Monday, July 6th - Lions, Wolves and Bears - Oh My!

I went to bed late last night, after midnight. My cabin at Roosevelt was really noisy…or should I say, I could hear everything others said and did.  It was freezing…and then I kept hearing an animal scratching, crunching, etc.   I kept turning on my headlamp thinking it was something in my room but I think it was a raccoon or something under my cabin.  That, or a mouse party.  It seriously sounded like critters eating Cheetos.

I woke up at 2 and then at 4 and I got up finally at 4:30.  I was out the door by 4:45.  Just past the Yellowstone Picnic Area, an animal came out from the left side of the road (maybe 10-20 yards in front of me but I'm bad at estimating distance) and crossed the road.  Woohooo!  I finally saw a wild cougar!  It was a very fleeting glimpse but that's ok, I'll take it! I just wish my daughter had been with me...she loves cougars.   I was extremely excited. I can still see the big eyes glowing in my headlights. 

I reached the footbridge pullout at the Druid den site at 5:20 a.m.  There were already 6 or 7 people there.  We waited and watched and talked.  When some wolves were on a carcass down the valley we decided to stay in hopes the pups would come out like they had at 6:30 a.m. the day before but no such luck. Finally around 8 a.m. we saw Druid Alpha Male 480 come through the valley behind us. It is so cool when they stop and look at you and seem to stare into your scope at you!  Those eyes!   Another black Druid came through a few minutes later.  You could see them watching the traffic and not wanting to cross the road. I finally left hoping to get a campsite at Slough Creek.  They fill up quickly but I was lucky and got a great site!

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 cooked some breakfast and then went to shower back at my Roosevelt cabin and then checked out and went to  hike Lost Lake. It is a pretty steep climb up behind Roosevelt Lodge but it’s a pretty hike.   A friend of mine once saw two wolverines up here. I was hoping, but knew that after a cougar sighting (I told Marc at the airport, I need to see a cougar and a wolverine on this trip) I knew I probably wouldn't be so lucky.

It was blue sky when I left.  Several miles later I arrived at the Petrified Tree parking area intending to do a loop hike from there but suddenly, dark clouds rolled in.

(Here is where the grizzly photo was taken the day before).

Some of you know how I feel about lighting and thunder while I’m hiking.  I’ve been known to be near hysteria.   So, I went down from that trail and decided it would be better to hike on the road since it wasn’t so exposed.  Maybe not but it was also at least 3 times as long.  I’ve never walked so fast in my life.  I was trying to watch clouds, watch for bears and walk fast at the same time.

I reached the main road and then the lighting started several miles away and then I got really worried but kept walking.  About a ½ mile from the lodge turnout, suddenly I saw several bull bison right next to the road.  I thought maybe I could sneak by in the brush but as I moved forward one turned to watch me.  I didn’t feel good about that so I retreated and worried.  There was another lighting strike and I finally decided my only option was a ride, so I stuck out my thumb and a very nice guy stopped.  He was trying to clear all his maps, boots, etc. off his front seat and seemed embarrassed but I didn’t care…I was simply so grateful for a ride!  I also knew anyone with maps and hiking boots on the seat was probably safe to ride with.  As we went by the bison I discovered there were more of them than I realized so I was even more glad I didn’t attempt to walk by them.  For those of you who may not know, even though bison are huge and seem clumsy and slow  and mellow, they are actually very dangerous and not to be messed with!  I think it's the Custer State Park website that has a video clip of someone getting tossed up in the air by a bison.

I got to my car and decided to drive the Blacktail Plateau, thinking I might see more wildlife.  This is a high plateau, one way dirt road that isn’t heavily traveled.

This is from up there looking at the storm I'd gotten caught in.

It was very pretty up there and you can see a long way, but I didn't see any  wildlife although I did think I heard a wolf howl…but only one.  I had had my window closed but after hearing that and opening it I didn't hear any more.  I did hear from some people later that 8 of them saw a black wolf up there about a half hour after I drove the road.

Then it was back to camp for a short nap and then  back out to footbridge to wolf-watch.  I talked to a lot of very nice people…most of the wolf watching “regulars” are pretty  nice and willing to get you up to speed on things.  I talked for hours to a couple who were moving from Minnesota to Oregon and who have lived and traveled all over from Alaska to Ecuador to Sweden.  We got on the subject of snakes (for those of you who don't know, this comes up frequently since I had a Diamondback Rattlesnake surprise me in my campsite in Arizona last winter).   The husband had worked in the Amazon where they have such deadly snakes that he needed to wear protective clothing all the way up to his waist.  He was never bitten, but then they went to visit a friend in Sweden.  He was asking if they have ANYTHING dangerous in Sweden and Norway and his friend told him about a poisonous snake they have there, some kind of pit viper. I thought he was kidding but he wasn't.  They really are there, which is just bizarre.  Even more bizarre, they're rarely seen but this couple saw one and he stepped on it, when hiking in Norway!

Finally after being there for several hours a wolf was spotted leaving the den area.  The den is below Druid Peak. 

The pups have been seen playing on that rocky ledge and the den is behind it somewhere.   The wolf left that area and went off to the right where they go down to cross the road.  The whole area is closed to stopping/parking/walking/etc. except at the paved pullout, in order to make it easier on the wolves who have to cross frequently to go hunt.  We all watched down below the road on our side and eventually she showed up below us and swam across the river.  I've never seen that before, it was very cool!  She was more tan/brown than other wolves I've seen there.  I thought she'd turn and go up the valley but she didn't, she stopped to catch a ground squirrel or something and then she went up into the trees.  A while later she was spotted far at the top of Mt. Norris in the meadow up there.  She eventually went over the top!  It took her 55 min. to get there from the time she left the den. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of Mt. Norris. I'll have to go back with Rosie on our way to the Pryor Mtns.   Anyway, up on the top of that mountain is not the place I would expect to see a wolf!  The speculation was that maybe she was scouting a new route for them to take the pups to the rendezvous site which is back there, they just usually go up the river valley.  We continued to watch for pups and then the park "wolf guy", Rick McIntyre, radioed that there were 3 wolves and 2 bears on a carcass down the valley. I'd been talking for quite a while to a very nice man from Ohio who approached me saying "so you're the lady who saw the cougar".  Several people did that, sightings are pretty rare.  He and his wife, who go to Yellowstone frequently, decided to go down and see the wolf/bear activity and invited me to come with them so I followed them down and went up on the hill with them and our scopes.  What drama!  2 grizzlies, one a really, really big bear, and 3 wolves (Druids) including alpha male 480.  The wolves tolerated one bear on the carcass but kept harassing the bigger bear.  It was amazing, they'd drive him away and one wolf would sneak back and grab a bite and come help again.  Eventually the bear was on his hind legs and finally took off running!!!!!!!!!  I never thought I'd see anything like that....it was straight out of a Discovery Channel show or something.  Unfortunately at that point it was really too close to dark to use our scopes anymore and it was hard to see anything without the scope.  I feel so, so lucky to have been in the right place at the right time.  Granted, I spent many hours waiting in vain to see the Druid pups, but still, I've wanted to see a Druid owolf for years and I finally did...and to see that kind of interaction...all I can say is WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   To top it all off a huge full moon came up over the Lamar Valley.


 
Again, my photography skills are awful but you get the idea.  All in all, a really great day!
© 2009 Tara Morrison