Yellowstone National Park 2025 Trip Reports
Trip Report ~ Bear & Wolf Sightings ~ by Bill Hamblin
13 through 16 September 2025
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
~ September 2025 ~
September 13th - Saturday
48 degrees this morning in Silver Gate warming up to 65 degrees this afternoon out in the park. At 7:00 a.m. eleven Junction Butte wolves seen in their rendezvous area down by the Southern Round Tree and the Marge Simpson Tree (the pack is eighteen wolves strong now, twelve adults and six puppies, fifteen blacks and three grays). At 7:45a.m. a black bear east of the Slough Creek den. At 7:05 a.m. Gary G found a small grizzly eating berries southeast of Footbridge, it was not in view for very long. At 8:00 a.m. a black bear below the K Meadow viewed from Footbridge Pullout. At 12:00 noon thru 2:35 a.m. we watched the grizzly sow with three two-year-old cubs (Druid Peak Family) digging north of Picnic Pullout. They were in an area with trees and a few openings, sometimes seeing all four but most of the time seeing one or two of three.
September 14th - Sunday
32 degrees this morning in Silver Gate warming up to 75 degrees out in the park this afternoon. I watched a blue heron at Alum Creek in Hayden Valley this morning, and a lot of northern harriers. At 6:40 a.m. eight black and one gray Junction Butte wolves were in their rendezvous area at Slough Creek. At 7:00 a.m. Kate J, Silver Gate Guides, called with a grizzly on Amethyst Bench. The grizzly was almost to the trees when I arrived to watch it. At 8:30 a.m. a black bear was bedded in the tree line south of Straight-away pullout in Little America. Gary G and I decided to make a trip down the south and then out to the east side of the park. At 9:15 a.m. a medium sized grizzly was digging not too far off the road just south of Dunraven Pass. At 10:20 a.m. we had a nice grizzly in a creek in Hayden Valley apparently not too far from a small carcass. It had a wide Yellowstone Stripe around its body on its shoulders. On our way back through Hayden the grizzly was in bright sunlight and bedded. The Yellowstone Stripe went all the way from shoulders to tail. Then the grizzly got up and the stripe appeared less wide and not as bright. I am amazed how grizzlies look differently in the sun or the shade. At 11:10 a.m. we had a large black bear to the east in Sage Bay. At 11:20 a.m. we watched a grizzly on a bull elk carcass thirteen miles east of Fishing Bridge. The story is that the bull elk got caught in the mud near the Little Moose Pond and could not get out. Two days later the park had the bull elk shot. The grizzly had buried the carcass with only the antlers showing and was bedded when we arrived. Just as we left the grizzly got up, relieved itself, and made a little trip around the end of the pond before returning and bedding at the carcass. At 3:30 p.m. Gary G found a small grizzly running downhill on the #1 finger on Norris in the Soda Butte Valley. It disappeared quite quickly. At 3:40 p.m. I found a second small grizzly moving around higher on # 1 finger on Norris. At 6:30 p.m. we had a cinnamon black bear sow with two cinnamon cubs of the year near the Horizontal Forest in Slough Creek. At 6:30 p.m. Gary G found a few wolves' high northwest of the Slough Den. A few birds in the area so we believe some sort of carcass was just over the hill. A black bear was viewed to the west but did not come close to the wolves. At 7:30 p.m. Gary G found the grizzly sow with three cubs of the year (Druid Peak Family) again north of Picnic Pullout.
September 15th - Monday
45 degrees in Silver Gate this morning warming up to 75 degrees out in the park this afternoon. I saw a fox and a few wolves, but no coyotes today. At 6:55 a.m. Kate J, Silver Gate Guides, found a grizzly south of Hubbard Hill. It was soon out of sight but later came out for about an hour walking from south of Hubbard Hill slowly all the way to Amethyst Bench. It often sat down looking towards the road, I assumed it wanted to cross the road but decided against it. At 7:15 a.m. I found the grizzly sow with three two-year-old cubs (Druid Peak Family) again north of Picnic Pullout. They were in view for ninety percent of the time until 1:30 p.m. At 9:00 a.m. Gary G showed me a dark grizzly in the tree line south of Midpoint Pullout. A brief sighting back in the tree line. At 10:10 a.m. Bob P found a black bear with one black cub of the year across the Lamar River south of Coyote Overlook. It was eating berries around the river. At 7:00 p.m. two gray and one black Junction Butte wolves were seen above and northwest of the den where they were seen last evening. At 7:30 p.m. we had a black bear jam in Lamar Canyon; the small black bear was to the north.
September 16th - Tuesday
40 degrees this morning in Silver Gate warming up to 58 degrees this afternoon in the park. Again, I had a fox and wolves but no coyote. The grass in the valley is really high, and that is part of the problem of finding coyotes. I had a golden eagle flying around north of the Institute today. The fall colors are starting and are really bright this year. At 6:30 a.m. a grizzly seen digging on Amethyst Bench, it soon disappeared into the tree line. At 8:00 a.m. Bob J found a medium sized colorful grizzly eating berries in Crystal Drainage. It was east of Crystal Rock and in view for a very long time today. While I was watching it climbed a large white rock and bedded for five or more minutes. 
Late this morning Jeff A watched the grizzly again. It laid down in the dirt below a tree and napped. We watched six black bears this morning from the Slough Creek bathroom. One below Specimen Ridge, one in the Slough Bowl, a small one at the bottom of the Diagonal Forest, larger one above the Yellow Grass Meadow, and a sow and a cub of the year in Crystal seen from Lamar Canyon west. All of them were black in color. At 9:00 a.m. looking from Lamar Canyon West we had six black and one gray Junction Butte wolves in their rendezvous area (the wolf watchers had seven black and one gray - that would be the six black pups, 1478F a gray three-year-old and 1479F a black two-year-old). A tourist who had watched the grizzlies north of Picnic Pullout yesterday informed me that he watched six black and two gray Junction Butte wolves south of Picnic earlier this morning. Many people rushed into the east end of Lamar and were rewarded with views of all eight or less. I did not get to see them. They disappeared under the K Meadow, so they are not sure if they went out of Cache Creek or climbed up through K Meadow. Low clouds this morning covered the high meadows and clearings like K Meadow. At 10:20 a.m. Paul H found a nice sized grizzly south of Hitching Post near the tree line. I got to see this grizzly for a while. At 6:50 p.m. Gary G found a grizzly coming out of the trees west of Chalcedony Fan. It took the rest of the time I was there travelling along the tree line to the west. At 7:00 p.m. Gary G found the grizzly sow with three two-year-old cubs (Druid Peak Family) on the skyline north of Picnic Pullout. At 7:20 p.m. we had a black bear west of the foothills in the tree line.
People Seen
Wolf Watchers: From Montana: Rick M, Jeff A, and Wendy B. From Utah: Paul H, Celia L, and Denny and Pam D. From South Dakota: Sam and Ginny G. From Colorado: Bob P, Mark, Carol, and Roch R. And from Texas: Carl L and Carol S. Bear Watchers: From Montana: Doug M, Carolyn G, and Bob J. From Mississippi: Gary G. And from Wyoming: Debbie M, Sandi R and Tom H. Others seen this report: From Montana: Jayden A, Kate J, Hunter G, Michelle H, Ana L, Audra C, Kyle D, Steve B, Michael S, Russ K, Mike S, Brad B, Ashea M, Quinn H and MacNeil L. From New Mexico: Lori U. From Vermont: John K. And from Washington: Aaron M.
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
Lamar Valley Map - Yellowstone National Park
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