My Everyday Photos

Of all the wildlife in Yellowstone, the wolves attract the most attention. There are people that live near the park who go out every single day to watch for wolves with spotting scopes, binoculars and cameras in hand. Most of the those people are incredibly friendly and ready to help tourists like us to find wolves and see them through the spotting scopes. They know wolves by name or number and they know the packs and which ones we might expect to see. Additionally, the National Park Service and Yellowstone Forever have a Wolf Project that started the week we were there and will continue through the month of March. These researchers were also happy to share any info they had about the wolves and other wildlife. We learned a lot while we were there. We also got a healthy dose of patience waiting to see the famous Lamar pack. These animals’ ancestry can be traced back to the original re-introduction in 1995 and 1996.

We were thrilled to see wolves hunting, eating, resting, playing and moving across the landscape. Overall we saw four different packs and three wolves from a not yet identified pack. Most of the sightings were through a spotting scope on distant hillsides. The Lamar pack had a carcass across a meadow, estimated at 300-400 yards away from the roadside where we waited to see them for hours. At last, near dusk when many of the wolf-watchers had left, they emerged to eat for a while before melting back into the woods.

The carcass was down in a draw, out of sight in front of the evergreen trees

This is a digiscoped image – the photo was made with a cell phone looking through a scope.