We made our second early spring trip to Yellowstone the weekend of 17 thru 19 May 1996. This trip proved to be spectacular! We saw a beautiful Cougar - the first in any of our lives, and it was and is a story in and of itself. I'll lead into it.

The weather was colder and wetter than we had hoped, but livable none the less. The snow was just about all melted, but we found out that that was not necessarily a good sign. Yellowstone had been receiving about .5 of an inch of rain almost every day for the past week. With all that moisture and the snow melt, the rivers are over their banks and just about flood stage. All the meadows along the Madison are lakes and ponds, Gibbon Falls looks like Upper Falls, Gibbon and Moose Meadows were lakes. On Friday, the road between Madison and Norris was closed due to flooding, but was open Saturday morning when we drove into the park. When we left to return home Sunday, we drove through a blizzard - spring (?) in Yellowstone keeps you guessing. They really need some warm sunny days to dry out big time.

Saturday morning, we were up at 5:00 am and headed into the park shortly thereafter, again in hopes of sighting some bears and wolves. We were in the right places at the right times this weekend. We saw days of Antelope, Buffalo, Elk and Coyotes. We saw a beautiful cinnamon black bear about a mile east of Hellroaring. He was just sitting in a small meadow as we drove up. We were able to get some nice video and pictures of him. This was the first full grown cinnamon bear we had seen. Last year I saw a cinnamon cub at Tower. We then traveled on to Lamar Valley watching for wildlife as we went. About 500 yards above the Yellowstone Picnic grounds we saw another large black bear. She is supposed to have three cubs that are about a foot long with her, but we did not see the cubs.

We then made about two trips through Lamar Valley sighting elk, buffalo and calves and antelope. We went to Gardiner for lunch and took a nice little break after in Lamar Valley. The wolves had been spotted in the Junction Butte area and from the Slough Creek campground turnout. When we arrived the second time at the turnout, the wolves had just taken off for parts unknown and we were caught in a good downpour. In the afternoon, we were able to see two wolves - one black and one gray that have paired up. We saw them just east of the Specimen Ridge trail sign. They were feeding on a kill.

We saw - Antelope, a Bald Eagle, Bighorn Sheep, Buffalo, Canadian Geese, Coyotes, Deer, Ducks, Elk, Moose, Red-Tailed Hawks, Sandhill Cranes and Yellow-bellied Marmots. The big horn sheep we saw were about 200 yards from the Yellowstone picnic grounds, just a little ways up the hillside. That was neat because we had never seen them that close. The only place we had seen them before was at the north gate area and Mount Washburn.

Now that was all great and very exciting, but what happen next was a thrill of a lifetime. In the early evening we went back to the Slough Creek road and hiked back about .5 of a mile to where we had watched for the wolves earlier. As we were watching for the wolves, there were five coyotes making a ruckus just a little ways down the valley from us. The wind was blowing hard and the three fellows who were spotting with me took off to go further down the valley to see how thing were looking.

Just when I was starting to walk towards the road, a woman walked up to me and said that the coyotes had a cougar treed in a dead tree just below us. I had watched the coyotes running all excitedly around the dead tree and barking/yipping up a storm. We all walked very cautiously down the hillside to see what was going on. The cougar had jumped out of the tree and was holed up in a bunch of dead trees that were bordered by a small pond. The five coyotes were on top of a small hill above the dead trees and pond. The cougar was hemmed in. We watched from a safe distance to see how this story would unfold.

We could not see the cougar in the dead trees or snag for another name. We talked in hushed voices as we shared our feelings about what was taking place. The air was charged with excitement and anticipation of what was happening before our eyes. After about 30 to 45 minutes of being harassed by the coyotes, the cougar stood up. The coyotes backed away and the cougar slowly walked away from the situation. It walked for about 1000 yards in an open area. This thrilled everyone as video and 35 mm cameras sped through their film. What a thrill! Each trip we make is full of fun and adventure, no one trip is ever the same. I guess that is such with life. I am glad this story had a happy ending - the cougar and coyotes just parted company as did all those who witnessed this rare event. We were just thrilled and excited to have been able to participate in such a rare experience. I love it! It couldn't get much better.