I Saw Wolves!

[paean]

I took the girls to Yellowstone for the weekend, just us. Early Sunday morning we stopped to see the Bison along the Lamar River, and I turned around and there was a grey wolf on the hill above us, probably only 200-300 yards away. It was far enough that I didn’t even try for a photo, but I could track with my naked eye. It was cutting across lateral to the road, and then disappeared over the ridge.

Then a few miles down the road, there was a pair of adults with their pups down and across the river from us. They were howling to more in the forest on the other side, and the bison were keeping a distance which they don’t do for coyotes. I have decent binoculars, but at that distance wished I had a tripod and a good telescope. There was a fresh carcass, maybe a baby bison, on the banks of the river that they ravens were feasting on. If the wolves had killed it, they were clearly done by the time I came.

Wolves are my favorite to see, and the only time I’ve seen them there before was much further away through someone’s telescope. This was pretty magical.