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Yellowstone Up Close and Personal

25 - 27 April 2008 Trip Report

Bear and Wolf Sightings ~ Trip Report ~ by Bill Hamblin


Friday - April 25th

I left work at noon. An old bison carcass 1/2 west of Madison Junction had a golden and a bald eagle on it. Soaring above the carcass was a vulture. It's only the third I've seen inside the park, supposedly only 7-10 spotted each year, but appears they are becoming more common. The weather was spotty, with snow showers moving in and out all day. Earlier in the day, the road was closed around Norris, but was open when I came thru. I made pretty good time. Ralph showed me a "grizzly" on a carcass in the bottoms of Slough Creek. Apparently this was an old wolf kill, and the wolves had a newer one across from Boulder. During the evening had seven different wolves either near the new carcass or around the den site. Just as a brief storm was approaching, I spotted a collared grizzly moving towards the new carcass. About 15 - 20 minutes later after the snow passed, I found the new collared grizzly on the carcass. Then noticed a really large black item located 40-50 feet up in the top of a nearby tree. Missed all the action, but assume that sometime in the a.m. the grizzly Ralph had on the carcass left and was taken over by this large black bear. When the collared grizzly arrived, the black bear did what black bears do when approached by a grizzly, climbed a tree. I left a little early, for pizza at the K bar, but Dan and Laurie from Silver Gate watched the rest of the evening, and the black bear stayed in the tree and the collared grizzly on the carcass. The stormy weather ended in a big flake snow storm as we left the K bar for our camping spot. Could only go 25 miles an hour, and really that was too fast in case there were animals in the road. I think they were all bedded, only saw a couple of bison just off the road. The temperature was about 26 degrees in the a.m. in Gardiner, and 11 degrees in the Lamar.


Saturday - April 26th

5:30 a.m. had a pleasant surprise as the large grizzly on the carcass in Blacktail from last weekend, crossed the road in front of me. Large grizzly, but must be old, he went up a 4 foot snow bank and must have taken 5 minutes to go 40 yards. Noticed a bedded gray wolf up the road, waiting for the grizzly to leave the carcass. Around 6:15 a.m. from Boulder found a grizzly in the rocks between Boulder and Sough Creek. Heard on the radio that they had bears on last night’s carcass at Slough Creek. As I arrived near 7:00 a.m. a large grizzly came to the carcass. The larger grizzly had just left and he moved west for some nice viewing for the next 45 minutes. Meanwhile Ralph, back at Boulder spotted wolves high across the river. I was now at Narrows West, as the Slough Creek road was taken up by a bus load of 40 students, plus all the wolf watchers. Anyway, after Ralph described the location of the wolves, I picked them up from Narrows West. Ended up seeing 6 or 7 wolves, they moved north up and over at Junction Pass. The wolves were the Slough Creek yearlings with only one adult. Ralph found them later across from Junction Butte. Ralph had earlier watched a bison calf in that area, and there were 5-6 cows with two other calves in their little herd. The wolves tried for over an hour without any success in getting the calf. Weather Saturday was nice, but a brisk wind made the spotting scope with the window mount the best way to watch for things.


Sunday - April 27th

5:30 a.m. the gray wolf from yesterday was on the carcass at Blacktail, no sign of the grizzly this morning. I headed for Slough Creek. Bob L. spotted a grizzly in the Slough bottoms. There was a nice size grizzly moving across and then up the rocks. Around 7:00 a.m. Ralph called from Boulder, had a lighter/colorful grizzly at Buffalo Ford - the nice clearing just across the river north of Boulder. It was out for quite a while. I hadn't been to Lamar Valley all weekend, so I cruised up there in the a.m. Jason W. and Debbie L, George B, and Anne W, were at Footbridge trying to find the Druid Peak Pack. Yesterday they had a kill on Dead Puppy Hill and had had one howl from there earlier. Their location was a mystery until the wolf plane found them just over the top of Norris. Apparently 9 wolves, one carcass and two grizzlies that the wolves ran off (must have been smaller grizzlies). I missed a grizzly near Petrified Tree. There was quite a show with the grizzly being harassed by two or three coyotes. Apparently the coyotes are denning in that area again this year. They chased the grizzly across the road, up the hill, back across the road and finally down in Yancey's Hole. Bob L. did get some nice film of the interaction. Jack G. from Bozeman, has been up quite a bit. He has had 6 different adult black bears on Garnett Hill, including a sow with two cubs of the year (coy). He showed me the den area Saturday night. Around noon, the bears came out, the coy's are smaller than a football. Margaret from Baseman had shown us a single black bear earlier on Garnett. The snow on the south facing hills is about gone; however, the north facing hills are still full. A-Z is still all white. There is 3 feet or so still at West Yellowstone, and 2-3 feet on Swan Flats and the Upper Norris Area. Weather today was nice, no wind, in the upper 40's when I left. Finally found a swan in a pond below upper Hellroaring, and one on the Gibbon on the way out.





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