Running with the wolf pack
DISCLAIMER: First of all there are a few dead bison pictures in here. Nothing gory I don’t think but it is a dead animal. Secondly, these animal pictures were all taken on our phones (mostly pointing them through a spotting scope). They definitely aren’t professional quality but we love them as a record of what we saw and how we saw it! With that said, enjoy the blog!
“Y’all are addicted” Terry chuckled warmly as I rolled down the window. It was just after 5am on our fourth consecutive early morning in Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley. He was right - we’d really got the bug.
After our backpacking trip (more on that in a future blog - two words: beautiful, terrifying), we had some time to kill before our final big multi-day hike of the year in the Tetons (or so we thought at the time) to close out our summer of fun. A bit too much time to kill - I was annoyed at myself for leaving so many days between the two, unsure whether we’d enjoy a week in Yellowstone’s super-touristy front country. Through last minute cancellations I’d managed to nab a few days at one of the park’s most sought after campsites - Slough Creek. These are 15 tent sites within easy striking distance of the Lamar Valley, a prime wildlife watching destination. As luck would have it, we were arriving at the beginning of a fierce heatwave so hiking between 10am and 6pm was off the cards as temperatures inched close to triple digits (around 35 celsius for the Brits!)
It was beyond hot here and shade was scarce. We used our tarp to erect this makeshift structure which provided a bit of relief
After an afternoon spent cooling off in the river at the campsite we decided to go out for a drive to look for wolves and bears at sunset. No one we spoke to at the campsite had had any luck but all told us to look for people with spotting scopes and ask them what they saw. It didn’t take long though before we spotted a bear on our own! After Glacier we’d had some practice at picking out their shapes in the distance. This one for some reason was running full pelt towards a plateau. We hung around but couldn’t tell what it was the bear was running from or whether it was our first black bear sighting. It looked small but it was too far off to tell for sure..
Bison in Lamar Valley. They were in rut and making a huge amount of noise
We ate dinner and were driving back to the campsite watching people looking at the bear until we came to a final pullout where it looked like people were watching something else. At the last minute we decided to stop and quickly ask what they were looking at. Turns out it was a dead bison. No one had seen it fall but it must have been recent as the birds hadn’t even arrived yet. There were still quite a few bison standing around, looking as though they were standing guard of the fallen animal. We later found out it was a female who had injured her leg and succumed to an infection.
Everyone around was very excited about the potential wildlife viewing opportunities of a dead bison just a couple of hundred metres from the road. “It’s been weeks since we had a good carcass” someone said. If this all sounds a little callous - maybe it is. But the carnivores need to eat too and for a bison, life surely can’t get much better than living free and ultimately dying in the grandeur of Yellowstone.
Waiting in the heat for the animals to arrive. The number of times the ranger next to me had to tell people not to go down onto the plateau to join the dead bison over the next few days was beyond ridiculous..!
We vowed to return and, for the next four mornings and evenings that’s exactly what we did! To watch wildlife in Yellowstone you have to either get really lucky (like we did seeing a grizzly bear and her three cubs from our car one morning); or you have to put in the hours. Early morning is the prime time for wildlife watching and - with the dead bison - we felt sure that first early start would pay off.
A bald eagle atop the bison with a juvenile off to the left. These photos were taken through a spotting scope which is very fiddly!
No luck though - nothing had found the bison beyond a few ravens (and a bald eagle). Not even the bear who was still hanging out on the plateau we’d seen him run up to the day before. We had a tantalising glimpse of a black wolf moving quickly up the ridge line through a borrowed spotting scope but it was too far off for a proper look.
People were so generous with lending their spotting scopes to newbies like us
The next day we were rewarded with a bear at the carcass! He looked pretty small and was jealously guarding his food - going so far as to lie on top of it for a nap. Part of the fun was getting to know all the different people who, like us, kept returning in the hope of seeing some wolves. There was a budding romance kicking off between two people which we enjoyed watching play out despite the woman being super unfriendly (to the extent of telling people who pulled up to ask us what was out there that she wasn’t seeing anything).
About to take a nap on the carcass
The next day the same bear was still at the carcass, and was joined around 7:30am by a lone grey wolf. She was identified by the research ranger as a wolf from the Junction Butte pack - a young female with a tracking collar. We loved watching her interact with the bear, dancing around him to get her fill. At one point she took a piece of meat over to the bear - taunting him or making sure he got some food, I’m not sure. She eventually left, carrying a large chunk of bison with her and we all hoped that she would alert the rest of the pack (who number around 22 wolves!)
