Yellowstone National Park 2022 Trip Reports

Trip Report ~ Bear & Wolf Sightings ~ by Bill Hamblin

20th through 23rd May 2022
Yellowstone National Park

~ May 2022 ~

Friday - May 20th

28 degrees and snowing in Silver Gate this morning warming up to 47 degrees. At 5:50 a.m. I found a large grizzly on a two-week old carcass south of the Buffalo Ranch. It soon started dragging a large piece of the hide towards the tree line. It must have been heavy, it stopped several times on the way to the trees, once eating a little more of it to lighten the load. At 5:55 a.m. I found a grizzly digging on the hill side above the river south of Old Road Pullout. At 6:50 a.m. Randi M had a brief sighting of a grizzly digging north of Trashcan Pullout. It soon went out of sight, so I moved west in hopes of seeing the grizzly. I got lucky and it walked down a clearing that I could see to the west. At 7:15 a.m. Richard and Rita had a brief sighting of the Norris sow with her two small two-year-old cubs at 21's Crossing west of Hitching Post. They were out of sight when I arrived, but we moved to Hitching Post and Kathy W found them in a rock formation going out of sight. I briefly got to watch them. At 7:40 a.m. John G found the two 3 1/2-year grizzly sub adults on Amethyst Bench. They again were in sight a lot of the day. At 7:50 a.m. we had a bear jam to the north in the ravine east of Lamar Canyon East Pullout. A medium sized grizzly with a lot of brown around the head, it moved up hill and out of sight. Later it reappeared above the grizzly family I will write about later. At 7:55 a.m. Richard and Rita found the Middle Ridge grizzly sow with two yearlings on Specimen Ridge viewed from Lamar Canyon West. At 8:40 a.m. the grizzly family that we have been seeing north in Little America appeared close north of Fisherman's Pullout. Apparently, this family is the old Junction Butte sow who I have not seen since 2019 when at that time had one cub of the year. Tyler B identified the sow by a distinct scar on her nose. They were in view most of the day at 100 to 400 yards. They attempted to cross the road to the south and made it across but then recrossed back to the north. At 11:00 a.m. I was at Crystal Parking lot and watched two gray and one black adult wolves and three puppies.

Saturday - May 21st

30 degrees in the morning at Silver Gate but only 24 degrees in Lamar this morning warming up to 47 degrees out in the park. I watched a moose at the Soda Butte Picnic area today. At 5:50 a.m. I found a small grizzly on the west end of Amethyst Bench in the tree line. It found a scratching tree and scratched face first, back next, then his sides a couple of times before going out of sight. At 6:05 a.m. Rita R found a grizzly digging under the Moose Head from Trashcan Pullout. At 6:30 a.m. John G found a grizzly digging in the tree line south and west of Footbridge Pullout. At 6:55 a.m. Gary G found the two grizzly sub adults again digging on Amethyst Bench. At 7:05 a.m. Bruce P found the family of grizzlies we are calling the Junction Butte family that consists of two small two-year-old cubs. They spent most of the day digging north of Fisherman's Pullout causing a bear jam all day long. At 7:35 a.m. Frank H called with the Middle Ridge grizzly family with two yearlings on the west flank of Middle Ridge. At 8:00 a.m. Richard R found a large grizzly about three miles north of Boulder Pullout in Little America. I found a large grizzly moving to the west. We found our first new elk calf today, it was on Specimen Ridge. At 9:00 a.m. I found a grizzly bedded on a rock in Secret Passage viewed from Coyote Overlook. Unfortunately, it did not stay bedded too long and got up and walked out of sight, several friends did not get to see the small grizzly. At 12:00 noon the wolf watchers found a carcass south of Fisherman's but best watched from Dorothy's Pullout. Over a short time, we watched 1229F, a black and two gray adult wolves around the area. From 1:00 p.m.to 5:00 p.m. I watched up to four puppies and two black and two gray adult wolves at the Crystal den sight.

Sunday - May 22nd

26 degrees this morning in Silver Gate warming up to 47 degrees out in the park. I saw a bull moose at the Soda Butte Picnic area tonight on the way back to Silver Gate. At 5:20 a.m. I found a black wolf heading west on the west end of Jasper Bench viewed from Coyote Overlook. At 5:40 a.m. Frank H had a grizzly near the Crystal den area. When I arrived, it was heading to the east. At 5:55 a.m. Kim and Joyce C found the two 3 1/2-year-old grizzly sub adults on Amethyst Bench. Later when I was watching a wolf crossing below them traveling to the west and the two sub adults ran into the trees. At 6:10 a.m. we had a black wolf south of Trashcan Pullout walking to the west. At 6:35 a.m. we had a dark grizzly digging and later visiting the wolf carcass sight south of Fisherman's Pullout. At 7:15 a.m. I found a large grizzly digging in front of the mixed conifer aspen forest in Slough Creek viewed from Lamar Canyon West. At 7:50 a.m. Evan S found the Junction Butte grizzly family with two small two-year old’s south of Fisherman's. They were in sight all day long again at 100-400 yards. At 9:20 a.m. I found a brown grizzly walking the tree line south and west of Footbridge. Hoping to get a better look I headed to Confluence but never saw the grizzly again. At 11:00 a.m. Kim T and Mike W found a small colorful grizzly digging on the #5 finger on Norris. Tonight, it had moved to # 3 finger and was digging as the snow came in. At 12:15 p.m. I stopped at the Crystal Pullout and watched three black adult wolves and two puppies. At 1:15 p.m. we had a bear jam at Elk Creek with a cinnamon black bear. At 4:00 p.m. Randi M called with a grizzly above the willows east of the Horizontal Forest in Slough Creek. I was down the road and could not see it. I ran into Cody K who had also watched the grizzly and it finally showed up in the Yellow Grass meadow. At 5:00 p.m. Gary G found a courting pair of grizzlies north and west of Trashcan Pullout. When I arrived, we had about ten minutes of good viewing before they went over the hill. At 5:15 p.m. an older man stopped to tell Gary and I about a grizzly walking the tree line south of us as a snowstorm clouded the area. I headed to Confluence and Gary stayed at Trashcan and as the snow lifted, I found a medium colorful grizzly digging in the tree line. At 5:55 p.m. we had a cinnamon black bear south of Trout Lake. Late this evening I missed seeing a fresh moose calf just outside of Silver Gate. While rearranging the car for camping a car passed me and pulled over with cameras in their hands. A newly born moose calf was led across the stream and they got a picture of it. They showed me the picture and it was very small and very cute.

