Dances with Wolves

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The alarm clock went off at 4.30am yesterday morning and by 5.15am we were heading into Yellowstone with our guide for the morning, Kevin, in the hope of seeing some wolves. Kevin's been guiding in Yellowstone for over 20 years and was able to tell us all about what wolves and grizzly bears get up to in the park. There are six packs of wolves in Yellowstone and there are many volunteers and park rangers who observe them for research, but even so those wolves are fairly elusive. We were very excited that we were able to watch two different packs of wolves enjoying their kills of elk carcasses through the high-powered telescopes which are used for observing them. A bit later, we were driving along the road when I got very excited because I thought I saw a wolf (even though Kevin had told us that he would be lucky to see the wolves close to the road about five times a year at the most) but quickly realised that we were watching a coyote racing down the road instead. When we spotted what we thought was another coyote on the road a few minutes later we tried to be fairly nonchalant about it (as Kevin didn't seem to rate coyotes at all) - I even commented that I didn't think coyotes got so big - when our guide got extremely excited and informed us that we were actually looking at a wolf. By this time Craig was practically hyper-ventilating in the back seat as he raced to get his camera sorted so he could capture the moment digitally (doesn't quite have the same ring as saying captured on film, does it?). It was fantastic to be able to have a good close-up look at the wolf, and we were thrilled with our morning.

We spent the afternoon in the park, enjoying the fantastic scenery and checking out the wildlife, although there were no more wolves to be seen - a great day!

This morning we had great plans of getting up early again (which we did) and heading out to spot wolves on our own. Unfortunately we only made it about halfway to the Lamar Valley (where the wolves are) when it began to snow heavily and we decided to head back to our hotel. After warming up with a coffee we headed to the south of Yellowstone to see Old Faithful, which very obligingly did what it does five minutes after we arrived, so we didn't have to wait around too long in the pouring (???) snow. Back in the car we headed north again with a quick stop at a geo-thermal spring called the Great Prismatic Pool, which of course needed to be walked around (again in the snow) and then on to an area called Canyon, which has three beautiful waterfalls, although we were only able to see two today, because of the heavy snow. In spite of the snow, Craig was able to spy out a bald eagle, so he was glad to be able to get a photo of that.

After having so much snow for most of the day, we were surprised to return to Mammoth in northern Yellowstone to brilliant sunshine, so we decided to head out to the Lamar Valley for one more look. It was a beautiful afternoon and were amazed to see that a lot of the snow had disappeared during the day, and we drove through the valley to see what we could see. As we've become used to over the past few days, there were plenty of bison (one with a very new-born calf). Although we weren't lucky enough to see another wolf, we were very excited to see another one of our coyote friends, with two more coyotes in hot pursuit - a great end to the day.

We'll be sad to leave Yellowstone tomorrow as we head to Grand Teton, but hope that as we move south we'll leave the snow behind - fingers crossed!

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Comments

[Mike, Sandy & the ankle biters..]

See, I would have lied!!
How many people reading your blog know the difference between a coyote and a wolf? In the words of the rapper, 'not many, if any'. So the photo of the white 'wolf' running up the bank would have been fine if you had called it a 'Wolf'! And if any academia biased respondent sent a message to the blog to correct your oversight - you'd just delete it like it never happened!. That does not mean that the unusual leopard in an earlier blog of ours was really a mangy old tabby -despite the collar and the silver name tag for 'Mr Tiddles'!!Did not realise that the wolves were so shy and had expected that as they had been there awhile now they would have been more used to people. Great pictures Swamp and loved the blog Steph, great read and just showed the kids the photos. Told them the white one was a wolf as well but Reubs read the heading and saw fit to correct me. I told him Craig couldn't tell a Coyote from a Wolf or a chicken from a cheetah and didn't know what he was talking about. The boy seemed to buy that! You'd think he'd know by now. You really would wouldn't you... We're just home from Taupo. We saw snow too.... a long way away on mountains, where it belongs!! Not up to the roof rack on your 4x4. All good here, kids well,SSDD... Take care and be kind to one another.... ** (**Ellen De Generes says it as her final comment at the very end of her show at 5:59 pm every day just as I've changed the channel for the news and it grates every time!!! hate being told what to do!!)