I’m out in the dark brushing another inch of snow off the car. But unlike yesterday’s wet stuff, this snow is powdery.

As I head out the driveway, my headlights reveal a large dark shape moving from the propane tank to the road. It’s the neighborhood moose! She crosses the road and disappears into the marsh.

Despite the additional snow, the road is easy to drive. I enjoy seeing tracks on the way down.

In the valley the bison are not nearly as troublesome as they were yesterday. There are still plenty of them, but they stay on one side of the road or the other instead of constantly crossing.

It’s very windy today, with big fierce gusts blowing snow across the road. I see no sigh of wolves in Lamar, though, so I continue to Slough.

I find it’s windy here, too. Really windy. I grab an extra fleece sweater and wrap it around my head to keep my poor face from freezing.

Paul catches me up on what I missed: 1479 and the alpha male chased three coyotes away from the den. Two of them escaped down the lion meadow and the third raced into the Diagonal forest.

I see these two wolves return to the spring meadow, having sent the coyotes running for cover. They greet two other wolves, a gray (not 907) and a black near the goal post tree. The alpha male heads up to a bedding spot in the eastern trees while the other three wolves remain together in the meadow.

Paul adds that he saw 907 come out briefly for a drink then she rushed quickly back inside. I don’t see her this morning, but I suppose it means she is snuggling with her newborns.

Around 8AM, Gary radios from Lamar. He and others are seeing wolves near the old Druid Rendezvous. Most of us head to our cars for the drive east. Gary’s news mentioned “several” wolves and I take it he means Mollies. It’s always fun to have them around but it’s also strange that they are spending so much time here, when they should be in Pelican feeding their own pups.

I find Laurie & Dan scoping from Picnic so I happily join them. There are 9 Mollies today; 6 grays and 3 blacks. We don’t see 1048M, and Laurie and I hope that maybe at least HE went back to Pelican with some food.

The nine Mollies were first spotted south of Footbridge and have been traveling west a while. I watch with dozens of others as they approach the double foothills. Soon they are crossing the big fan, aiming for the Amethyst drainage.

They stop at the bottom of the creek, below the falls (Fairies Fall) and gather for a rally and a howl. Someone at the Ranch reports that they hear answering howls from the north.

We move to the Ranch. Once we get set up Michael radios that he sees two black wolves on Ranger Rock mountain. We get eyes on them, too. One of them is collared.

The two groups howl back and forth for a bit, and we sense a tad of agitation in both groups. Laurie believes the blacks to the north are Junctions.

We try to ID the second wolf but never see it clearly enough to do so.

The howling stops and the Mollie’s bed down on the old riverbank. The two blacks move further upslope and a bit west.

The Mollies get up and move into the “saddle” between Amethyst and Jasper. The howling starts again but we can’t see the black Junctions anymore.

Some of the Mollies take positions on the various boulders in the area. Two grays bed on a single boulder, facing opposite directions. Another boulder holds three howling blacks.

I notice a pronghorn in the flats with a swollen right front knee.

The howling stops and the Mollies stay bedded. With the slow-down of the morning’s action we head in for a while, knowing we’ll want to come back later.

After a break in Silver Gate, I drive back in around 4:30, passing the local fox just beyond the entrance gate.

I see Bill at Trash Can so I pull in to chat with him. Once he updates me on bears, he tells me there are wolves in view from Coyote.

I find Paul at Coyote and he helps me locate where the Mollies are now bedded. They’ve moved to a spot on northern divide ridge, just east of the forest that covers the south side of Lamar Canyon.

Celia arrives for her May visit. Yay, it’s so nice to see her again, and to be able to show her wolves right away! Her husband, Tom, will be joining her for part of her visit this time.

Laurie and Dan stop by, too. We all end up watching sleeping wolves for nearly 3 hours!

Bill finds a bear way up on Southern Divide Ridge. Other visitors in the lot find a black bear on Amethyst. Melba radios from west of Fisherman’s. She says she sees 10 wolves from her angle, while we see only 9. Hmm. She says 1048 is one of them.

I join her in a dirt lot west of Fisherman’s. She shows me where to look. I see a shape that does indeed look like a wolf, except I’m pretty sure it’s a log. But then the “log” moves! Hah hah! Melba is right, it’s 1048!

Melba and I go back to Coyote and show our friends where 1048 has been hiding. He’s chosen a bedding spot separate from the others but he is visible from here, after all.

Everyone is happy to see him and Melba just beams.

The sun is setting and the valley glows with golden light. Finally, the Mollies begin to stir. One by one they rise and stretch. Then, alas, they move west and out of sight.

We have a lovely drive back.

Today I saw: 1 black bear, 1 grizzly bear, bison, coyotes, elk, a fox, a moose, pronghorn, 16 wolves: 6 Junctions (including AM, 1479, a gray and three blacks) plus 10 Mollies (including 1048M, 1090F, 1339M, 1411F, 1483M (gray yearling) 1485 (gray yearling), one more black and three more grays), and the spirits of Allison, Richard, Jeff and Chloe.