Monday - May 23rd

29 degrees in Silver Gate this morning warming up to 53 degrees out in the park. I had a THREE DOG DAY today. I also had a moose just off the road in Round Prairie this morning. At 5:40 a.m. I found a grizzly digging in the northern divide ridge viewed from Coyote Overlook, it was in view for a couple of hours this morning. At 5:55 a.m. Richard R had a grizzly digging in the tree line southwest of Footbridge Pullout. I stopped at Confluence where I found the grizzly digging in the tree line. At 6:05 a.m. we noticed another grizzly not too far away from the first grizzly this one slowly traveling through the Chalcedony Drainage also viewed from the Confluence. At 6:20 a.m. I found a large colorful grizzly digging in the tree line northeast of Footbridge Pullout. Soon it decided to travel farther to the east but provided occasionally views of it moving east. At 6:50 a.m. Rita R found a dark grizzly moving to the north from the dirt pullout just east of the Buffalo Ranch. At 7:00 a.m. Richard and Rita R found the two-sub adult grizzly bears on the Amethyst Drainage. At 7:40 a.m. Evan S called with the Norris grizzly family with two two-year-old cubs in the curve just east of Footbridge Pullout. They were digging in a green meadow no more than three hundred yards off the road. At 8:05 a.m. I found a grizzly high in Secret Passage north of Fisherman's Pullout but had to viewed from the Buffalo Ranch. A short sighting. At 9:30 a.m. we had a black bear in the tree line south of the Buffalo Ranch. At 10:45 a.m. we had a gray wolf walking around the natal den in Slough Creek. At 11:15 a.m. I walked out on the rocks at Lamar Canyon East pullout and spotted a large dark grizzly digging near the skyline to the north. Only in view for about ten minutes. At 12:15 p.m. John G had a small colorful grizzly digging in a clearing north of Picnic Pullout. This grizzly spent most of the time we watched it behind trees in the clearing. At 12:45 p.m. I saw a bear near the skyline east of Ski Slope viewed from Picnic Area. We watched for the next hour and a half. It turned out to be the Specimen Ridge grizzly with three cubs of the year (COY). Note: We have two grizzly families that we call the Specimen Ridge family. This sow with three coys is the mother of the two 3 1/2-year-old grizzly sub adults that we have been viewing most of the last three weeks. We have a Specimen Ridge family that should have two yearlings this year on Specimen Ridge that we have not yet seen this year. The coys are really small and the sow was slow in her movements, my guess that they had not been out of the den very long. This is the first sow with coys we have found this year in Slough Creek and Lamar Valley. At 3:30 p.m. Gary G found a large dark grizzly digging north of Coyote Overlook. At 4:45 p.m. I was down the Slough Creek campground road and watched a gray adult and two black and one gray puppy near the den site. At 6:00 p.m. we had a dark brown, black bear north of Soda Butte East Pullout. At 6:15 p.m. my last sighting was a large cinnamon black bear in Round Prairie.

People Seen

Wolf Watchers: From Montana: Taylor B, Rick M, Dan and Laurie L, Wendy B, Doug M, Jeremy S, Melba C, Chloe F, Becky C, Marlene F, and Joe K. From Missouri: Frank H. From South Dakota: Sam and Ginny G. From Colorado: Mark and Carol R, and Bob P. From New York: Rick and Maureen B. From California: Kathie L. From Texas: Carl L and Carol S. From Wyoming: Linda H. From Oregon: Bruce and Kelly H. Bear Watchers seen this report: From Washington: John G, Randi M, and Judy S. From Idaho: Kim and Joyce C, Wes W, Cody K. Blake, and Stacey (Eagle Eye). From Mississippi: Gary G. From Wyoming: Terri W, and Richard and Rita R. From Louisiana: Bruce P. From Illinois: Frank G. From Montana: Mike and Kathy W and Doug and JoAnn M. From Colorado: Rick and Len H, Dennis R, Kim T, Kristina G, and Rick and Tanner H. From Utah: Scott and JoAnn M and Larry M and Steve. From Missouri: Don and Carol L. Others seen this report: From Montana: Mike and Kay S, Claire L, Brad B, MacNeil L, Chris H, Ashlea T, Amy T, Emil M, Evan S, Bob L, Michael S, Ken S, Jim H, Nathan V, Grant J, and Shauna B. From Wyoming: Kevin M. From Colorado: Jim and Bobbie F. From California: Mark M. From Vermont: John K. From Arizona: David and Phyllis.

Yellowstone National Park

Lamar Valley Map - Yellowstone National Park