Yellowstone National Park 2024 Trip Reports
Trip Report ~ Bear & Wolf Sightings ~ by Bill Hamblin
12 through 16 October 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
~ October 2024 ~
October 12th - Saturday
Saturday October 12th. 32 degrees in Silver Gate this morning warming up to 71 degrees. I had a fox on the way into the park this morning and several coyotes but no wolves today. After a long day suddenly, it got better as Jeff and Val B called me with the grizzly sow with one cub of the year just coming down into the Amethyst Bench. I had spent hours looking for them today convinced they were still in the area.
October 13th - Sunday
33 degrees this morning warming up to 73 degrees out in the park. At 7:20 a.m. Frank G called with a large grizzly near the wolves near the Marge Simpson Tree in Slough Creek. Several times in the last week or so a grizzly has been seen in that place, but I never got there in time to see it leaving to the north either over Junction Pass or the Aspen Drainage. Today the grizzly was in no hurry. While watching the grizzly I counted four bedded black wolves of the Junction Butte Pack in the area (this has been the rendezvous area for the Junction Butte wolf pack for the last month, a safe place to leave the pups while the adults go out hunting). Soon the pups will be old and big enough to follow the adults, then wolf watching will be more difficult. At 9:00 a.m. I watched a gray Junction Butte wolf near the Marge Simpson Tree (today like most days the wolf watchers have a larger count than I report, they watch them for hours and a lot of the watchers can identify all or most of the individual wolves). At 10:30 a.m. I found a grizzly family north of Picnic Pullout near the skyline. We watched for almost an hour and only saw the grizzly sow and two yearling cubs. I was worried because in the area we had watched a grizzly sow with three yearlings in May and June. They disappeared around 11:30 a.m. Around 12:00 noon they came back into the same small clearing on the skyline, about twenty yards wide. This time we counted all three yearlings. It was not the best viewing as only a few times were they all in sight at the same time. At 5:25 p.m. I spotted the grizzly sow with one cub of the year today on the west side of the Amethyst Drainage, but they soon moved on to the Amethyst Bench were great viewing. Both seriously digging and the cub not getting very far from the sow.
October 14th - Monday
32 degrees this morning in Silver Gate warming up to 73 degrees out in the park. I found a fox on the road on the way back to Silver Gate, so had a THREE DOG DAY today. At 8:00 a.m. two bedded black Junction Butte Wolves were again near the Marge Simpson Tree. At 9:35 a.m. Kim and Joyce C made a great spot finding the grizzly sow with one cub of the year on Square Meadow below Ski Slope viewed from Picnic Pullout. Only fifteen minutes of viewing and they disappeared. At 6:30 p.m. through 6:50 p.m. I found them again on Square Meadow only one hundred yards from this morning's sighting.
October 15th - Tuesday
28 degrees in Silver Gate this morning. The Beartooth Highway closed today for the year, although you usually can still go as far at Long Lake. I hiked with Frank H up to and around Trout Lake this morning. Then I headed north of Gardiner for the evening. It was warm there too at 74 degrees in the late afternoon. The grizzly watching was good tonight. All the action was in the same good area but farther down the road today. I ended up seeing ten grizzlies: One big dark grizzly, either a grizzly with one large cub or a pair of large sub adults (my guess a sow with a large cub), a sow with two cubs of the year, a sow with two yearling cubs and later a grizzly ran into the area from the south.
October 16th - Wednesday
37 degrees north of Gardiner this morning. Good grizzly watching again near last night's sightings. Twelve grizzlies this morning: The large dark grizzly, the sow with the large cub or two large sub adults, a sow with two cubs of the year, a sow with two yearling cubs and a second sow with two cubs of the year. The weather was to change tonight and tomorrow bringing much needed rain and snow above 7,000 feet so I headed home. I returned home by 12:30 p.m. I do plan to return to the park after this front moves through the area.
People Seen
Wolf Watchers: From Montana: Kristina G, Leo L, Helena E, Rick M, Jeff A, and Jeff B. From Colorado: Mark, Carol, and Roch R. From Missouri: Frank H. From Pennsylvania: Jack D. From Florida: Carrie P. From North Dakota: Sandy H. From Illinois: Andy and Nikki S. From Tennessee: Stacy A. From Wyoming: Dale and Faye B. From Mississippi: Chuck and Wynelle M. And from Kansas: Calvin and Lynette J. Bear Watchers seen this report: From Montana: Jeff and Val B, Kathy M, Sandy K and Duffy P, and Alan C. From Oregon: Larry and Char T. From Wyoming: Sandi R. From Idaho: Kim and Joyce C. From Wisconsin: Mike S. From Connecticut: Jeff F and his two kids and Tenile. From California: Jim and Wendy R. Others seen this report: From Montana: Jeff and Lisa, Hunter G, Bob L, MacNeil L, Quinn H, Cliff B, Michael S, Audra C, Jim H, Dan and Cindy H, and Scott B.
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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