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Day 2

Monday, May 19, 2025

            Light snow flurries this morning as we left the cabin.  It was 31º, but sunny as we drove past Warm Creek and Lower Barronette where a cow moose grazed far back near the trees with her two yearlings.  It is not unusual for a moose to have twins.  I only got a brief look, but they seemed to stare out in a combination of curiosity and uncertainty. 

            There were a few people at Round Prairie, scopes out, searching the landscape. Soda Butte Valley and Lamar Valley were quiet, with no wolves or bears that we could see, so we headed to Slough Creek hoping to see the Junction Butte pups and a few adults.  After yesterday afternoon’s viewing, we expected to find several adults at or near the den, but instead the Junction Butte wolves were headed to the west.  We had trouble finding them, even in the snow.  The wolves were so far away I only saw one black wolf chasing an elk.  He gave up fairly quickly and disappeared with the rest of his pack in the rocks above Slough Creek. 

            Down the road a grizzly boar climbed down the wooded slopes of Junction Butte.  He moved with a determined gate, first to the meadows then back up through the trees and over the top.  We continued west to Tower Junction and up the road where a black bear sow and her cinnamon phase yearling cub were foraging in the grass and trees off the road.  The little bear is so cute.  It’s surprising that we aren’t seeing more black bears and cubs along Tower Road, though I certainly don’t miss the crowds.   

            Since Dunraven Pass is still closed, we turned back toward Hellroaring to look for pika.  We followed the path around the scree slopes, carefully scanning the rocks and listening for their chirps.  Nothing.  Disappointed, we were ready to give up when a gentleman told us there was a cinnamon bear just on the other side in the woods.  The bear was a beautiful red-brown and healthy looking.  He foraged in between the trees, looking up every now and then, completely undisturbed by the small group of people watching him. 

Though it was sunny today, it never got really warm, the temperature staying between 30º-48º.  We drove back and forth looking for wildlife.  At the Slough Creek den, four black pups tumbled out into the grass and sage while a black wolf, probably 1479F, watched over them.  We hiked up Specimen Ridge Trail looking for badgers and stopped to enjoy the view of Little America when a group of pronghorns raced down the slope.  Minutes later Tim looked out and spotted a small grizzly running across the slopes.  It looked like the two-year-old we saw with the sow and yearling on Saturday when we first drove in.  He ran through the sage, crossing the road to the sage flats below Junction Butte. 

Later this afternoon we took short hikes in Lamar Valley, down from Dorothy’s and to the river.  There was a crowd at Round Prairie watching a carcass on Soda Butte Creek where we just missed seeing a wolf and bear.  Lucky for us, the wolf reappeared, a large, gray collared wolf who fed on the carcass for a long while.  He tore off a piece and bedded in the grass away from the carcass, leaving it to the ravens.  Then he made his way back to the trees and into the woods, heading west, probably back to the den. 

It started to rain lightly as we headed back to Silver Gate.  We spotted a yearling moose standing alone in a meadow while a cow moose grazed across the road at Soda Butte picnic area.  I wondered if he was one of the yearlings we saw this morning and she was his mother.  We turned back and the cow moose crossed the creek and ran across the road. 

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