There was heavy rain again last night, but it’s finally stopped. The temperature is crazy-warm, though. 54 degrees!

There are mule deer just east of the entrance gate.

Looks like Lamar is quiet, so I continue to Slough. I join Paul in the Bob’s Knob lot. He saw both pups when he first got here, moving from the sage den towards Hidden Meadow.

I set up and see two adults; an uncollared black plus gray 1478F. She heads downhill, first going west, then south into the flats. The black beds down on the gully ridge.

To get a better look at the flats, Paul and I hike out to the knob. Sure enough, we pick up 1478F moving past the Stephen King tree. Looks like she’s headed to the carcass from two days ago.

She crosses water in two places and aims for a spot in thick willows. We see some birds flush from the spot, confirming our guess.

As the light improves, we find two more wolves down here: 1479F and an uncollared gray. The consensus is that this uncollared gray is a female. We follow their journey back to the den area.

1479F climbs up and through the spring meadow, aiming right for the entrance to Hidden Meadow. As she gets close to that spot, the bedded black gets up, revealing himself to be the alpha male.

1479 continues to the Flower Hill, trailed by the alpha male. And behind him is the gray pup! They all disappear into Hidden Meadow.

A while later, 907F herself appears, emerging from Hidden Meadow. She goes to the spring for a drink then heads downslope for her turn at the carcass.

While I am watching her, I hear a radio call from Doug Mac. He’s at Straightaway with a grizzly sow in view with FOUR coys. This is a new bear family and causes quite a stir. Then Doug revises his call with the difficult-to-believe-news that she has not FOUR, but FIVE coys.

Well, I love wolves, but I’ve GOT to see this!

When I arrive, I see cars all over the place including some stopped right in the road. First-time visitors mistakenly think they can see a bear in a place that people in pullouts with scopes are having trouble seeing.

I find a spot to set up and try to follow directions from others who see her.

There are at least 100 people in a sage meadow north of the road looking south. Apparently she is high on Specimen in the general area of 9”s old den. She is not in the open but somewhere in the thick forest that covers the slope.

The trick is to catch her as she moves through a clearing, and there are not many clearings, they are all small and I have no idea which clearing to try!

Hah!

A guide further west spots her and calls people to come to his location. 100 people pick up their scopes and traipse through the sage to the west.

I look around and see more people to the south, both east and west of here. I estimate there are 500 people all told, trying to glimpse this bear and her unheard of coy-count.

Every pullout and every inch of flat shoulder of the road is full of cars.

After trying for over a half hour, I cannot manage to find her, so I cross the road to join Laurie and Dan. My timing is excellent because as I arrive, she walks into Dan’s scope. He sees her and calls to Laurie. She has her, too. Dan generously jumps up from his stool and lets me look in his scope.

OMG!

There she is, crossing a small clearing on a diagonal. I count five cubs twice. Mom is like a duck mother, with her ducklings following in line.

I give Dan his scope back and re-focus my own scope. She’s gone but I scan the area, trying to predict which clearing she might cross next.

I get lucky and she walks into the clearing I pick! It’s a slightly larger circular clearing with a long, fallen log. Mom climbs over it but the little ones walk on top. Oh! How cute! As they cross the log,

I note that two cubs look smaller than the other three.

Mom sits down under a big tree and the cubs go to her. I think she is nursing them, but I can’t quite see well enough due to the low branches.

Bill H, still scoping north of us, calls out that he sees another grizzly family quite nearby – this is the sow with three coys. She is higher on Specimen and just a bit west of the sow with five. She is a classic-colored grizzly with lots of gold tones in her coat, while the sow with five is a darker bear.

The sow with three travels quickly to the east. I lose sight of the sow with five but others see her again, now heading downslope.

I feel so lucky to have seen this unusual sighting. As far as I know, having five coys is UNHEARD OF in the history of grizzly bears.

Incidentally, today marks a record bear count for Bill in Yellowstone. He sees a career-high total of 33 bears today.

With both bear families now out of sight, I reluctantly pack up and head back east.

I stop at Dorothy’s, and happily discover that the coyote den that I saw south of here in early May has become active again.

There are eight rambunctious pups here. They look several weeks older (larger) than the pups at the Footbridge den, and I suspect they are at least a week older than the Junction pups.

An adult approaches the den from the northwest, carrying food. Several pups pop up from the den and rush to the adult. More and more puppy heads pop out from the various den openings, then bolt in the same direction.

They converge on the adult, tussling with each other to claim their share of food. One puppy gets a big piece and carries it off, proudly.

Some ill-advised first-time visitors leave the pullout and walk down the hill for a closer look. Most stop when they are still far enough away but I suspect some go even further (which we wouldn’t see from the road)

Michael says he asked a ranger if the Park might put up some “area closed” signs to prevent this behavior by clueless visitors, but nothing has been done so far.

Once the coyote pups finish their meal, they settle down. Most move underground, so I continue east.

I check the Footbridge coyote den but find nothing in view.

The day is warm enough (70) to cause me to shed some layers for the rest of my drive, the first time I felt the need to do so on this trip.

Instead of going out this evening, Maureen and Rick and I spend the afternoon and evening with Laurie & Dan, helping them a bit with some house maintenance.

No one has seen the white buffalo calf today and it’s possible the calf did not survive. Some reported seeing coyotes running into the area around the same time.

Today I saw: 10 grizzly bears (including 8 coys), bison (and calves), coyotes (including 8 pups), mule deer, elk, 1 moose, pronghorn, 7 Junction wolves (including 907, AM, 1478F, 1479F, an uncollared gray female plus both pups) and the spirits of Allison, Richard, Jeff and Chloe.