TIME-TEMPERATURE- WEATHER:

Late AM (9-noon) 75 in Bozeman at 10AM!; 86 at Slough at 1:30!

Evening: 4:30-9PM It is 84 when we arrive at Dorothy’s this evening. But there is a stiff breeze which helps. Around 7:30 we get fierce wind and heavy rain, sending us to our cars.

Snow Level (roads/landscape): All the snow is gone except on the really high peaks above Silver Gate

Water/Ice Level (ponds and rivers): river levels are receding

CROWD: Crazy busy, with bison jams the norm all day long.

OVERNIGHT NEWS (IF ANY) There is a new bison carcass in Lamar near the spot where Amethyst Creek joins the Lamar. Junction wolves were seen on it this morning.

SUMMARY FOR THE DAY: It is great to be back in the Park, even though it’s really hot! Great to see Missy and Andy, too. We don’t see any wolves, but Missy finds some other critters for us to enjoy. Around 8PM we are hit with heavy wind and rain, just as Brian spotted a single wolf. It was probably still there, unseen in the gully, but we head back east at 8:30.

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

NON-WOLF SIGHTINGS (what & where)

Black bear: Missy finds a black bear above the old river bank. We follow him as he ambles east until he disappears into the Amethyst drainage.

Bison: all over, including one taking a dust bath south of Dorothy’s. In the evening a small group have a funeral at the Amethyst Creek carcass.

Coyote: Missy finds three coyotes below the west end of Jasper, right at the rivers edge. Two of the three are in a very playful mood, tussling with each other, chasing back and forth.

Mule deer: we see several in the high meadows past Baronette on the way back to Cooke.

Ducks: on Blacktail Ponds

Golden eagle: in the flat right of the Amethyst carcass

Geese: Lamar

Moose: a single moose in Round Prairie, western end from the shady lot

Pronghorn: Little America and Lamar

Ravens and magpies; in the flat near the Amethyst Creek bison carcass

LATE MORNING HIGHLIGHTS (9AM-12 noon) It is just after 10:30 and I am off to YNP to do some wolf watching with my buds Andy and Missy. It’s their first visit this year since they arrived from Florida to spend the summer months in Bozeman.

It is a warm day, 75 when I start and it just gets hotter!

I have an easy and beautiful drive. There are lots of visitors in Mammoth and I hope for less traffic as I go east. It is 82 through the Blacktail. The only wildlife I see are a few ducks on the ponds. I see my first bison at Floating Island lake.

I pass Slough at 1:30 but I dont scope here since it’s 86!

At Dorothys I stop to scope briefly, trying to find the new carcass I have heard about. In this heat I don’t expect to see any predators on it, and I don’t.

I do see a bull bison bull taking a dust bath, creating quite a cloud. A couple of pronghorn cross the road just east of Dorothys.

Lots and lots of bison in Lamar Valley.

I reach Cooke at 2:30 and notice the sky to the west is clouding up.

EVENING HIGHLIGHTS (4:30PM-9PM) We have a plan to share an early dinner of Miners pizza and my home-made salad at their motel suite. We have a great time.

I also meet their High Country neighbors, Brian and Lindsay from Oregon, whom Missy and Andy met here last year. They are wildlife and wolf fans. He has a huge binder with information. She runs a coffee shop called Lindsey’s Latte.

We head down to Lamar. Brian and Lindsay stop at Hubbard and look south, while we go to Dorothys. For the first 45 minutes, we have a very stiff breeze which feels really good in this heat (80’s)

Some friendly visitors help us locate the carcass just left of Amethyst creek, where a small group of adult bison are conducting a funeral. To the right of the carcass we see many birds, including a large golden eagle.

Then Missy finds a black bear above Amethyst Bench. We follow him as he ambles east until he disappears into the drainage.

Then she finds three coyotes below the west end of Jasper, right at the rivers edge. Two of the three are in a very playful mood, tussling with each other, chasing back and forth.

We continue hope-scoping for wolves but then our merciful breeze dies down and heavy clouds move in, making the late-day sun feel almost oppressive.

A little before 8 we pack up to head east, with the intention of looking for Mollies from Exclosure. But we are delayed by a bison jam. As we approach Hubbard, Brian waves to us, saying he has found a black wolf.

We join him and set up our scopes, hoping now that several wolves might appear. Brian says the wolf is likely out of sight feeding, since the carcass is in a deep channel of the river, deep enough to hide bears and wolves.

As we try to find the elusive animal, a horrendous wind arrives, so strong we have to hang on to our scopes. The gusts are so strong they stir up a long cloud of dust parallel to and above the river. It is thick as fog, obscuring the whole area where we are looking.

Then a pelting rain begins, driving us back to our cars. We wait it out for about 10 minutes, then get out to try again. A gorgeous double rainbow appears to the southeast.

When the rain stops and the dust cloud dissipates, all the birds are gone. We scan the area back and forth, hoping for a glimpse of the wolf. When none appear by 8:30, we give up and continue east.

We weave our way through two more bison photo-op jams (as opposed to actual jams for bison on the road) and are rewarded with a nice moose sighting in Round Prairie.

WHAT I MISSED: Brian and Lindsay see a single black come down from the Crescent forest toward the carcass before the rainstorm. He says the wolves tend to disappear completely while feeding, because the carcass is in a deep channel of the river.

TODAY I SAW: a black bear, bison and calves, 3 coyotes, mule deer, a golden eagle, a moose, pronghorn 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)