I’m up and out at 7AM. It’s 23 degrees.

Just before the entry station I see a pickup truck off the road, stuck in deep snow. I stop and see it’s a couple plus two teens.

I offer assistance and encouragement. Since they are outside the Park and its so early, I tell them I don’t want to wake up the resident ranger. Instead, I go back to Silver Gate where Laurie calls the Park Service to alert them to the pickup.

I drive back to the family to let them know someone is coming and head into the Park.

At Round Prairie I see a coyote and a moose, but since I’m running late I don’t stop.

I join Laurie & Dan, along with others at Aspen pullout. Everyone is watching the Junctions to the north, pretty much where I left them last evening. Two are feeding but the others are bedded near their bison carcass.

But very shortly, the wolves start to stretch and move about. They set off in a disjointed line upslope and to the west. All too soon, they disappear behind a long ridge.

I follow others west to Boulder. Visibility on the higher slopes is in and out, and of course, that’s where the wolves are most likely to be.

Despite many eyes looking, we never find them from here. However, someone who stopped at Curve gets a brief sighting of them on the west side of Mom’s Ridge.

But a thicker snow squall soon obscures the area.

We spread out to various points west. Laurie and Dan end up at Elk Creek, where they spot the wolves briefly, still traveling west.

By the time I get there the falling snow has again swallowed them up.

I continue to Hellroaring. Just as I arrive, Eric and Lisa spot them again. Yay! They help me locate the wolves on the east side of the open slope.

I count 10 wolves, the same number I saw this morning and yesterday afternoon. The pullout fills up and many people get a good view, since they remain high enough for a almost an hour.

Laurie and I are able to compare notes and this is what we think is the current make up:

7 blacks (two collars); 1385F (front leg limp but keeps up); 1386F (no collar, graying); 1479F (high tail, pinch at top of tail, feathery below), black male (largish), three smaller uncollared blacks (likely pups) 3 grays (one collar); 1478F, brown-gray (male), gray pup

So, from the November count, we are missing the alphas and one black pup.

From talk in the pullout, I learn that several days before the Rescue attack on 12/22, some Junctions (possibly the whole pack) travelled quite a distance north of the Park, past the boundary of hunting unit 313 into “section 3” (another Montana hunting unit, at the southern end of Paradise Valley). Two wolves were shot in that area (I still do not know which ones but it will come out eventually).

This is known due to tracking info and trail cam images, as well as information from Montana FWP. When the Junctions returned inside the Park boundary, they found and fed on the bison carcass in Little America, north of the mixed forest. A day or two later, the Rescues found it themselves and the attack occurred.

As I watch this “interim” Junction pack, I notice three adult blacks carrying their tails high (a sign of excitement and/or dominance (or at least attempted dominance). To me, it looks like the three high-tails are 1385F,1386F and 1479F.

With the alphas gone, the remaining pack members will vie for status (which is what I am seeing). I’m sure they will eventually work out who is in charge. There are likely to be a more changes, especially with mating season is right around the corner.

These three females are all breeding-age, as is gray 1478F. I suspect they will have no trouble attracting a male who is ready to lead.

What is less certain, is what might become of the remaining males in the pack; black male and brown-gray. They are both breeding age, too, so it’s most likely they will disperse to find unrelated females. A new alpha male might not wish to have unrelated males in his new pack.

That’s the way it works when former leaders die. My main hope is that some of 907’s pups will remain safe with the new leadership.

The Junctions remain in view till about 12:30, exploring the open slope and twice giving half-hearted chase to a few scattered elk.

They cross Hellroaring Creek and chase a few more elk up into the rocks. Once this fails, they regroup and set off west behind the basalt cliff.

I never see them re-appear after that.

Jon and Steve drive west and hike to the Perch. They report later that they can see the Junctions bedded upslope of the basalt cliff, but that cliff blocks our view of them.

Around 1PM, I move to Lower Hellroaring but my search comes up empty.

So, I head back east, seeing two coyotes in eastern Lamar and a moose near Soda Butte picnic.

Snow falls on and off along my drive, and when I arrive at Silver Gate, it starts coming down quite thickly.

Today I saw: bison, coyotes, elk, 10 Junction wolves (including 1385F, 1386F, 1478F, 1479F, black male, dark gray male, 1 gray pup and 3 black pups) and the spirits of Allison, Richard, Jeff and Chloe.