I drive to Slough and park behind Frank’s car. We are happy to see each other and are soon watching wolves together on Dave’s Hill.

Our first look shows just three bedded wolves in the rendezvous. These three eventually get up.

Two are pups, which soon begin playing and goofing off. The third is an adult, which soon heads north and ends up bedding again near the fallen Stephen King tree. This wolf howls on and off.

Then the gray pup appears, joining in the play session. The three are then joined by big sister 1479F and big brother, the young black male. They bounce around, chasing and ambushing each other.

Then they start through thick sage towards the creek. More chasing and ambushing begins in this spot. It’s just delightful to watch.1479 and the black male seem to especially enjoy playing with the gray pup. The three of them rush here and there, playing wolf tag and roughhousing.

At the same time, more and more wolves are emerging from their various hiding places. They start to head towards the playful group.

The alpha pair moves through the sage and emerges in the creek corridor. They bed for a while, then move south near the water.

The playful group seems interested in the creek itself and we lose sight of them for a while. Several more wolves move into the area from the flats. We start to look for bird activity because their movements suggest there might be a carcass there.

I never see enough birds to convince me it’s anything fresh. But I can’t be certain.

The black bedded near the Stephen King tree gets up and begins to follow the line of the creek, also moving south.

When she disappears, we wonder if all the Junctions have given us the slip?

It’s 8:45 and we’ve lost all our wolves.

Rick heads down the hill, intending to drive west to try to see if they’ve gone that way. I get a text from Missy (Slough Creek is one of the few spots in the Park with cell service!) with great news: their Sarasota house has been spared. The eye passed right over limited the damage to the loss of a magnolia tree in their front yard. When it fell it missed the house!

As I'm relaying this info to other wolf watchers, Fay suddenly calls out that she's found the wolves again! They didn’t disappear at all but are still in the creek corridor, now traveling northeast.

Hooray!

Missy and Andy arrive and join Rick at Bob's Knob, where the view is excellent.

We watch fourteen Junctions moving slowly along the creek; nine blacks and all five grays. All five pups are with them.

Frank and I compare notes and agree that the two blacks we are missing are 1477F and the uncollared black female.

The family stops again at the “beach” area, unable to resist another chance to play. Several wolves wade into the water and others engage in ambushing each other near the cut banks.

One black pup plops down by itself in a perfect pose on the sloping “sand/mud hill above the water, eagerly w atching the others.

907 beds in the grass to the right of the “beach” giving all of us a good look at her.

The play winds down and the wolves begin moving again, past the fallen Stephen King tree, separating into two groups.

Two black pups remain at the “beach” preferring to stay here and play rather than following the pack.

The “lead” group of seven wolves begins to move with determination across the lower Lion meadow. This group includes the alpha male, 1479F, black male, dark gray, uncollared gray female, and two more blacks (1385, 1386?). They continue east below the horizontal forest and the zig zag willows.

The second group of five includes 907F (in the rear), 1478F, the gray pup and two black pups. They stop several times and 907 howls, presumably to encourage the remaining two pups to hurry up.

While I follow the progress of these two groups, a guide spots a bear running down from the Marge hill towards the creek like he smells something good.

I don’t see a hump on this bear, so I figure it’s a black bear. It disappears quickly into the creek and I turn my scope back to the wolves. But after maybe 10 minutes, the bear comes back out, returning the way it came. Now it’s clear this is a grizzly. Oops!

The two black pups now set off to follow the pack. They get as far as the fallen Stephen King tree and bed down.

The leader group continues its eastward trek on a low route, paralleling the yellow grass meadow high above. They eventually disappear heading towards upper Slough Creek.

907’s group gets as far as the east end of the horizontal forest, but then they turns and march uphill. They seem to be aiming for the west end of the Yellow Grass meadow. They enter a grove of conifers and start to bed down. It looks nice and shady there. 907 starts to howl. I think she wants the two black pups to come to her.

After a while, I notice an additional black with 907’s group. When that black moves upslope a bit we recognized 1479. She had been with the “lead” group, so I guess she doubled back.

It’s now 10:30 and quite warm at 75 degrees.

The two black pups get up, but instead of following 907, they head back to the rendezvous. They find comfy spots in the flats and take a nap.

907 continues to howl on and off.

After a while, with only bedded wolves in view, I pack up and head down to my car for my break.

About half-way between Silver Gate and Cooke I see people looking south from the road. It’s a bull moose in Soda Butte creek.

I do my stretches and have a short nap. Then at 3:30 I go over to Missy and Andy’s to keep my promise of making them dinner (spaghetti and meatballs). It’s a fun visit. We are all so relieved about the lucky outcome to the Hurricane.

Around 4:30 I head down to the valley once more. The drive is amazingly gorgeous, as the bright gold meadows contrast with dark green conifers.

This is such a perfect time to be in Yellowstone.

I pass Bill in Soda Butte Valley. He’s on his way up to Cooke for dinner with Frank. He tells me the ski-slope sow is out again with her cub and tells me where to find her.

When I get to Dorothy’s, the sow and cub are exactly where Bill said to look. There are many less people in the park and most of them are looking at the bison herds, so I have these two beautiful bears to myself for 20 minutes.

Mom is a gorgeous “Yellowstone stripe” bear and her cub is 2/3 blonde. Her back legs and rump are regular brown. It’s a really striking and unusual color.

Missy and Andy pull in and admire these bears. We start to show other visitors, too.

Our next stop is at Canyon West. I find a single black wolf in the rendezvous, bedded in the flat in front of the gully. I suspect it’s one of the two “homebody” black pups.

Watchers on Dave’s Hill tell us that around 4PM, 907 and her group came back down and joined the pups in the rendezvous. It is thought that the lead group is hunting to the east.

We belatedly notice two bedded grays, one on each side of the black. We get an occasional head up or a stretched leg to convince us they are wolves.

At 6:45, the bedded black in the flats gets up and moves upslope. It moves behind Marge, then reappears on the other side. It continues east until it stops on a small, rocky hill, facing off with a single bison.

One of the bedded grays gets up and trails the black. I think it reaches the black but the light is fading fast and I can’t really be sure.

The bison moves on and the black beds down on the hill with the rocks.

The other gray is still bedded in the flat.

Kristina arrives just as it’s getting too dark to see. We decide to join Missy and Andy for a beer back in Cooke.

Our three cars caravan back together, seeing a few mule deer on the way.

Today I saw: bison, mule deer, 2 bald eagles, a moose, pronghorn, 14 Junction wolves (including alphas, 907, 1385, 1386, 1478, 1479, dark gray, black male, uncollared gray female, plus all five pups) and the spirits of Allison, Richard, Jeff and Chloe.