TIME-TEMPERATURE- WEATHER:

Early AM (first light-9AM): 33 at 5:30AM in SG. An inch of overnight snow on the car. Alternating snow and drizzle on the drive to the valley. Visibility is poor above the flats in Lamar and Little America

Late AM (9-noon) still snowing off and on throughout the morning, making poor visibility. I leave Slough at 12:30

Evening: 4:30-9PM: Upper 30s with light snow/drizzle. I leave Lamar at 7:30

Snow Level (roads/landscape): snow squalls come and go all day long and into the evening. It’s quite chilly in the low-mid 30s.

CROWD: a few less today, due to the snowy weather

OVERNIGHT NEWS: Paul had a scare overnight. He often parks his van in the large lot east of the NE Entrance gate. Last night around 10PM, a bear climbed up on the roof of his camper last night (11 ft high!). Luckily, he was safe inside, the bear did no damage, and eventually jumped down and disappeared into the woods.

SUMMARY FOR THE DAY: Three packs were seen today Rescues, Mollies and Junctions, but I missed seeing the Junctions.

Early morning offered no wolves at all, perhaps due to the falling snow. Around 8AM I find a school group at Tower looking at Rescues on Vader Hill.

Later, I see the Molliess Pack from Hitching Post, and then from Trash Can. While I am watching them, other people find Junctions at Slough but I arrive too late.

In the evening, no Junctions are found at Slough but the Mollies appear again in Lamar south of Mid-Point.

WOLF SIGHTINGS (total; pack; individuals, pullout, time of day): 16 total wolves today, from 2 packs:

7 Rescue Creek Pack wolves (6B/1G) from Tower/Rick’s Pullout on Vader Hill and west of there between 8-9AM

9 Mollie’s 3B/6G (full pack) traveling in snowfall from Middle Flats to the Double foothill between 9:30 and 11 from Hitching Post, Geriatric and Trash Can Hill.

In the evening, Junctions are not seen because they were spooked away from the den in the afternoon into the Diagonal Forest by a pair of long-distance runners who had never been in the area before. The spooking was witnessed only by the two runners, not by any wolf watchers.

Later, the Mollies pack (3B/6G) is seen in Lamar south of Mid Point.

NON-WOLF SIGHTINGS (what & where)

Grizzly: I return to Slough roadside around 11:45. I do not see any Junctions but I do see the grizzly they interacted with earlier, moving west towards Aspen Drainage.

Bison: various, usual places

Coyote: none recorded, which seems odd!

Elk: either side of Slough den area, some from the Rick pullout while watching Rescues.

Fox: At Lower Baronette from my car

Moose: 3; mom and two yearlings. Just past Warm two yearling moose explode out of the north side forest and onto the road. I stop in time. They stand on the road looking at me. A third moose, larger (probably mom) appears and comes down to them, calmly leading her yearlings into the snow and trees on the south side.

Pronghorn: various, usual places

COMMENTS: The moose trio was really cool!

EARLY MORNING HIGHLIGHTS (first light till 9AM) Snow is falling in Lamar and at Slough, so I am not terribly surprised when we find no wolves at all. People spread out and Rick goes to the Blacktail.

Around 8 AM I am headed to the Blacktail myself when I see a large school group at Tower scoping to the northwest. They have Rescue Creek wolves on Vader Hill. I join them and call it in. The Rescues start to move west so I move to the Rick Pullout and find them again. My count is 7; 6B/1G)

Several watchers join me. We watch them hunt bison as the visibility waxes and wanes. They almost get a yearling calf but the herd saves it. The wolves move along a ridgeline for a while, then drop down into Yellowstone corridor, out of sight.

Around 9AM I go east, hearing that Mollies are visible in Lamar.

LATE MORNING HIGHLIGHTS (9AM-12 noon) I join other watchers at Hitching Post. Snow is still falling and the Mollies are not close, so they are not easy to see. They travel away from us through the middle flats towards Chalcedony Fan.

Between the snow squalls and high sage, I finally manage to count all 9 wolves (3B/6G). Glenda suggests I join her on Geriatric. Once I get set up we get a short break from the snowfall and I see them all as they stall out and bed down. But they soon get up again and continue, heading for the treeline.

Paul calls from Slough, saying some Junctions have appeared there. I hike down to my car intending to go to Slough, but then the Mollies come into better view, so I stick with this closer sighting.

I set up on Trash Can hill just as a squall of corn snow arrives. Through the tiny pellets, I see a gray and a black in the Druid rendezvous coming towards the river. They stop on the far bank and sit on their haunches, looking at us.

These wolves want to cross, but the rest of the pack is not so eager. They remain near the double foothill, milling around. The snow increases, obscuring everything. When it finally clears, the black and the gray have given up and are trotting back to join the others.

The whole pack moves behind the foothills and into the trees.

At 11:30 I drive back to Slough, but the Junctions have already hidden behind the flower hill. I manage to spot the grizzly the wolves had been interacting with.

