Yellowstone National Park 2025 Trip Reports
Trip Report ~ Bear & Wolf Sightings ~ by Bill Hamblin
03 through 06 October 2025
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 2025 ~
October 3rd - Friday
It was 39 degrees this morning in Silver Gate warming up to 70 degrees out in the park this afternoon. I saw a fox and a weasel today in the park, the weasel was my first in a few years. This afternoon the winds came in with the storm front a day behind that. At 7:15 a.m. Doug M called with a grizzly across the Lamar River but below Amethyst Bench, probably the same grizzly viewed yesterday. It was in view this afternoon near the Western Foothills moving slowly east. At 7:30 a.m. I found a bear jam north of the road between Midpoint and Picnic Pullouts. It was a medium sized colorful grizzly digging not far off the road. Four photographers were following the grizzly at twenty-five yards as the grizzly walked slowly away. Most of the photographers I know would never do this, but with the ranger staff with the shutdown they approached way to close. At 9:45 a.m. there is a small colorful grizzly in the Bowl. At 10:10 a.m. Jeff B called with a grizzly in view at the Confluence. It was the white faced medium sized grizzly we have seen before at the Confluence and at Ice Box Canyon. At 2:10 p.m. we had a black bear moving across the first skyline clearing east of Penny Lane. At 5:40 p.m. I found an unusually black grizzly that was medium sized low in the Bowl. It was moving slowly to the east and then crossed the bottom of Bear Meadow. It was announced that the Beartooth Highway would close because of the incoming storm.
October 4th - Saturday
42 degrees this morning in Silver Gate warming up to just 46 degrees out in the park this afternoon. Most of the morning and evening it rained or tried to snow, but the low clouds severely limited watching the high meadows where a lot of the grizzles have been found lately. I did have a young bull moose near the Wyoming/Montana border west of Warm Springs this afternoon. They closed Dunraven Pass today because of the storm. At 7:40 a.m. I found a large dark grizzly digging just east of the Western Foothills. I could see him from Footbridge and the Confluence Pullouts but best viewed from the Enclosure Pullout. At 7:50 a.m. we had a dark grizzly slowing traveling south in the Penny Lane Meadow. At 12:55 p.m. we had a black and a gray Junction Butte wolf seen on the backside of Jasper Bench. The last few days the wolves were best viewed from a high hill north of Coyote Overlook. The viewing from ground level was very poor with only a few glances of a wolf or two. Since I chose not to climb the hill my wolf sightings were low.
October 5th - Sunday
34 degrees this morning in Silver Gate warming up to 46 degrees out in the park. Another day of rain and very low clouds made sighting bears difficult. The wolf watchers today from high on the hill north of Coyote Overlook accounted for all seventeen wolves (fourteen blacks and three grays) of the Junction Butte Pack. Almost no sightings of the wolves as road level again. At 10:05 a.m. the low clouds lifted a little and I found a small grizzly digging in the Bowl. The hills were snow covered on the south side of the roads. At 6:10 p.m. there was a cinnamon black bear in the Soda Butte Creek Corridor that everyone was calling a grizzly, it was not. A tour guide told me about a grizzly in the Beartooth's close to the road. That highway is closed but you can drive up quite a few miles. Since I had only seen one grizzly I headed up there. I found the spot and the grizzly was laying on an elk carcass. It was dark at 7:05 p.m. when I watched the grizzly.
October 6th - Monday
32 degrees in Silver Gate this morning warming up only into the 40's out in the park this afternoon but lots of sun and little wind made it feel warmer. For the first time in over a week the wolf watchers hiking the hill behind Coyote Overlook did not have wolves early. Wendy B found them in Little America. At 9:40 a.m. I watched four of the five pups that were seen this morning. They howled and appeared to want to go north across the road but did not. They soon disappeared going back to the east. Bob P climbed the hill again above Coyote Overlook and found the six pup and then saw a few of the other pups from Crystal return to the gully behind Jasper Bench. No one found the rest of the pack which includes all the adults this morning. At 11:40 a.m. Maureen B told be about a black bear south at the Confluence. I traveled that way and the black bear had crossed the road to the north.
People Seen
Wolf Watchers: From Montana: Rick M, Jeff A, Jeff B, Jeremy S, Wendy B, Bob J and Helena E. From Utah: Paul H and Celia L. From Colorado: Bob P. From Missouri: Frank H. From Washington: David and Stephanie O. From Oregon: Michael and Deb O. From California: Bruce and Maryjean Mc. From New York: Rick and Maureen B. And from North Dakota: Sandy H. Bear Watchers: From Montana: Doug M and Kathy M. From Tennessee: Mike and Donna F. From Vermont: Don P. And from Wyoming: Sandi R and Tom H. Others seen this report: From Montana: Andrea B, Audra C, Mike S, Michele H, Quinn H, Michael S, Cara M, Grant J, Russ K, and Ashea M. And from Washington: Aaron M, and Matt P.
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
Lamar Valley Map - Yellowstone National Park
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