Grizzlies and Wolves

A week or so ago Mogie and I traveled over to Yellowstone Natl Park for a couple of days.
Our goal was to look for any kind of game animals in the Lamar River Valley, that is in the northeast corner of the park. We stayed over night in a cabin at Pine Edge Cabins in Silvergate, MT, which is just one mile outside the NE park entrance. That put us about 20 minutes from the center of the best area for possibly seeing game.

On our way over, we got to the Lamar Ranger Station, which is also the location for the Yellowstone Institute where there are a myriad of courses during the summer season.
As we neared the area we spotted a number of cars on the side of the road and a ranger obviously directing traffic. We pulled up to ask what was going on. He told us that there was grizzly bear feeding on an elk carcass about 100 yards away. As we looked for a place to park, a car right by us pulled out so we pulled in and had 'front row' seating in the center of the line.
Sure enough, about 100 yards off the road we could see the brown back of a bear. Unfortunately, it was mostly hidden by some fairly tall sage brush. There was a wide variety of Optical equipment set up along the road with spotting scopes, binoculars and fancy cameras with long lenses.
We watched for quite awhile, and I shot a few photos trying to catch him when he raised up a bit. Some of the results are below. His size and his claws are something to behold.


Here is a Raven leaving the scene. No Scraps.

We were struck by the breadth of his head.

After leaving the Grizzly, we headed to our cabin in Silvergate, investigated Cooke City, where almost nothing was open yet (too early for the season) and picked up a frozen pizza for supper. After we consumed a half-cooked pizza, we went back to the Lamar to see what the evening might provide. Sunset is around 9 pm this time of year (mid-May) so we had some light left.
Believe it or not, not far from the previous sighting place, we saw a big grizzly wandering up the river bottom land, about a mile away. It seems reasonable that it was the same bear that we had seen earlier in the same area. He was too far away for pictures but with a spotting scope and good binoculars we could see him well. He gave us quite a show, too. As he wandered along, periodically, he would sit down on his rump, lean back, grab his hind foot toes with his front foot and rock back and forth. It was like he knew we were all up on the hill watching him and he was showing off. One lady said, 'He is doing is Pilates.' That was a real treat.

We headed back to the cabin for a good book and some sleep. Next day we headed out about 6 (and many others were well ahead of us.) On our way to the Lamar, we spotted a lone grey wolf, eating something on a gravel bar. He, too, was no more than 150 to 200 yards away and in full view. We were the only ones there. However, we could not get any pictures because there was no place to pull off the road to use the camera.

We drove about 10 miles and found a group of people watching for wolves at Slough Creek.
They had seen one adult and a cub before we got there, but we were out of luck.
As we left that area, Mogie spotted another grizzly on a far hill. He had a coyote hanging around, hoping for a free lunch.

We decided to go back to where we saw the first wolf. When we got there, several people were watching what was apparently another wolf that had been feeding at the same river bar.
We finally got a few good looks at him, quite a ways away, as he ran through the willows. He was a different wolf and was almost black.

All in all, it was a great visit and we are ready to go again.