Yellowstone 2026

 Thursday, May 21, 2026 My last day here for this trip. Since the wolf den was not happening, I decided to drive down south and see things like the falls, the river, the lake, and the harlequin ducks.   In the meantime, winter has returned.  Down here where I'm camped, it wasn't so much - it rained off and on all night, but it was 41 when I got up. Higher up, as a different story. Snow. Lots of snow. It didn't stick to the roads, but was all over the grass, sagebrush and trees.

Wednesday, May 20, 2026 Well, it seems none of the Junction Butte pack's pups have survived. Late Monday, 13 members of the pack went east to Round Prairie, the big meadow out by Pebble Creek campground, including the pups' mother. This is about 10 miles from the den. Early Tuesday, the remaining 2 members were seen heading west from the den and not seen in the area again.  By 9:00 am, no wolf had been seen in the den area.  The only reason for the wolves to stay in the den area is the pups.  Without that, they go where ever they want. This means there are no pups left. So I spent the day in the Lamar Valley watching a bison carcass and waiting for the wolves to find it.  Except for a yearling early, none did. Around noon, I went east to find a place to have lunch.  Along the way, I saw this moose:  

 Monday, May 18, 2026 Still cold and windy. Nothing ws happening at the den.  Most of the wolves had left yesterday morning on what ppeared to be a hunting prarty.  Later, several of them came back.  Most of the wolf watchers had found them out in the Hellroaring Creek area.  They were a very long way way. Back at the den, all we had was wind and cold. Any wolves there were either in the den or bedded down out of sight. It was brutal. So I decided to go see geysers.

 Sunday, May 17, 2026 Very cold today, made worse by the wind.  I had to scrape snow from my windshield and it was below freezing when I got to Slough Creek and only got to about 40F. Didn't really do any photography today, so here's a bear video from yesterday.  

 Saturday, May 16, 2026 It was a good morning for wolf watching.  Th weather haw cooled, so there is more activity.   The big action started just after I set up my scope. Somebody said there were 2 bears at the bottom of the slide. The slide is a landmark on the hillside behind the den area. Sure enough, there were 2 bears - a mother and yearling grizzlies. They were faced with 2 wolves at the moment: This kind of activity went on for 45 minutes. There would be long minutes of nothing - the wolves and bears just eyeing each other and other moments of fast action:                                                        Until finally, the bears decided to leave: The wolves do not like bears near their pups.  We haven't seen them yet, but we are sure they are in the den because the wolves are still ther...

 Friday, May 15, 206 A mostly quiet day.  The wind was ferocious making wolf watching difficult. I took my friends Robin and Frank to show them the peregrine falcon nest.  They are using the crevice across the canyon from the turnout.  I got this video.  The sound you hear is the Yellowstone River at the bottom of the canyon.  

 Wednesday, May 13, 026 Not much to post the last few days.   It's been pretty quiet. Get out to the den area and watch just a dew wolf movements.  It has been warm which keeps the activity to a minimum. In the meantime, we get short bits like this:       We are expecting cooler weather that may increase the activity. And there is a new bison carcass that they haven't found, yet.  And we're still waiting for pups.              

 Saturday, May 9, 2026 It was a slow day at the den site.  Nearly all the Junction Butte pack was east in the Lamar Valley causing chaos. They were attacking bison calves and adult bison.  I missed all of it, staying at the den site. The word was it was a major mess with traffic.  At one point, they were joined by a grizzly, but after a while, the pack tired of his presence.  I saw a short video of 11 wolves chasing him away. I saw only 1 wolf today.  A large uncollared grey.  It went down to a nearby carcass and fed.  

 Friday, May 8, 2026 I thought I would show where and how I'm camped.   I'm art a BLM recreation area about 16 miles north of the park entrance.  It's a campgrouond and a boatramp for launching rafts and boats into the Yellowstone River.  I'm in an 18 foot travel trailer.  It has a bed, place to sit with a table, a fridge, a bathroom with a toilet, sink and tiny shower. It also has a furnace,a 2-burner propane cooktop, and a sink with hot and cold running water.   I've beefed up the electrical system with 4 golf car batteries, a 250 watt solar panel and a 2000 watt inverter.  That means I never have to plug in and can run my microwave. And, since it is a boat ramp, this is 50 paces from my front door: Not a bad spot at all. I can only stay 16 days here, so I'll have to move in a week or so. There is a National Forest campground about a mile closer to the park. Oh, yes. The cost here is $7.50 a night, in the National Forest campground is $...

 Thursday, May 7, 2026 Warmer and wet - it rained off and on all night. The usual - drive out to Slough Creek and watch the wolves nd show them to tourists, One cool bit happened - 2 nearby bison got into a sparring match. I got a bit of video  

 Wednesday, May 6, 2026 COLD! It was 23F when I left camp and 14F when I crossed the Lamar River in the park. The usual - spent the morning watching wolves and showing people who come by the wolves and explaining things to them. We did have one bit of adventure - 4 elk chased 3 wolves around. Normally, it's the other way around. Unfortunately, when I thought to get it on video, ll the excitement ended. I need to do better. On the way out, there were 3 bighorn sheep ewes right near the road

 Tuesday, May 5, 2026 It sure is hard to drag myself out of a warm bed into a cold camper at 5:00 am! I got most of my gear unpacked and organized yesterday.Today, I drove back to Slough Creek and spent the morning there. , yet. We had a bit more activity. Several wolves went into and out of the den, one came in with food. And Mom came out and stood on the entrance for a few minutes. I guess she wanted a break from the kids. We're not expecting to see the pups for about a week, yet, so I'm not expecting much until then. After lunch, I drove around to check on some bird nests. The golden eagle nest along Slough Creek road was unoccupied. Either it's not being used this year or the adults were away. The osprey nest in the nearly dead tree in the Lamar Canyon had one adult in it, as did the hawk nest in the crevice at the east end of the canyon. The bald eagle nest in the west end of the Lamar Valley was empty when I got the scope set up. But as I was looking, an adult flew in...

 May 5, 2026 It's May, time for Yellowstone again. Did the usual, drove up Sunday and Monday and found a campsite at Caarbella BLM Recreation Areaa.  The campground was nearly deserted.  Then I went into the  park for a few hours. I went directly to the Slough Creek area - where the wolf den is. Currently, the pack has 1 litter of pups, born about a week ago. As it was mid-day, I didn't expect much. That is when the wolves sleep.  I was right. In 2 hours, I saw the mom come out of the den for about 10 minutes and another wolf stand up, scratch and lay back down. I did get a picture of a coyote that came through the area.