Yellowstone National Park 2023 Trip Reports

Trip Report ~ Bear & Wolf Sightings ~ by Bill Hamblin

17 through 20 June 2023
Yellowstone National Park

Beautiful Mountain Lion ~ Lamar Valley ~ April 10th, 2023 ~ Photo by Linda Rudge Carney © All Rights Reserved

Mountain Lion ~ also known as the Cougar, Puma, Panther, or Catamount ~ Puma concolor

~ June 2023 ~

Saturday - June 17th

41 degrees this morning in Silver Gate warming up to 62 degrees with afternoon showers. I saw a male harlequin duck in the Soda Butte Creek this morning. I had two different foxes on the road into the park this morning. At 5:35 a.m. I found the grizzly sow with two cubs of the year on the # 2 finger on Norris. At 6:20 a.m. three black and one gray wolf southeast of the old Buffalo Ranch. At 6:50 a.m. Randi M has the two Specimen Ridge sub adults in No Bear Meadow viewed from the old Buffalo Ranch. At 7:45 a.m. the two Middle Ridge sub adults were seen on Specimen Ridge. The first day in a while seeing both sets of sub adults on the same day. At 8:10 a.m. I found the grizzly sow with the two dark yearlings near Junction Pass. Today they appeared to be hunting elk calves and were zig-zapping through the sagebrush. At 12:30 p.m. we had a cinnamon black bear with one black and one cinnamon cub of the year in Crystal Drainage south of the Slough Creek restroom. At 1:15 p.m. we watched a black bear on the # 2 finger on Norris. At 2:00 p.m. the Warm Creek grizzly sow with two cubs of the year were close to the road at Upper Barronette. I am worried about this sow who seems to like it close to the road. At 6:00 p.m. a black bear created a big bear jam at the Soda Butte Picnic area.

Sunday - June 18th

46 degrees in Silver Gate this morning warming up to 58 degrees. Today the low clouds moved in just after daylight making seeing the high clearings, where most of the grizzlies are this time of year, impossible. At 5:35 a.m. Gary K found a grizzly in the Bowl near little tree/big tree viewed at first from Footbridge Pullout but later and better from the old Buffalo Ranch. At 10:15 a.m. Randi M found the grizzly sow with two cubs of the year on finger # 3 on Norris. The sow seemed disturbed this morning often standing and looking around and moving all over the clearing. Later we noticed a cinnamon black bear in the area and she moved the cubs away in a hurry. At 11:15 a.m. the cinnamon black bear that had disturbed the grizzly sow was in view. At 4:15 p.m. a cinnamon black bear created a large bear jam northwest of Coyote Overlook. At 5:15 p.m. a black bear was seen on the # 3 finger on Norris. At 6:00 p.m. six black and three gray wolves crossed the Lamar River going east as seen from the Confluence. They were going out on a hunt, and we watched them disappear over the lower end of Norris heading south. At 6:15 p.m. someone noticed three wolves, two black and one gray, howling from back to the west. We think these three were left behind. At 7:00 p.m. the largest black bear I have seen this year was close to the road at Upper Barronette.

Monday - June 19th

44 degrees in Silver Gate this morning warming up to 60 degrees with afternoon showers. At 5:00 a.m. Gary G found a grizzly walking east on Amethyst Bench. He later changed direction and crossed the road south to north just east of the old Buffalo Ranch. At 6:10 a.m. Randi M found the grizzly sow with two cubs of the year on the # 3 finger on Norris. The sow was digging away and the cubs were playing a lot, the disturbance from yesterday was over. At 6:20 a.m. I found a black wolf near the new growth forest southwest of Footbridge. Randi M went to Hitching Post for a better view and had five more wolves in the area of a new and small carcass, we think. A lot of ravens and a couple of eagles were waiting to move in a small ravine when the wolves moved away. At 6:40 a.m. I had a dark grizzly in the Inverted Triangle clearing below Druid Peak viewed from Picnic Pullout. At 7:15 a.m. Doug M (bear watcher) had 907F, the oldest wolf in the park, crossed the road in front of his vehicle. Good viewing for the next hour as she investigated a large bison herd with lots of bison calves. At 7:25 a.m. we had three black wolves in the old Druid rendezvous area coming to the west from the carcass south of Hitching Post. At 8:15 a.m. we had a small cinnamon black bear above Crystal Rock viewed from the Slough Creek restroom. At 8:25 a.m. we had a large darker cinnamon black bear in the same clearing. At 8:50 a.m. we had grizzly the two Middle Ridge sub adults on Specimen Ridge. Apparently, they had crossed the road near the Yellowstone Bridge from north to south before I watched them on Specimen Ridge. At 10:15 a.m. a nice sized cinnamon black bear created a big jam at the Yellowstone River Bridge. John K was there on duty and moved the traffic on. I had heard from Jeremy S and Evan S that the slopes of Hellroaring had a grizzly family with cubs of the year. At 3:10 p.m. I found a grizzly with one cub of the year high on the slopes of Hellroaring. A new grizzly family on the northern range. A man named Rob was looking at the view with me at Upper Hellroaring and I showed him the grizzly sow with one cub of the year. He looked around and found a grizzly sow with two dark yearling cubs about one-half mile from the sow and cub of the year. Five grizzlies in sight at the same time. The sow with the two dark yearlings had been seen several times from Slough Creek and we had wondered where they had gone. At 5:45 p.m. Paul H found the two Specimen Ridge sub adults near Old Bear Meadow. I have to thank Paul H for waiting for me to return from an oil change in Gardiner. He had been watching them for over two hours before I got to see them. At 6:30 a.m. we had a black bear just off the road near Pebble Creek.

