. Yellowstone does not disappoint. Our day started with a grizzly mom and her cub resting under a pine tree on the side of hill across from Phantom Lake. The cub was very cute laying his head across his mama's back. There was a bison carcass along the river west of Slough Creek Rd, but just ravens were on it. We then headed to the see the Junction Butte den and were able to show a couple from New York their first wolf which was little more than a dot a couple miles out. It's still neat though to see the reaction.After that we headed through Lamar Valley with some scattered bison herds and a few pronghorn. We headed out to Pebble Creek where Karen spotted a moose (turns out there were two) headed towards us. We pulled off the road and waited and they gradually made their way close by and crossed right in front of our parked car
DSC_0190 by William Reinke, on Flickr
DSC_0192 by William Reinke, on FlickrWe then went for a hike after passing the carcass with ravens and an eagle on it. On our hike we saw several marmots and six bighorn ewes. No babies yet in this group.
DSC_0201 by William Reinke, on FlickrWe decided to head home for supper and debated whether to come back in the evening or super early in the morning to watch the carcass. We decided to come back that evening. On our way in we had a nice view of a red fox just sitting in a field not too far off the road.
We arrived back at the carcass and joined a group of about 25 who were watching, some being there all day. There were 4 eagles in a tree and two coyotes on the carcass. One left but the other one stayed and feasted for over 30 minutes. it started pausing and looking back at the ridge quite often and sure enough a black wolf appeared coming over the ridge. Upon spotting the coyote it took off at top speed towards the coyote and the chase was on. They were in a flat out sprint for about 100 yards before the wolf finally stopped and turned back towards the carcass. More wolves then started coming in.
DSC_0205 by William Reinke, on FlickrSeven total wolves from the Junction Butte pack came in. We watched for about half an hour before heading back with a beautiful sunset in view. It made a fitting end to a three dog day and a fantastic first day back in the park.