Yellowstone National Park 2024 Trip Reports
Trip Report ~ Bear & Wolf Sightings ~ by Bill Hamblin
29 March through 01 April 2024
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
~ March 2024 ~
March 29th - Friday
30 degrees in Gardiner but 21 degrees on the Blacktail this morning warming up to 37 degrees. Six inches of fresh snow on the roads this morning. All of the morning was stormy with low clouds and snowing making wildlife looking difficult this morning. Around 1:00 p.m. the sun came out and all the roads cleared of snow and ice by then. At 6:17 a.m. I heard a wolf howling behind the Blacktail Deer Restroom but with the fog and low clouds we only heard the wolves. They were south of the road and were moving west because the howling was moving west still no visibility. They crossed the road with no one noticing and we hurried to Undine Falls. They were spotted high almost skyline moving west now on the north side of the road. My count was six black and two gray wolves of the Rescue Creek Pack, others had more, and I assume that all 14-15 were there this morning. Soon after I heard that a grizzly had been spotted in Crystal Drainage, however, I was thirty-five minutes away because of the Icey roads. I did not get to see the grizzly. The wolf project had decided to check out the carcass in Crystal Drainage where we had been seeing wolves around for the last four days. The carcass was not in view from the road. The wolf project never saw the grizzly, but the grizzly sensing them left quickly allowing a few people on the road to view the grizzly crossing the meadow and disappearing into the trees. Steve J showed me a video, of a large grizzly moving quickly south. The bald eagle is now sitting on the nest south and across the river from Coyote Overlook in Lamar Valley (that nest has been occupied for the last eight to ten years). Bob L had found three wolves bedded in Slough Creek this morning. A couple of hours later I hiked down to Bob's Knob and watched three black wolves, two of three were collared, these were from the Junction Butte wolfpack. They decided to move east when I arrived and were just across Slough Creek for great viewing with last night's snow. At 4:35 p.m. Joe K and others showed me five bedded wolves (Lupine Creek pack, I think, although Lupine is supposed to have one black) across Hellroaring Creek viewed from Upper Hellroaring, one of the five was collared.
March 30th - Saturday
Saturday March 30th. 24 degrees in Gardiner but only 12 degrees on the Blacktail at daylight warming up to 42 degrees. I saw my first robin this morning. The wolf watchers had some of the Junction Butte wolves on the slopes of Hellroaring today. Around 11:00 a.m. finding nothing to the east, I stopped at Upper Hellroaring to watch. Four black wolves and three gray wolves including 907F (soon to be eleven years old) had found a carcass in a small patch of sagebrush. Not a lot of action as I think they had fed on the carcass for a couple of hours before I got there. Meanwhile the wolf watchers saw a bison that had collapsed and was slowly dying. Later in the afternoon the wolves slowly moved to the bison which had died. Good viewing for the rest of the day.
March 31st - Sunday
32 degrees in Gardiner this morning with light snow but 27 degrees at Hellroaring warming up to 37 degrees. Since there were two carcasses in view yesterday on the slopes of Hellroaring I started my day at Upper Hellroaring Pullout arriving just after 6:00 a.m. The snow continued to fall hard enough and low clouds prevented us from seeing far enough up the slope to where the two carcasses were. I was hoping that a grizzly had found the carcasses during the night. Around 9:00 a.m. the low clouds rose enough to see the second carcass; the first carcass was apparently finished during the night. There were eight wolves around the carcass this morning, but no grizzly. The viewing was not really good so I could not tell the colors of the wolves. A few were still eating on the bison carcass but most of the wolves seemed to want to play and chase each other around. I left after an hour but when I passed by there this afternoon on my way back to Gardiner the slopes were again fogged in with low clouds and falling snow.
~ April 2024 ~
April 1st - Monday
24 degrees in Gardiner but 11 degrees at Blacktail this morning warming up to 46 degrees with lots of sun. I saw my first Yellow Bellied Marmot today. The bald eagles are in the nest south of Long Pullout and can also be seen from the Slough Creek Campground Road. I stopped and checked the Great Horned Owl nest next to the Visitor Center in Mammoth, one of the two was in sight. At 6:45 a.m. from the Upper Hellroaring Pullout I found my first grizzly of the year. It was moving below yesterday's bison carcass walking to the west. Good viewing for fifteen or so minutes as he took his time finally disappearing in the Hellroaring Creek Drainage. Quite a large grizzly as we got to compare his size to all the bison in the area. At 9:25 a.m. the wolf people found seven wolves right at the Slough Creek Den. The alpha male and 907F was there. One gray went in and out of the Sage Den. Good news for the wolf watchers this year, as it appears they will den again in Slough Creek. The count was seven this morning, either four blacks and three grays or three blacks and four grays. They bedded quickly and were behind the western trees.
People Seen
Wolf Watchers: From Montana: Rick M, Jeremy S, Quinn H, Joe K, Melba C, Taylor R, Leo L, Helena E, and Jack R. From Canada: Jeff A. From Wales: Sian J. From Mississippi: Chuck and Wynelle M. From Arizona: Steve J. From Utah: Charlie M. From Wyoming: Chris B. And from New Mexico: Lynn C. Bear Watchers seen this report: From Louisiana: Bruce P. From Wyoming: Kevin M. And from Montana: Doug M, Jeff B, Linda K, Jack G, and Greg and Tracie R. Others seen this report: From Montana: Sandy K, Duffy P, Steve B, Matt D, Bob L, Grant J, Shauna B, Nate U, and Andrea B. From Idaho: Ray L and Kathy. And from: the Netherlands: Jort V.
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
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