Lone wolf attempting to run the bear off the carcass
At this point we left for the day (after making a quick ice cream/lunch run for a couple of our friends who were camped out at the pullout) and headed to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. I was highly skeptical of this detour - what if we missed the wolves?! It wasn’t “the” Grand Canyon - surely it would fall short. Amy was so right to want to go though - it was one of the most beautiful places we’ve been. We admired the rainbow and the mighty waterfall for a really long time.
A painting of this vista was instrumental in persuading politicians to protect Yellowstone National Park
We made a quick stop at another overlook to see further down the canyon and were very amused when a French man arrive at the viewing platform and loudly declared that it “really isn’t that grand” and someone else commented “it’d be better if there were mountain goats”. We though it was pretty impressive!
Deserving of the enthusiastic descriptions? We thought so but seemed to be in the minority at the time we visited
On our way back to the bison carcass for the evening we stopped off for a sneaky shower at one of the lodges which was a real morale boost! Even if we did have to pretend to someone that we were staying in cabin 7. We never did learn if there really was a cabin 7 or not.
That evening our favourite ranger reappeared and asked me where “my friend” was - referring to Amy. I said that she was actually my wife and he was delighted. He was an older gay man and we instantly bonded - I do really love meeting fellow LGBT people on our travels. He set up his spotting scope next to us and all evening we chatted about his background and our roadtrip. As the sun was setting he told us the history of his favourite wolf in the park, mixed with his own story. It was so well told and such a special moment to be listening to the history of Yellowstone’s wolves right there overlooking the valley where they were reintroduced.
Sunset over the valley
No more wolves returned that evening and our time in Yellowstone was running short. We had one more night though if we wanted it and we decided we couldn’t resist. One last early morning. Which is how we found ourselves in the pullout shortly after 5am for the fourth day in a row. I was in the front with the window down and Amy was having a quick snooze in the back when all of a sudden we heard a huge roaring sound off in the darkness.
It felt like Christmas had finally arrived! The bears were here! Through the first rays of gray light we counted five grizzly bears noisily arguing over the carcass. The sound was unreal - it only lasted a few minutes and for some reason they quietened down and began to disperse as soon as it got light enough to see. Maybe at that point they could assess their relative sizes and the smaller ones quietly yielded.
We decided to get out of the car and set up our chairs and blankets to watch the show unfold. At 5:54am we finally got what I’d been secretly hoping for the whole time. The Junction Butte wolf pack had arrived and began their morning role call. Twice we heard the haunting sound of the wolves making themselves known to everyone around them. Apparently they will call at a variety of pitches to make the pack seem bigger to potential competitors. The result is surprisingly melodic - definitely in a minor key.
The calls lasted a long time but I managed to record a small portion of it and I love listening back to it. It was my favourite moment of the trip so far and another one of the bucket list experiences that I had for the year.
You’ll probably need the volume right up to hear this!
As it got light we watched nine wolves (including the pack’s lone puppy) eating their breakfast and playing with each other. The mood at the pullout was one of silent delight. Wolves are skittish and we didn’t want to disturb them. At one point a man arrived and yelled “see anything good?!!” to be met by a chorus of irritated shushes - it was very British.
Three bears and three wolves - including the black puppy at the back. Watching him stand up straight, put his face to the sky and howl with the pack was so sweet
By 7:30am the wolves had retreated high up onto the plateau - visible with the high powered spotting scopes but not our binoculars anymore. There was still a wolf or two down at the carcass with a grizzly bear, and a coyote joined the show which provided an awesome opportunity to see the size difference between it and the wolf, two canids who are commonly confused. We also witnessed the absolute highlight of a bear pooping.
The coyote blends in well but is in front of the carcass and to the left with a darker tipped tail. The bear is in the middle and the huge black wolf to the right of the shot
I think this bear knew we were all watching him poop
Around this time it started to rain really heavily and the organised tour buses (which park terribly and cause general chaos) started to arrive. We decided it was time to leave. Around this time the two budding romantics turned up - the guy seemed to be regretting picking chicks over wolves, surely always a terrible choice..!
Getting a last look at the wolves
We said goodbye to our new friends and headed off for the final stop on our “summer of fun” - we’d booked to hike the Teton Crest Trail - a circa 40 mile hike through the Teton mountain range over five days with around 9,000 feet total elevation gain. Neither of us were sure we’d complete the whole route but we were ready to give it a shot. The warm feeling of our days with the wolf watchers in Yellowstone has really stuck with us though and remains one of our top highlights of the trip.