I head back to Silver Gate for a break.

EVENING HIGHLIGHTS (4:30PM-9PM) This evening I arrive at Slough roadside around 5:30 and start scoping for Junctions. Finding none, I walk out the campground road towards Bob’s Knob to check the low areas that cant be seen from here.

An unusual meeting occurs, with some fallout. Please see RUNNERS STORY below. But to sum up, I find no wolves at Slough so I head back east.

I stop Mid Point around 6:30 when a man flags me down. He has Mollies in view straight south from Mid-point. I see all 9 (3B/6G) having a rally in the sage on the big fan, about half way between the river and the treeline.

Michael (Wolftracker) joins us. I tell him about the Runners at Slough and he tells me not to worry. We enjoy a snow-free sighting for a while.

Michael agrees that both 1090F and 1411F look pregnant. The males look like they always do; robust and healthy.

1339M loves to scent-mark the sage brush. Seeing this behavior, the man who flagged me down asks me if this is Mollies territory. Michael and I both chuckle, then Michael answers, rightly, that the Mollies have spent more time in Lamar this year than the Junctions have.

The wolves eventually bed down on the big fan and the snow starts up again. I call it a day at 7:20 and go back to SG.

RUNNERS STORY: On my way out to Bobs to try to find Junctions I see two thirty-ish fit young men, jogging south up the campground road from below Bobs. Turns out they are long-distance wilderness runners. When I casually ask if they saw wolves, they answer yes. They saw 10 wolves running away from them. They point to where this happened: the runners were above the den cliff! The wolves ran from the den area into the Diagonal Forest. (The runners don’t use these terms but point specifically to these areas)

They started their run in Jardine, crossing the northern range from west to east. They left one car near Slough and looking down to find a safe place to cross Slough Creek to get to their car when they spooked the wolves.

I am shocked initially, but these two appear to be honest albeit clueless good guys who meant no harm to the wolves. But I express my concern that since the wolves have a den here and whelping is imminent (or may have just happened) the scare might cause them to move elsewhere.

The runners express remorse and say again they had no idea what they were close to. We part ways amicably.

As I make my way back to the lot, I feel bad for the people here in their winter attire, hoping to see wolves that certainly will not be showing up soon. I report my encounter with the runners to some regulars and head east.

I learn later that some of those regulars caught up to the runners in their car and convinced them to report what happened to Rangers in Mammoth. The next day I learn that the runners did so. I want to express my gratitude to the regulars who took on that task and handled it so well.

WHAT I MISSED: While I’m on Geriatric watching Mollies around 10AM, Paul is on Daves, seeing 5 Junction wolves (4B/1G) travel up the lion meadow to the den area (very likely some of the hunting party from last evening). They harass a single small grizzly along the way, then stop to visit the natal den before going out of sight behind the flower hill.

TODAY I SAW: a grizzly bear, bison (and calves), elk, a fox, 3 moose, pronghorn, 16 wolves (7 Rescue 6B/1G and all 9 Mollies 3B/6G) and the spirits of Allison, Richard, Jeff and Chloe

ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF ABBREVIATIONS:

DF: Diagonal Forest (a feature east of the Slough den)

DPH: Dead Puppy Hill, the partly treed hill below the crest of Mt. Norris immediately south of Footbridge pullout. Named by coyote researchers before the 1995 wolf reintroduction. The hill has been a popular area with local wolf packs since wolves were reintroduced. It has held several coyote dens over the years, but to my knowledge, this year is the first time a wolf pack has denned on it. The Mollies chose an area on the western slope above the new growth forest, and produced at least two pups, one black and one gray, which were seen infrequently during June.

HF: Horizontal Forest (another feather east of the Slough den

HR: Hellroaring (large overlook pullout on the Blacktail)

LCW: Lamar Canyon West (pullout on the western side of Lamar Canyon) that overlooks a lot of, but not all of, the area wolves use at Slough.

MST: Marge Simpson Tree (distinctive tree in Slough Flats) In 2024, the Junctions used the meadows below and left of Marge as their August-October rendezvous.

OGR: "The OGR" Old Gardiner Road (current name for the new road hastily constructed after the 2022 flood on top of the former gravel road between Mammoth and Gardiner)

RP: Round Prairie (big meadow south of Pebble Creek campground)

SB: Soda Butte (or SBV Soda Butte Valley) where Soda Butte Creek flows between Round Prairie and its Confluence with the Lamar River)

SG: Silver Gate (small town just outside the northeast Park entrance)

SRT: Southern Round Tree (distinctive tree south of the Marge Simpson Tree)

UCG: Un-collared gray (Junction 2 yr-old bouncy male). Born to the Rescue Creek Pack, he joined the Junction Pack sometime in February 2025.

YGM: Yellow Grass Meadow (a feature east of and upslope of the Horizontal forest at Slough)DF – Diagonal Forest (a feature east of the Slough den)