August 22, 2014

It's still chilly and rainy. I decided to put off fishing until it clears up. The Lamar River is all muddy and is muddying the Yellowstone downstream from the confluence. The small streams are all swollen.

This morning I went out to Slough Creek and saw 6 members of the Junction Butte wolf pack. They were over a mile away, so there wasn't any chance for photos.

Then, in the afternoon I went down to the Hayden Valley to see if there were still bears on the bison carcass. There were. There were 2 grizzlies and, after they left, several more came up. At one point, 5 adult grizzlies came around a hill into view together.

During a lull in the activity, the rangers went down to the carcass to see the condition. They said it was almost gone. This was after 2 days.

Lots of people were coming and going and I was getting them to see the bears through the scope. One college age girl from Baltimore had told her friend that she really wanted to see a bear, but didn't want to get her hopes up. She got to see 4 and was so happy she was crying. The day before I had told the man from Victoria where he might see wolves – his daughter really wanted to see wolves – and they came back and said that they had seen them right where I said to go.

I didn't get back to camp until around 9:00pm.

It was a good day even if I didn't get to go fishing yet. It's supposed to clear up Monday or Tuesday, so I'll wait until then.