Yellowstone National Park 2024 Trip Reports
Trip Report ~ Bear & Wolf Sightings ~ by Bill Hamblin
26 through 29 April 2024
Yellowstone National Park
Beautiful Mountain Lion ~ Lamar Valley ~ April 10th, 2023 ~ Photo by Linda Rudge Carney © All Rights Reserved
Mountain Lion ~ also known as the Cougar, Puma, Panther, or Catamount ~ Puma concolor
~ April 2024 ~
April 26th - Friday
46 degrees in Gardiner but only 38 degrees at Slough Creek this morning warming up to 51 degrees out in the park. I found a snow goose this morning in Slough Creek. I have only seen them twice in Yellowstone in all the years I have visited, and they were at Blacktail Ponds. At 6:15 a.m. Frank H had 907F, the alpha female of the Junction Butte wolves, in the Slough Den area. At 6:45 a.m. Glenda M found a dark grizzly on the Amethyst Bench traveling east. Later at 7:45 a.m. I found the same grizzly south of Picnic Pullout. At 8:30 a.m. I walked out to Bob's Knob to look at the wolves. Seven had come in from the east through the yellow grass meadow and could not be seen from the road. I only saw three grays and two blacks. At 9:15 a.m. Kathy W found a small colorful grizzly in Buffalo Ford viewed from Boulder Pullout. It was digging and before I got there it had been scared away and bedded on a large rock, where it remained for over an hour. At 1:00 p.m. I found a small colorful grizzly on the # 6 finger of Norris digging away. It was in view for forty minutes when I left the area. At 4:00 p.m. I arrived at Phantom Lake for the huge bear jam. The grizzly sow with two yearlings was only one hundred yards off the road to the south. The sow was resting but the two yearlings were wrestling and even climbed a large nearby tree.
April 27th - Saturday
44 degrees in Gardiner but only 37 degrees at Slough Creek this morning warming up to 52 degrees. I had a gray wolf cross the road leaving Gardiner this morning at 4:35 a.m. At 7:00 a.m. I found a large grizzly east of Chalcedony Fan moving east, viewed from Coyote Overlook. Randi M and I headed farther east to get a better look at the grizzly. At 7:20 a.m. Kevin M found a grizzly family high north of Dorothys Pullout in Lamar Valley viewed from Straight-away Pullout in Little America. It was a grizzly sow with two large three-year-old cubs. We all ended up at Lamar Canyon East Pullout and had a great view of them. We had difficulty picking out the sow as the two cubs were almost her size. Really glad to see this family because I viewed them late last June as two-year-olds, which is very late in the mating season. Most grizzlies run off the cubs and mate at 2 1/2 years. Keeping them a third year is rare. They looked really in great shape. At 9:10 a.m. Bruce P found a grizzly just west of Amethyst Drainage moving east. It was a brief sighting before going out of range. At 9:40 a.m. Bob P told me of a large grizzly he had been watching for thirty minutes or so. It had started in the Slough Creek bottoms and when I arrived it was visible in the Lion Meadow. It was a large grizzly taking his time moving to the east. It went behind the Horizontal Forest and must have bedded as it did not come out of that forest. At 10:00 a.m. Kevin M found five different grizzlies in close proximity to each other far away to the north from Boulder Pullout. Kevin, Randi, and I decided we had three large separate grizzlies and a courting pair of grizzlies (very early to see courting activity). One moved off quickly to the east and the two other large ones disappeared in the high sagebrush. The courting pair were in view for over two hours. Michele from wolf tracker went to Ricks Pullout west of Tower Junction and found the viewing a little better than where we were at Boulder east of Tower Junction. The last hour the courting pair were bedded on a couple of large rocks. At 11:15 a.m. traveling to Rick's Pullout we had a bear jam at the Yellowstone River Bridge. A cinnamon black bear sow and one cinnamon yearling cub took their time crossing north to south as we waited. At 1:00 p.m. Mike and Kathy W found two more grizzlies in the area north of Boulder. We all thought these were the courting pair, but they were a grizzly sow with one colorful grizzly yearling.
April 28th - Sunday
46 degrees in Gardiner but only 28 degrees in Slough Creek warming up to 52 degrees out in the park. At 6:15 a.m. I found a dark grizzly just west of Amethyst Bench traveling to the east. The grizzly was almost across Amethyst Bench when 1048M, a wolf of the Mollies wolf pack passed the grizzly walking to the west. The grizzly reversed its course and followed the wolf to the rest of the pack. We originally counted four blacks and four grays. The wolves must have had a small or old carcass as the grizzly searched around the area as the wolves entertained him. At 6:40 a.m. I found a second grizzly on Amethyst Bench digging away. It was a grizzly we have seen several times digging on the bench on different days. Its rear end looks brown, like it has scratched his backside to remove the winter hair. Later a new bison carcass was found on this side of the river. The wolves found it, and most had moved off the carcass after feeding. The second grizzly must have winded the carcass, so he came over to claim it. The wolves rallied and my count was ten Mollies Wolves, six grays and four blacks. Surprisingly that the Mollies are still visiting the north, as their territory is Pelican Valley 25 miles to the south, and the female must be about ready to have puppies. At 7:40 a.m. Doug M (wolf watcher) had a dark grizzly digging in the Slough Bowl. Great viewing from the road just to the east of the Slough Creek Restroom. It was out in the same clearing digging when I headed west at 1:00 p.m. At 7:45 a.m. I saw a gray and a black wolf in the Slough Creek den area, I think an uncollared gray and 1477F. Therefore, I had a two-pack day. At 1:00 p.m. I found a small black bear low on Middle Ridge. At 1:30 p.m. Glenda M showed me the three-and -one-half year-old female sub adult grizzly low on Junction Butte. The sow grizzly was looking down towards an old carcass but decided to return to digging and moved into the trees. At 2:15 a.m. lasting to 3:15 a.m. I found a grizzly sow with a dark yearling cub high on the slopes of Hellroaring viewed from Upper Hellroaring. They were digging away and once the sow laid on her back and nursed the yearling cub. This sighting raises a question, as the grizzly sow and yearling we had from Boulder yesterday appeared to have a colorful yearling cub, whereas the one today on Hellroaring appeared to be unusually dark. Maybe we have two families with one yearling cub in the area. Something to check out in the next few days.
