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Brief Park Update

Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2019 11:11 am
by Mike
Hello from Gardiner, been in the park since Friday,weather is typical spring mix,snow cover from Swan Lake south is still one foot deep,, northern range clearing fast but most trails still too snow covered or too muddy.Black bears seen around picnic area, grizzly bears around Slough Creek and Little America.Bighorn ewes at picnic area and Rams at confluence.Moose from the confluence,Trout Lake,Round Prairie.Wolf action good at den site and Wapati and 8 Mile pack seen in the Blacktail area.Very little birds seen,no eagles at all, ospreys on Lamar River nest ,few Sandhills. Best news of all was yesterday no road construction,looks like completion is near,no where the crowds that I anticipated for Easter weekend, actually very lite.Full report when trip is over in a week or two

Re: Brief Park Update

Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2019 12:23 pm
by lah
Thank you!
Have a fun trip, and post some pictures,

Re: Brief Park Update

Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2019 7:42 pm
by yellvet
Bless you, Mike, for taking the time to post such a great trip report. I put every word in my memory bank. Looks like the wildlife are in all the usual places. For anyone who's interested, the north slope of the Beartooth Mtns is still socked in with heavy low lying clouds and a mix of rain and snow. I walked along the Stillwater River yesterday to see if any brown trout or any critters had the courage to venture out into the ugly weather. Nope...they're still lying low. Didn't even see a single wildflower. Looks like it's gonna be at least another week or so before we get a break in the weather. So I'm spending my down time charging batteries and getting my gear set for a possible short trip in May, depending on the weather. Bad weather never seems to bother the bears, though. So I hope you're being blessed with lots of photo ops. Be sure to post some pix if you get some good shots. And thanks again for the report.

Re: Brief Park Update

Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2019 7:50 pm
by Dubh
Thanks Mike, we have just arrived and did a quick drive through on our way up from Tetons, wildlife in Tetons was awesome, this is our earliest trip ever so excited to see what Yellowstone will reveal!

Re: Brief Park Update

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2019 10:17 pm
by Dorothy
What a great report! Thanks so much. My sis and I are heading to the park in a couple of weeks and can't wait -- your report just whetted our appetites even more. Again, thanks for posting!

Re: Brief Park Update

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2019 7:29 pm
by Mike
Monday was a beautiful day with clear skies and temps 60 degrees, not much in the way of wildlife,Lamar Valley still empty on the river bottom as grazers sticking to the hillsides and Little America.Lots of elk moving in from Paradise Valley and more deer than I think I have ever seen in the park.Today cloudy and cooler,moose at pebble more action with lone black wolf and grizzly sow and cub at Mid Point and one off of Dorthy's. First red dog today,could not be older than a day or two. More report in two days or so

Re: Brief Park Update

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2019 9:12 pm
by billandkaren
Thanks for the report, Mike. Keep the wildlife around until we can get there in a couple weeks ;)

Bill

Re: Brief Park Update

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 1:03 pm
by Mike
Left the park yesterday,weather had been alternating between sunny and about 59 degrees then cloudy and 50 degree till Saturday morning when we woke up to about 2" of snow on the ground and temperatures that only reached 29 for a high and about 15 for the lows,the real problem was the the high winds that were blowing at 30 mph consistently.Icy roads,rocks and downed trees made the drive over Hellroaring slow going.

As for the wildlife they didn't seem to mind the bad weather,the bison are now gathering down in the Lamar Valley,still only saw less than 10 red dogs over the 12 days in the park.Lots of antelope,elk starting to fill area from Rye Pond eastward but still lots of elk,antelope,and deer still in the south end of the Paradise Valley.Some wolf activity at Blacktail Nature Trail looking way out toward the plateau,Wapati perhaps ? and some people were looking from same area but toward the river,I think the 8 Mile pack were down there.Wolf viewing from the Hellroaring Overlook was dead the whole trip.The only wolf action was the den site where a young bison was taken down on Friday night right along the Slough Creek road where the large gravel pile is with one or two wolves at a time coming in to feed or when the wolves wanted to chase off the grizzlies that had come to feed.The only other wolf sighting was the lone black at Mid Point that was bedded down on Thursday before heading off north toward Round Prairie.

What was plentiful was moose with many seen usually in groups of 2 to 4 from the Confluence all the way up to the Soda Creek Bridge.Bears are what I like viewing and there was no shortage of sightings,the grizz sow with the one year old cub finally came down from the "fingers" at Mid Point and crossed the road between Soda Butte and Trout Lake with some good viewing on both Saturday and Sunday.Other grizz sightings were a big boar across Round Prairie,Specimen Ridge,and Slough Creek on some winter kills and the wolf kills.Black bears were out at the Picnic area,black sow with cinnamon cub,sub adult cinnamon.possibly the same at both ends of the Yellowstone Bridge,black sow with two COY one mile west of Hellroaring,boar at Elk Creek,Phantom Lake,Roosevelt,another sow with cubs up the Tower road I was told.People also told me about the Grizz sow at Nymph Lake but was reported (by folks not familiar with the park)as at Roaring Mountain or Twin Lakes but I think it was the same sightings.

Overall was a great trip,most of the best wildlife viewing was all in the last four days so for anyone headed up soon you will be getting some good sightings just be prepard for some rough weather which really is not that bad if the wind would stop blowing becuase the wind chill factor was just above or just below zero,not very comfortable to be in even with the right clothing.

Photos when I get back to California and I can write up a proper trip report.

Have fun and be safe

Re: Brief Park Update

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 2:27 pm
by timv
Thanks for the report Mike. I had the option to stay a bit longer bit glad I headed south when I did. It was crazy how those antelope suddenly appeared enmass all over the park. Sometimes in herds and others just sprinkled singly all of the meadows and hills, but all visible on the same day. We noticed it happened on that Saturday that was a free day of entry into the park so we were joking maybe the NPS was not paying those Antelope enough....they had to enter the park on the free day.

Look forward to seeing your pictures from the action at the Slough carcass.

tv

Re: Brief Park Update

Posted: Sun May 05, 2019 9:54 pm
by Denise
Great report, thanks!! Getting so excited for my trip in 3 weeks!