone friends who gave some great suggestions of places to visit. My wife and I spent Friday evening at Madison. We went to all the lower campgrounds and obtained maps of the campgrounds to put on the Home Page. We also collected a lot of winter activity information. It will take a while to get everything on but it will start showing up soon.

We went to the last Wolf campfire presentation for the year at Madison. We saw a lot of Buffalo and Elk. The wolves have not been seen since mid July. The plane flew on Monday (30 Aug) and located the pack on the back side of Specimen Ridge. They are staying near the elk herd. The elk are headed back into Lamar Valley so the rangers are hopeful that the wolves will be back with them. Saturday we moved camp to Slough Creek campgrounds. This is a very nice isolated camp site in Lamar valley. We spent the rest of our stay at this campgrounds. Saturday morning we gathered the rest of the campground maps. Saturday evening we were in Lamar Valley trying to locate the wolves and grizzlies. The grizzlies have moved into the high country after winter foods - nut, berries, etc. While we were there, no wolves or bears were spotted in Lamar or Mt. Washburn. Bears were spotted at the Roosevelt/Tower Junction, Tower and Madison - the one at Roosevelt/Tower was a grizzly, I don't know if the other two were blacks or grizzlies.

Sunday morning we were in Lamar again trying to locate wolves and grizzlies. Sunday afternoon we hiked the Fairy Falls Trail. It was a great hike, the falls were super and it was not crowded. A good size group were hot potting north of Mammoth in the hot spring that visitors are allowed to utilize. We spent Sunday evening viewing Mt Washburn and the back side of Specimen Ridge on bear and wolf watch. After the sun set, it was great to just listen to the coyotes howling and elk bugling. There are a lot of elk in the valleys around Mt Washburn. We spotted 8 big horn sheep on Specimen Ridge and 13 more below the fire tower on Mount Washburn. Here is a list of our sighting on this trip and for the year so far:

Grizzlies: 7, Black bears: 4, Wolves: 4, Moose: 8, Big Horn Sheep: 23, Coyotes: 7, Deer: 8, Buffalo: Lots, Elk: Lots, Antelope: Lots, Red Fox: 1, Bald Eagle: 1, Peregrine Falcon: 1, Marsh Hawk: 1, Red Tailed Hawks: 3, Canada Geese: Lots, Sandhill Cranes: 5, Swans: 4.

We had a lot of fun visiting with others from many different places and swapping stories while watching for wildlife and listening to the calls of the wild. All in all this was a fantastic year for our Yellowstone treks and we are looking forward to next year! We have met and made a group of new friends at Yellowstone and on the Internet, keep those cards and letters coming! Let me know if I can help or have any suggestions or if you want to chat.