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Day 5

Thursday, May 22, 2025

           It was overcast this morning leaving Silver Gate; I don’t remember what the temperature was, but it wasn’t cold enough for snow or ice.  At Barronette, we passed a cow moose with a bull following her on the hills below the mountain and as we drove through Round Prairie, four young bull moose grazed congenially on the hillside above Pebble Creek campsite.  I wondered about that. Moose are not herd animals and they do not travel in groups; they are solitary except for mating.  https://www.livescience.com/27408-moose.html  Just down the road, a grizzly sow and two light colored yearlings grazed on the hills at Trout Lake trailhead. 

           Soda Butte Valley and Lamar Valley were quiet this morning except for a grizzly traveling through on the south side of the river, so we continued to Slough Creek.  No wolves were visible at the den, so we waited a while and then returned to Round Prairie where the mixed grizzly family was grazing among the willows.  We thought the young grizzly we saw on Monday was the two-year-old of this family, but apparently not.  Here, the difference in size between two cubs was obvious.  All three bears grazed peacefully together; every now and then the sow would look west or stand on her hind legs as if she sensed danger, but then quickly returned to grazing. 

            Later we stopped at Slough Creek again where 1385F came out and nursed the pups. We drove up Tower Road where the black bear sow and her cinnamon cub were grazing high on a hill across Rainy Lake, but they were too far to see well.  Dunraven opens tomorrow which will make travel to Hayden much easier and faster.  We looked for Pika at Hellroaring and saw no sign, though we did hear chirps.  It concerns us to not see any, in any of the usual spots.  It’s not too warm now, so we can’t figure out why. 

            Just as we rounded the bend at Elk Creek, a black bear sow and two coy, a black and a cinnamon ran across the road.  It startled us, worried about the bears on the road, but they ran safely into the valley and we watched them graze, climb over logs, climb trees.  We also found another black bear asleep under a tree.  We spent the rest of the afternoon going back to Slough Creek where we watched 1479 and the pups at the den and checked on the golden eagle’s nest.  We made our way back to Round Prairie, passing a young bull moose near Trout Lake.  The mixed grizzly family was still at Round Prairie grazing and rolling on their backs in the grass.  Two sandhill cranes flirted with each other and began their mating dance. 

            At the end of the day, a black wolf was seen traveling alone in Lamar Valley so we hurried there and watched 1410F trot down the slopes above Amethyst Bench.  1410F is a Mollie and has been seen the past few days wandering on her own in the valley.  It was thought she would be denning, but 1411F is the Mollie female that denned.  It reminds me that Junction Butte 1478F has not been seen with her pack, but was seen alone recently in Lamar Valley.  Perhaps two female wolves seeking their own mates and packs. 

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