Go Wolfpack!!!

You’re probably reading this on Thursday July 7 or after, but this blog is for Monday July 4.

This morning, after striking out on seeing wolves last night, Kate, Jim and Stephanie got up at 4:00am to head back to the Lamar Valley to see if they could track down some wolves. I didn’t really want to get up at 4:00, so I let the three of them go ahead without me. I got up around 8:00, had a nice shower and a good breakfast and caught back up with them when they got back around 10:00am. Kate will be telling the next part of the story. I thought it was better for her to tell it since she was there instead of her telling me what happened.

4 AM, yes that is correct, 4 AM came around way too early after getting into the tent at 10:30pm last night. But Mom, Dad, and I dragged our tired butts out of our tents and climbed in the Suburban to make the 1-hour drive back out to Lamar Valley. I drove since I had gotten the most sleep, Mom and Dad are still adjusting to sleeping in “bear country”. It was a little tricky navigating the dark twisty roads up through Dunraven pass, but we made it out the valley just as the sun was rising (5:20 AM). There were already a few people gathered on the ridge with their scopes point up at Druid Peak the area where one of the wolf packs has a den with pups. We stayed there about an hour. One of the ladies with a large scope had a walky-talky that allowed her to communicate with Ranger Rick (actually he is wildlife biologist who studies the wolves of Yellowstone) but we call him Ranger Rick. He has tagged 2 of the wolves so he is better able to locate the where-abouts of the wolves than just us tourists taking a shot in the dark. At around 6:30 Ranger Rick radioed to say that the strongest signals were west of where we were. So we packed it up and started heading west. We got to the next pull-out, just as the crowd announced that they had just seen 2 gray wolves cross the highest ridge in front of us. So like experienced wolf trackers (or wanta-be wolf trackers), we got back in the car and headed west. Finally we caught up with Ranger Rick, we parked the car and grabbed the binoculars. At around 7:30, Ranger Rick silenced the crowd and told us to make no sudden movements, and 2 seconds later two wolves came into view less than 100 yards in front of us. One was silvery gray and the other was a darker gray. They walked along the ridge in front of us, and at that moment the pain of waking up at 4AM melted away. The silvery gray one skirted the ridge we were all congregated on and slid behind us down through the valley and beside the lake. She was beautiful and graceful. And my dad had the biggest smile on his face. I don’t have any pictures because I never expected us to see the wolves so close. But I am kind of glad I didn’t because the absence of the camera allowed me to just live in the moment and enjoy this rare experience fully. And then the magic moment happened. Out of the hills to our right, a wolf howled. And then howled again. And then the packed joined her and their all howled. And then the one wolf that had crossed behind them answered the pack and they called back to her. It was a sound I will never forget. I was so happy I almost cried. Then the wolf that had crossed behind us came back to join the pack, so we got to glimpse her again. It was more than any of us had expected. A couple minutes later, 3 other wolves came into view up in the shadow of the trees.

While Kate, Jim and Steph were catching a nap and a shower after their wolf adventure, I did a couple of loads of laundry. Our clothes smelled pretty bad after horseback riding and we didn’t want to have that smell traveling with us. We all had a little lunch then headed out to explore the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

The canyon was carved out by the Yellowstone River and has some spectacular views. The river is even more powerful than usual from all the snow melt. We watched the water go over falls at Upper Falls and were mesmerized by how much water and how fast it traveled. We stopped at various overlooks and viewing points to get the best views of the canyon and its two waterfalls. I’ll let the pictures below speak for themselves.

On our way to one of the overlooks, we ran into a couple of bull elk with nice racks (antlers) grazing in on a hillside. They were very cooperative and gave us some great poses.

We came back from viewing the canyon around 3:00 and strolled around the Canyon Village. Jim and I split a hot dog, while the girls had some ice cream.

Kate and I strolled through a couple of shops and tried on some hats that we liked.

We got back to camp and had another great dinner of bbq chicken, squash, corn on the cob and cucumber-tomato salad. Right about the time we got cleaned up and got a fire going, a thunderstorm popped up and we went over to the Canyon Lodge lounge to ride out the storm. Hopefully everything in our tents will stay dry tonight! That’s about all I have for us today. Tomorrow we are going to Cody, WY to see the Buffalo Bill Historical Center and explore a bit on our last day in Wyoming. Happy 4^th of July everyone!!!

Andy & Kate