Wolf Crossing Gardner River, Spring 2008Two weeks ago when Shad visited me in Yellowstone, we noticed in the basin across from the house a herd of elk on high alert standing atop one of the hills below Sepulcher Mountain. We scanned the landscape with binoculars and observed a dark wolf loping across the landscape. Shad had not seen a wolf in Yellowstone yet, and as luck would have it he didn’t even have to leave our yard to do so. 

I checked with Doug Smith, the manager for the wolf project, and he said there have been quite a few sightings of the small quadrant pack below Sepulcher, along with a lone female wolf. Today, on my drive to Mammoth for a ski I saw Rick McIntyre’s yellow X-Terra parked on a turnout along with a crowd of people equipped with spotting scopes—a sure sign of canis lupus activity. Lamar Valley has always been the prime spot in Yellowstone for wolf watching; if the wolves keep making an appearance near the north entrance perhaps this winter I’ll save on gasoline if I don’t have to drive to Lamar to gaze at wolves.