Tuesday - June 20th

It rained most of the night. 40 degrees in the morning at Silver Gate warming up to 60 degrees in the afternoon. Randi M found a cow moose with a newborn calf in trees below the Bowl. Not the best place to have a newborn calf, but she took him up and over the hill. My first western tanagers seen this morning. We had four vultures sitting in a tree near Slough Creek this morning. I watched the sandhill crane near the Yellowstone Picnic area today with one of the two colts (small sandhill cranes). At 5:25 a.m. Rick M found a black wolf south of Picnic Pullout. We watched it later as it traveled west over the Amethyst Bench. At 5:45 a.m. Gary G found a grizzly digging on Ski Slope, later the grizzly was seen on Amethyst Bench digging. The last few years Ski Slope was one of the best places to watch grizzlies, not this year. At 6:20 a.m. Randi M had a large black bear under the snow cornices viewed from Footbridge. At 6:30 a.m. with great light for viewing I found a dark grizzly digging northeast of Pebble Creek viewed from Footbridge. That is a long way to watch a grizzly from. At 6:40 a.m. we had a black bear on the # 3 finger on Norris. At 6:45 a.m. the grizzly sow with two cubs of the year we in view on # 3 finger on Norris, and they were in view again at 10:00 a.m. At 7:10 a.m. Paul H found the two Specimen Ridge sub adult grizzlies on No Bear Meadow. At 8:00 a.m. Paul H and Bruce H found a small grizzly low in the Bowl. The grizzly was moving up hill and appeared to be following the cow moose and newborn calf, but it was just moving to a better area to do some digging. At 9:00 a.m. Randi M found a second grizzly in the high clearing northeast of Pebble Creek campground; the first grizzly was still in view maybe three hundred yards away. They were both digging and were not upset with the other grizzly being there. At 11:30 a.m. Randi M found a black bear sow with one black cub of the year north of the old Buffalo Ranch. At 12:10 p.m. Randi found a large grizzly apparently hunting elk calves north of the old Slough Creek den. It was traveling along with his nose close to the ground. At 1:00 p.m. I found a dark grizzly in the same large clearing, this one zigzagging back and forth through the grasses with his nose close to the ground. At 1:20 p.m. I found a small colorful grizzly on the skyline south of the Slough Creek restroom. The grizzly was digging and in sight for over thirty minutes. At 1:30 p.m. I found a cinnamon black bear on Specimen Ridge running from hikers on the trail. At 3:30 p.m. along with Paul H and Randi M we found the grizzly sow with two dark yearlings again on the Slopes of Hellroaring. We showed a lot of people the three grizzlies that were about two miles from the Upper Hellroaring Pullout. At 4:00 p.m. a nice cinnamon black bear crossed the road south to north and grazed under the pullout at less than fifty yards away.

People Seen

Wolf Watchers: From Montana: Rick M, John and Carolyn G, and Taylor R. From Utah: Paul H. From Oregon: Bruce and Kelly H. From California: Bill W. From Idaho: Ray L and Kathy. And From Colorado: Kriztina G. Bear Watchers seen this report: From Washington: Randi M. From Mississippi: Gary G. From Georgia: Sandi R. From Montana: Doug M and Mike W. From Idaho: Blake and Rachel M, and Warren and Natalie B. From Colorado: Rick and Tanner H. From Utah: Brent W, And from Wisconsin: John and Marie E. Others seen this report: From Montana: Bob L, Andra C, Mike S, Nate U, Grant J, Cara M, Shauna B, Kate J, Quinn H, Bonnie M and daughter, Evan S, Joann M, and Jim H. From Vermont: John K.

Beautiful Mountain Lion ~ Lamar Valley ~ April 10th, 2023 ~ Photo by Linda Rudge Carney © All Rights Reserved

Mountain Lion ~ also known as the Cougar, Puma, Panther, or Catamount ~ Puma concolor

Yellowstone National Park

Lamar Valley Map - Yellowstone National Park