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        Thursday morning the sun came out and we headed south to Hayden Valley hoping to see the Wapiti Lake Pack which has eluded us for the past few years.  We reached Alum Creek in time to see a grizzly sow foraging in the distance with her two cubs of the year, but no Wapiti Lake Pack.  It’s been one of my great disappointments that we’ve missed seeing them, particularly because they are descendants of the Hayden Pack and Canyon Pack, as well as Wolf 755M, the mate of the famous “08”.  The Wapitis seem to den late in spring and often travel back and forth across the Mary Mountain Trail to Fountain Paint Pots.  There have been trips when we scrambled back to Norris and Nez Perce Creek looking for them with no luck. 

        Luckily, after crossing Fisherman’s Bridge, we caught a glimpse of the Mollie Pack at Pelican Creek where they were feeding on a carcass.  We only spotted two black wolves as they ran into an island of trees and bedded.  Though last May several Mollies ventured to Lamar Valley, this sighting was a very welcome surprise as it’s been years since we’ve seen the Mollies anywhere in Pelican Valley or the Lake Yellowstone area.  Throughout the afternoon we drove back and forth to Pelican Creek hoping the Mollies would reappear.  The wolves didn’t, but a grizzly suddenly popped up from the creek bed carrying a piece of the carcass and later a handsome bull elk. 

       Traveling down the road past Mary Bay, Sedge Bay, and Lake Butte we searched for bears, and there was Jam, Raspberry’s daughter.  She climbed through deadfall and ambled over a hill into a bowl-shaped meadow south of the road.  Jam must be four years old now and has grown into such a magnificent bear with her mahogany brown fur.  This was her first spring and summer without her mother, and she foraged alone.  Raspberry kept her cubs longer than other grizzly sows – three years before sending them off on their own – and I wonder if spending that length of time raising her cubs has contributed to Jam’s obvious good health and well-being.  Jam dug through the grass, aware of the crowd and rangers.  A few times she ventured closer to the crowd than the rangers thought was safe and one yelled at her, “Get back!” and she retreated.  I heard one ranger say that they (the Park) want to keep her in the area, but away from the road and people. 

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