08 June 2002 - Saturday

I headed into the park at 5:40 pm for an evening of wildlife viewing. Just south of Elk Creek (just before the petrified tree) there was a sow black bear and a cub. Folks were parked everywhere trying the see the bears. After watching the bears I headed south to Tower and towards Lamar.

I stopped in Little America to see if the badgers were out and about to no avail. Ray T from Idaho Falls stopped and chatted. We decided to head to the confluence of the Soda Butte Creek and Lamar River to look for otters and beaver.

We set up our scopes and we were perusing the country side when we were joined by Doug Dance, Mark Roberts and Tonya Mathews. We had buffalo in the Lamar River and elk and antelope out just north of Specimen Ridge. As we were chatting and spotting, the beaver was kind enough to come out and swim east up river. It had a tough time as the river was high and fast. We had quite a crowd stop and join in the viewing.

When the beaver had disappeared from sight, someone told us that they had a couple wolves out in the valley directing south of us. We all joined in scanning the hillsides for the wolves. We heard that there were six wolves out and a black bear. Ray T found the wolves just inside the tree line. We saw two black wolves and a gray and a black bear. They were near some type of kill feeding.

The gray wolf disappeared back into the trees while the two black wolves started to follow the bear as it headed west down the valley just inside the tree line. At one point the wolves got a little too close and the bear wheeled around and charged the wolves. The wolves were in quick retreat and gave the bear a little more space.

We watched these three move out of our view. We packed up and headed west down Lamar Valley towards Roosevelt. We had pretty well lost our light due to clouds so I headed west towards home.

Just as I got to the Lamar Ranger Station, I heard that there was a moose and calf headed down the valley east towards the threesome. In the mean time, the wolves headed south and away from the moose. The last I heard was that some coyotes were pestering the cow.

It was a great evening in the valley or Parkadise. It was nice to see old friends and spend the evening together visiting and watching wildlife. I headed west into another fantastic sunset. Great way to end the day.

Wildlife Seen on This Trip

Antelope, bears - three black bears, beaver, bison, ducks, elk, geese, magpies, ravens, and three wolves of the Druid Peak Pack.

Take care my friends until next time!

Lamar Valley Sunset by John W. Uhler ©

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