April 29th - Monday
44 degrees in Gardiner but 37 degrees in Lamar Valley this morning warming up to 51 degrees. Busy day today with lots of grizzlies being seen. At 5:50 a.m. the grizzly bear with the brown backside was on the carcass south of Dorothy's. He stayed on it for quite a while this morning after daylight. At 6:20 a.m. the grizzly sow with two yearlings crossed the road south to north just west of the Tower Ranger Station. Randi M had to stop her van as they crossed right in front of her, then decided to dig right off the road. They remained really close to the road digging away for while some time. At 2:00 p.m. Randi M found them high on Lone Tree Hill viewed from Elk Creek. We hoped she would stay away from the road and the problems that could cause. However, at 4:30 p.m. as I was coming back to Gardiner they were back close to the road between the Petrified Tree Road and the exit to the one-way Blacktail Road. At 6:40 a.m. I had a dark grizzly far away to the northwest from Boulder Pullout, in view for only a few minutes. At 7:10 a.m. Doug M (bear watcher) found the dark grizzly digging away again in Slough Bowl for the second day. It was there most of the morning. At 7:15 a.m. nine of the Mollies wolfpack were just south of the Slough Creek restroom on what is called the Northern Divide Ridge. Today we had six grays and three blacks. This is certainly not their home range and could spell problems for the Junction Butte pack who should den across the road in Slough Creek. The positive thing is that a lot of the Mollies came from the Junction Butte pack, so they have a relationship. At 7:40 a.m. I found the grizzly sow with two three-year-old cubs high north of Coyote Overlook digging. They were in sight for a long time and reappeared an hour later for more good viewing. At 11:30 a.m. I found them again a little high but viewed from Boulder Pullout in Little America. Fortunately, they were crossing a large snow field, but even with the distance a nice sighting with all in the snow. At 7:45 a.m. just after the brown behind grizzly left the carcass 1048M who was bedded close by came to eat at the carcass. He stayed quite a long-time eating scraps as the carcass is pretty much bare. At 8:05 a.m. I found a small black bear low on the Southern Divide Ridge, viewed just over the west end of Jasper Bench. At 11:10 a.m. Bruce P found the courting pair of grizzlies in the same area as yesterday, from Boulder Pullout looking far to the northwest. They spent hours in the area and Terry and Marsha J watched them get friendly for a few minutes. Again, the viewing was better traveling this time over to Elk Creek Pullout, and were still in view at 1:30 p.m. At 1:20 p.m. Randi M found a black bear sow with two black bear yearling cubs southeast of Upper Hellroaring (I only saw the sow) but traveling back to Elk Creek there was a bear jam where I saw the sow and one of the two cubs. At 2:45 p.m. I found the three-and-one-half year-old sub adult grizzly digging southeast of Boulder Pullout on Specimen Ridge. While at Boulder a group of tourists really wanted to see wolves. Paul H and Bob P joined me to watch the grizzly and reported up to five wolves were bedded near the Slough Creek Den. I had them follow me to Slough Creek and they saw four or five wolves and were delighted. I was sharing my scope and only had two blacks and a gray. Just before I left all of the wolves disappeared from view.
People Seen
Wolf Watchers: From Montana: Rick M, Jeremy S, Doug M, Kriztina G, Carolyn G, Wendy B. Melba C, and Dan and Laurie L. From Utah: Paul H. From Missouri: Frank H. From California: Glenda M and boyfriend Rick, From Wyoming: Christy G, From Colorado: Bob P. And from Washington: David and Stephanie O. Bear Watchers seen this report: From Louisiana: Bruce P. From Montana: Doug M, Mike and Kathy W, Jeff B and Kathy M. From Washington: Randi M. From Idaho: Jon and Karen E and Terry and Marsha J. From Oregon: Larry and Char T. And From Utah: Mark and Liz H. Others seen this report: From Montana: Michael S, Quinn H, Evan S, Pete B, Bob L, Cliff B, Cara M, Hunter G, Claire L, Mike S, and Emil M. From Vermont: John K. From Florida: Mark L, and Ric and Vicky K, From British Columbia: Eric and Debbie. And from the Netherlands: Jort V.
Beautiful Mountain Lion ~ Lamar Valley ~ April 10th, 2023 ~ Photo by Linda Rudge Carney © All Rights Reserved
Mountain Lion ~ also known as the Cougar, Puma, Panther, or Catamount ~ Puma concolor
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Lamar Valley Map - Yellowstone National Park
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