Yellowstone National Park 2022 Trip Reports

Trip Report ~ Bear & Wolf Sightings ~ by Bill Hamblin

10th through 13th April 2022
Yellowstone National Park

~ April 2022 ~

Sunday - April 10th

24 degrees this morning in Gardiner warming up to 37 degrees with afternoon storms moving through the park. I viewed a cow moose in Round Prairie this morning. I had a golden eagle fly above Hellroaring Overlook this morning. And lots of robins, my first in the park around on the ground today. At 6:05 a.m. I watched a grizzly on the bison carcass from yesterday in Little America. He entertained us with charging the ravens and coyotes, trying to bury the carcass, and flipping the carcass over several times to get it in just the right position. I left after 45 minutes but he stayed on the carcass for another 15 minutes until the combination of three coyotes and more people coming to watch making too much noise. The carcass is about three hundred yards off the road and still a lot of meat left on it. Tonight, Margaret L said the grizzly was seen back in the tree line moving around. Between 10:00 am and 11:40 a.m. I walked up Geode Creek and went to an observation spot called the perch. Ken S found a grizzly on a carcass with the entire Rescue Creek wolf pack (eight black and four gray) bedded around the bison carcass in the creek. When I arrived, the bear had left for nearby trees. But after four of the twelve wolves moved off the carcass the grizzly returned to reclaim the now much smaller carcass. Great viewing and action with the wolves biting the grizzly's rear end quite a few times. I left with the grizzly departing and the wolves moving the much smaller carcass around to get a few last bites. The big news this morning was a lady from Gardiner had a one to two-minute sighting of a mountain lion on the road just east of Hellroaring Pullout. Apparently, she saw it on the high side of the road and then on the low side of the road. The car behind her also got a good look at it.

Monday - April 11th

24 degrees this morning warming up to a high of 32 degrees with afternoon low clouds. Forecast is for snow on and off for the next two days. At 6:10 a.m. I arrived in Little America to look at the bison carcass. No bear on the carcass. I glassed around and the grizzly was almost to the tree line. Only a few minutes sighting. The carcass had a few birds around it today and were all over the place. My guess is that the grizzly buried the carcass. I will find out tomorrow morning because I plan to be there before daylight. I hear from Doug M (bear watcher) that things were active back at Geode Creek. Apparently, the grizzly and the wolves were back in view where they were yesterday. I only had to climb the hill this morning, not go all the way to the perch. However, the grizzly had moved east and out of sight before I got there. There were ten wolves of the Rescue Creek pack in view only missing two black females. So, I viewed six blacks and four grays bedded then playing as they moved off slowly going east. Later Peter D from Switzerland who was at the perch had a great view of all twelve wolves passing that location. Around noon the clouds moved lower, and it spit rain and snow with low visibility. I made an early day of it and was back in Gardiner around 5:00 p.m.

Tuesday - April 12th

24 degrees this morning with 6-7 inches of snow in Gardiner warming up to a windy 28 degrees. The roads were not plowed except for Gardiner and Mammoth. I drove in the left lane all the way from Mammoth to Tower Falls in a car track that had come through from Cooke City. The snow lessened around Hellroaring and was only 2-3 inches deep in Little America this morning. At 8:00 a.m. Kevin M and Brandon had two black wolves close to the road in Crystal Drainage from the Lamar River Bridge. Lots of birds and coyotes meant some type of carcass unseen in the trees. I only got a few quick views of the wolves. One was quite black and probably a young wolf, the second had a lot of gray coloring with a slight limp on its right front leg and probably an older wolf. At 10:35 a.m. Kate O found a black wolf north of Curve Pullout in Little America. Later Grant J spotted the black wolf across the Lamar River at Buffalo Ford. At 11:15 a.m. Peter D from Switzerland saw the alpha female go into the natal den at Slough Creek. Over the next few hours other wolves slowly returned to the den area. My final count including the alpha female was five black and three gray wolves of the Junction Butte Wolf Pack. Low visibility in the morning but great light the rest of the chilly day. No grizzlies for me today, nor did I hear of any seen by others.

Wednesday - April 13th

Spring is here in Yellowstone. 10 degrees this morning in Gardiner but 2 degrees at Hellroaring warming up to about 30 degrees and fortunately very little wind. I missed the Rescue Creek pack with eleven of the twelve visible in Yancy's Hole viewed from Elk Creek. From 8:05 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. I watched five black and three gray Junction Butte wolves leave the Slough Creek Den area and move east. They were moving slow today often sitting or bedding on the way thru the yellow grass meadow and out of sight. I made it a short day today, to do laundry.

People Seen

Wolf Watchers: From Montana: Rick M, Melba C, Joe K, Jeremy S, and Doug M. From California: Bill W. From Washington: David and Stephanie O and son Riley. From Switzerland: Peter D. Bear Watchers: From Montana: Doug M and Margaret L. From Louisiana: Bruce P. Others seen this report: From Montana: Grant J, Cliff B, Dan, Cindy, and Kelly H. Chris H, Cara M, MacNeil L and Kate O. From Wyoming: Kevin M. From the Netherlands: Jort V. and from Colorado: Jim and Bobbie F.

Yellowstone National Park

Lamar Valley Map - Yellowstone National Park