TIME-TEMPERATURE- WEATHER:

Late AM (9-noon) a clear, lovely day for a drive to the Park. High of 78

Evening: 4:30-9PM. Warmish night, around 75

Snow Level (roads/landscape): Still snow on the highest peaks. Roadside snow now gone.

Water/Ice Level (ponds and rivers): rivers past peak, back to normal now

CROWD: normal for early June

OVERNIGHT NEWS: Two Mollies pups, one black and one gray have been spotted by Paul and one or two other lucky folk, exactly where we thought they’d show up, above the new growth on the western side of Dead Puppy Hill.

Wapiti pups are also being seen somewhat regularly in Hayden, in their usual spot west of the Alum pullouts

SUMMARY FOR THE DAY: I have an easy drive to the Park and into Silver Gate to visit with Laurie & Dan and Maureen & Rick. We go into Lamar in the evening but see no wolves. Very pleasant evening.

WOLF SIGHTINGS (total; pack; individuals, pullout, time of day): No wolves today for me.

COMMENT: Since the Junction pups are now growing up out of our view, hope is high that the Mollies and Wapiti packs might provide the puppy fix desired by avid Yellowstone wolf-watchers.

NON-WOLF SIGHTINGS (what & where)

Black bear: As I round the bend at the perch pullout, I see a small black bear in the bowl to the south.

Grizzly: in the evening, I find two grizzlies up high on the right side of Norris. They wrestle a bit then return to grazing.

Bison: various, Blacktail, Tower, Little America, Lamar, SBV. And on the roads!

Coyote: one in the evening from Geriatric in the Confluence area

Mule deer: in the high meadows above Baronette

Elk: A few in Mammoth and up on Mt. Norris

Pronghorn: various usual areas.

LATE MORNING HIGHLIGHTS (approx 9AM-12 noon) Its just after 11AM, an absolutely perfect Bozeman day. I am heading to the Park to join Laurie and Dan (they arrived yesterday) and to spend another few days with Maureen and Rick in Silver Gate

I have an easy drive through a green landscape and reach the Park at 1pm

At the top of the OGR I have my visit with Allison and then head east. I have no major sightings along the way and reach Silver Gate at 3PM.

They catch me up on events in the wolf world.

EVENING HIGHLIGHTS (approx 4:30PM-9PM) Maureen and Rick and I go in tonight around 5PM. They scope from Trash Can while I head up Geriatric.

Neither of us has any luck with wolves tonight but I do find two grizzlies up high on the right side of Norris. They wrestle a bit then return to grazing.

I meet a man and his shy son, Titus. I ask him if he knows his name is Roman in origin. His face lights up and says he does and that he took a Latin class which he really liked.

A little later, Titus spots a coyote across the river.

I head down the hill around 8, thanking them for being such good company and wishing them a great night.

TODAY I SAW:1 black bear, 2 grizzlies, bison (and calves), a coyote, mule deer, elk, pronghorn, no wolves and the spirits of Allison, Richard, Jeff and Chloe.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER:

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 hill’s 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)