Yellowstone National Park 2024 Trip Reports
Trip Report ~ Bear & Wolf Sightings ~ by Bill Hamblin
14 through 17 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
~ April 2024 ~
April 14th - Sunday
44 degrees in Gardiner but only 28 degrees at Boulder Pullout in Little America this morning warming up to 70 degrees, way too early in the spring for 70 degrees. I saw two golden eagles and at least three bald eagles on the bison carcass at Slough Creek this morning. The building for the Tower gas station is closed with the roof all tore up. Do not know what that is about, but you have to either go back to Mammoth or go all the way to Cooke City if you need gas. The morning, we started down the road to Bob's Knob on the Slough Creek Campground Road. At 6:15 a.m. we could see the colorful grizzly on the two-day old bison carcass. No birds around until it gets light. At 6:35 a.m. Paul H found 907F, the alpha female and the oldest wolf in the park, and the black with gray face alpha male. The grizzly held the carcass until around 8:30 a.m. when it ran to the north and out of sight. I heard it returned around 11:30 a.m. for another hour of feeding before being chased off by the two wolves. I hiked back down at noon and saw both the wolves disappear into the ravine they came out of this morning. From 1:15 thru 3:20 p.m. I watched two sub adult grizzlies on and around Amethyst Bench. I think three-and-one-half year olds, with not much difference in size or color. They were digging occasionally but not that much, probably checking out the area. I had a THREE DOG DAY (coyote, fox, wolf) today thanks to Kevin M finding a fox on the snow about one mile away.
April 15th - Monday
46 degrees and raining hard in Gardiner but 36 degrees at Boulder Pullout and clear skies this morning, no rain out in the valley all day with a high of 55 degrees. Some low clouds prevented glassing the high meadows. The osprey was on the nest in Lamar Canyon and the new pullout is right across from it, so nice viewing. A good day for viewing bears started at first light from Bob's Knob down the Slough Creek Campground Road. We could see a grizzly on the old bison carcass but it sure did not look like the colorful grizzly who had it for two days. It was a huge dark grizzly and was surrounded by seven bedded wolves. Looking around we saw a dark figure in some yellow grass one hundred yards from the carcass, after a few minutes the second grizzly got up. The second grizzly decided it was not going to displace the grizzly on the carcass and moved slowly east past a small herd of bison. The grizzly looked pretty big passing the bison herd. A little later while counting wolves in the area now that they were getting up, we found another dark figure partially behind a hill close to the carcass. That was grizzly number 3. Number 3 for us finding it, but obviously number 2 by size being closer than number 2 who had now moved out of sight to the east. The third grizzly must have had some of the carcass with him behind the hill as he was eating on something. When number two left the carcass, the grizzly decided to leave too. Now the wolves harassed the carcass grizzly, biting at his behind. He fought them for a minute then returned to the carcass in the creek ravine that offered more protection. The alpha male and surprisingly the only pup, now a yearling was right in the mix of the harassment. I left to check out Lamar Valley and when I returned Paul H told me that after the three grizzlies left and the seven wolves moved away to bed, the half sized colorful grizzly (compared to the three grizzlies) got to come in and feed on the carcass. Fortunately for me the colorful grizzly left the carcass and moved to the Lion Meadow to dig for roots or worms or something, so I got to see grizzly number 4. Just before this Glenda M had spotted two sub adult grizzlies on the Northern Divide Ridge to the south from the Slough Creek side going over the hill to the east. Most everyone including me missed the two sub adults. So, Paul H and Kevin M and I headed to Lamar to see if they would come over the hill into Lamar Valley. They did not. So, we separated and each of us covered a part of Lamar Valley. I was at Midpoint Pullout and found a grizzly almost skyline south and east of Ski Slope hill. It was sliding down the snow two different times, before moving over the skyline and out of sight. That was grizzly number 5. Now we decided to try and find the two sub adults. Paul and Kevin stayed in Lamar Valley, and I went back to Slough Creek. I was lucky in finding the two three-and-one-half year olds as they had reversed course and were now going west in Crystal Drainage. Those were number six and seven grizzlies for today. A nice total for this time of the year but remember four of the seven were seen because of the carcass which we knew about.
April 16th - Tuesday
40 degrees in Gardiner but only 33 degrees at Slough Creek this morning warming up to 49 degrees out in the park. But the fog moved in early and did not lift until 9:20 a.m. The action at the osprey nest was good with three ospreys flying around this morning. Not sure if one is last year's chick and the parents were driving it away, or a second male trying to move in. The Tower gas station is only one lane. There was a microburst, and it damaged the front half of the store roof. Just before first light Paul and I walked down to Bob's Knob down the Slough Creek Campground Road. We were surprised with all the fog that we could see the carcass. One of the large dark grizzles from yesterday morning was on the carcass. Soon the fog came in and that was the first and brief grizzly sighting of the day. I went into Lamar Valley and found that everything was fogged in and not clearing until 9:20 a.m. I returned to Slough and found the colorful grizzly again in Lion Meadow. Today it was bedded and sleeping on a large boulder. I watched it on and off until 1:00 p.m. It was digging quite a bit so hoped he was getting something good to eat. At 4:30 p.m. I stopped at Upper Hellroaring Pullout and spotted a lone black wolf on the slopes, guessing that it was a Junction Butte wolf. It soon bedded and was in sight until 5:20 p.m. At 5:30 p.m. I found a bear jam at Phantom Lake. A large cinnamon black bear above the road walking along.
April 17th - Wednesday
36 degrees with light snow in Gardiner but 28 degrees at Boulder Pullout in the morning warming up to 35 degrees. The snow stopped coming down and the roads were clear, but the park had one to three inches of snow that melted off early. We had flocks of gray-crowned rosy finches this morning flying around the roads. Frank H and I hiked down to the Slough Creek campground today, 2.5 miles down and 2.5 miles back. I started at Slough Creek this morning and Paul H and Frank H hiked down to Bob's Knob. Nothing on the carcass and nothing around the Slough Creek wolf den. I headed for Lamar Valley glassing several pullouts with good light and nothing to see. But near the Confluence the wolf team had wolves. The Mollies wolf pack had made a journey from down south and were on some sort of carcass. The best place to see them was Geriatric Hill. From what I heard the entire pack of ten wolves were there, five blacks and five grays. Identified were 1048M, formerly a member of the Junction Butte pack who is looking pretty old now; and 1090F who is also pretty old. A few appeared to me to be yearlings (last year's pups). I have not seen the Mollies in three or, so years so was a pleasant way to start the morning. The rest of the day we searched with excellent light, no fog, and no low clouds. I headed back to Gardiner glassing Slough, Crystal and Hellroaring on the way back to Gardiner. No grizzlies so far. I saw cars at the east end of Phantom Lake where a grizzly sow with two beautiful yearling cubs were less than one hundred yards off the road. Last year in early May there was a grizzly sow with two cubs of the year that made the road and being close to the road a few days project. I assume that the sow is doing that again this year.
People Seen
Wolf watchers: From Montana: Rick M, Doug M, Jeremy S, Taylor R, Leo L, and Kriztina G. From Utah: Paul H. From Washington: David and Stephan. From California: Jim and Amber H, and Glenda M. From South Dakota: Sam and Ginny G. Bear Watchers seen this report: From Louisiana: Bruce P. From Wyoming: Kevin M.\ From Montana: Chuck W and Debbie H, Doug M, Shari S, and Sandi R. Others seen this report: From Montana: Audrea B, Bob L Mike S, MacNeil L, and Evan S. From Florida: Mark L. 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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