We had a sudden opportunity to visit Yellowstone National Park, so we jumped on it. This would be my second visit. I knew the Lamar Valley and wolves were still there, but first we had thermal features to see.
We stayed two nights in West Yellowstone, MT and visited the Old Faithful area of the park for two days. This area of the park also seems to be one of the most crowded areas I have been to in the park. We did about a five-mile hike in the geyser basin around Old Faithful and visited some other features in the area. Below are photos of some of the sights to see.
One evening on the way back to West Yellowstone, we came upon a traffic jam. These jams are often related to animals. Bison standing on the road. A bear foraging along side the road, maybe with cubs. We were late to the jam so we could not see what caused it. We asked a visitor what they had seen, and he said, “A wolf was just right there, right there.” Of course, this news got my attention fast, and I may or may not have used proper driving etiquette to secure a parking spot as soon as possible. Here is a photo of what I found.
The “wolf” turned out to be a light-colored coyote. A nice sighting anyway, and the next evening we spent over an hour watching this coyote hunting voles and ground squirrels near a herd of bison as a mountain bluebird vied for our attention. Not something we see every day at home.
Lamar Valley
Then…the time had come for the Lamar Valley. In June, the valley is filled with the young of the year. Bison calves, also called “red dogs,” were numerous in the Madison area, but they were even more so in Lamar. We spent a lot of time watching the red dogs and concluded they mostly follow three basic behaviors: 1) nursing, 2) sacked out on the ground sleeping, sometimes sprawled completely flat, and 3) romping about, kicking legs, and butting heads.
We also saw baby cinnamon teal, barrow’s goldeneye, Uintah ground squirrels, yellow-bellied marmots, grizzly bears, pronghorn antelope, elk, and mountain goats. It was difficult to watch the mountain goat baby because, even at this very young age, the nanny took it on nearly vertical slopes. You could see it hesitate to follow its mom in some areas.
Wolves
My main goal in the Lamar Valley, as always, is to watch wolves, and that first evening would be the first real effort to do so of the trip. The pullouts along the road through the valley are named by the full time wolf watchers to help share location information with other watchers. Our first stop was at Dorothy’s – no wolves. Then we moved to the Slough Creek area and looked until evening was well underway – no wolves. Karen began to get that concerned look on her face that I interpreted as, “It’s 8:30 p.m. and we still have a 45-minute drive to Cooke City and we are still out here looking at nothing…” We started to the east toward Cooke City when we saw wolf watchers gathered around the confluence of the Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek. Of course, I stopped and asked what was being seen. They let me look through their spotting scope at a black shape in the sage brush and declared it was a wolf laying down. I found it my scope and began to watch this “wolf” as the light dimmed and Karen’s concern grew. After a few minutes its head popped up. A wolf! We all got a good view of the wolf as it stood and resettled once. We headed for Cooke City because dawn would come early the next day.
We were in Lamar Valley the next morning after sleeping in a bit because of rain. The first pullout we tried gave us no wolves, but we did find a grizzly bear foraging along a ridgeline to the north of the valley. After we filled our eyes with the bear, we headed for Dorothy’s pullout again. We arrived, uncharacteristically for us, at the perfect time. As soon as we stepped out of the car, our best wolf sighting of the trip began to unfold.
A black wolf, a yearling from the Junction Butte pack, was descending the slope we were on heading toward the valley floor with three coyotes on his tail. The coyotes, despite their much smaller size, were attempting to escort the wolf out of the area. They barked, yipped, and harassed the wolf. One coyote was so brave as to nip at the wolf’s haunches; once it even bit the wolf. The wolf mostly ignored the coyotes, but the bite did cause a brief chase that the coyote easily avoided.
Once on the valley floor, the wolf and coyotes neared a bison herd, which caused some alarm. The red dogs quickly attached themselves to their mother’s sides. Once a group of female bison formed a ring with the red dogs in the middle, protecting them from the wolf. The bison did not appreciate the coyotes’ efforts and made sure they stayed away from the calves too.
I watched the wolf howl twice through the spotting scope, but the road and spectator noise were such that we only heard one howl briefly. I don’t know if there was any answer. The coyotes continued their harassment, and the wolf moved up the valley to the east, causing quite a traffic jam along the way.
Badgers
I saw the first two badgers of my life on this trip. That was quite a treat. The first badger was about 30 yards away when we first saw it. It appeared to be hunting along Slough Creek. It stopped once and contemplated us as if deciding what to do next. I’m glad it decided to keep along its route and not come “investigate” us.
Other Animals
We saw several grizzly bears, including a sow with two cubs, but all were quite distant, which is not altogether a bad thing. Through the spotting scope, we could see the cubs wrestling almost non-stop. We did not see any black bears during our last trip, but we had several on this trip, and all different colors – a cinnamon, a blonde, and a black variety. A couple were quite close to the road.
We had one red fox, a couple of full-curl bighorn rams, one high-speed chase of pronghorn males, several more coyotes, elk, a golden eagle, bald eagles, an osprey, and more. And MOOSE! I can and did spend all day in the valley looking for and at wildlife.
Nurse Rocks
Nurse Rocks are glacial erratics that create a microclimates that supports sampling trees. These rocks are named “nurse rocks” because they help to hold moisture, lengthen the growing season, provide limited shade, trap seeds and give them time to root, and shelter saplings from the extreme winds. Look for these along the road in Lamar Valley. Here is a link that describes these rocks: https://www.mtpr.org/post/nurse-rocks-shaping-montanas-ecosystem-10000-years.