Day One

We will be camping at Slough Creek campground in Northeast Yellowstone National Park twice during this trip. On our trip to this area last year, we were scheduled to camp here but a week or two before our scheduled arrival, we learned Yellowstone had closed almost all campgrounds in the park, including Slough Creek. So, to say we were excited to finally arrive at Slough Creek is an understatement.

We spent only two nights at Slough Creek during this first visit. We wanted to spend at least a week here, but as I think we mentioned previously, the park service has put the campground on the “reservations required” list. As we were soon to discovered the campground is extremely popular, particularly with the “locals” in the surrounding area. Several things make up its desirability. First, fishing is reported to be quite good; second, the area is secluded and away from the more popular parts of Yellowstone; and thirdly, it has only 16 campsites, making it far less crowded as compared to most of the other campgrounds in Yellowstone.

Upon arriving at Slough Creek, we discovered the area had another big attraction: Wolves! It seems a fairly large pack of wolves have decided to establish their den not too far from the campground in 2012. This was exciting for us because on previous trips to Yellowstone we enjoyed finding where the wolves congregated and then watching (from afar of course) their activity.

The first morning after our arrival, we were up early and at the sighting area at 6:00a. We discovered this was not early enough! When we arrived, there must have been at least 50 people already in the area. This would soon mushroom to more than 100.

So what is it that fascinates many in the human species with wolves? They prowess? Their sense of community and organization? Their elusiveness? Their ruthlessness? Their danger of extinction (at least in the continental US)? Whatever it is, we loved watching the watchers almost as much as watching the wolves.

Let me continue to set the scene for this morning. To begin with, one cannot see the wolves without some form of magnification. But in the quietness of the early morning, one can hear their soulful howls.

Also, the area where the wolves reside is definitely off-limits to humans. We, humans, were located on one side of a beautiful valley and the wolves had their den on the other side, well over one mile away. Almost everyone at the site had powerful spotting scopes. A few of us had cameras with long telephoto lenses.

A sense of comradery soon develops. When a wolf is spotted, its locating is rapidly passed from one person to another. All spotting scopes and/or cameras are immediately focused on the location! Many of the spotters come every day during the season, most amateurs like us, and but a few professional guides as well as individuals who publish books on the Yellowstone wolves. The park service maintains a program of tagging wolves in order to track location as well as observing their health. Many of the older wolves are given names.

Lastly, a few words about my camera and lens. Both are ok, but by no means high-end pieces of equipment. The lens I use for something like this quite heavy, requiring a tripod for stability. Because of its magnification, it is hard to achieve what we call in photography a “tack sharp image”. Additionally, as magnification increases “grainy-ness” becomes a factor, also reducing the sharpness of the image. I mention this because the following photographs exhibit these issues. Much more expensive cameras and lenses can provide sharper images, but at a cost of many thousands of dollars.

Day Two

Realizing we were somewhat late in arriving at the wolf observation site yesterday (at 6:00a), we got there at 5:00a today. There were at least 25 people already there!

Having had an outstanding day of observation yesterday, we tried to dampen our expectations for today. Setting up our equipment at the same site, we noticed everyone was going to sites a few hundred yards away from us. We wondered if they know something we didn’t and thought about moving. Fortunately, we did not.

There was no activity on the kill site, as most, if not all the carcass was gone. We then heard some talk about activity at their den. Our first photograph paid off!

This wolf chart is now updated and published every year (this one is dated May 3, 2021). The chart identifies the various wolf packs in the park and their location. It also identifies most of the adult wolves in each pack. As you can see, some of the wolves have also been tagged. The wolf pack we are observing is known as the Junction Butte Pack.

There is an abundance of information about the Yellowstone Wolves on this chart. One piece of information (for you genealogists) is you can follow their genealogy on Ancestry.com!

Upon studying the chart, we were saddened to see the pack we observed a number of years ago (in another part of Lamar Valley) no longer exists. It seems the alpha female roamed outside the park and was subsequently killed. The remaining wolves in the pack dispersed, some joining other packs and some becoming the proverbial lone wolf.

Back at Camp

So what was happening while at the campground during these two days?

As we close this posting, one last story. Upon arriving at the campsite, the camp host said when they arrived in early June, a number of badgers had taken over the site. Now you may not know, but badgers are one of the meanest, fiercest, animals alive (particularly for their size.) This was causing the park rangers some consternation. However, all the badgers soon left. After they left, the camp hosts noticed the lack of ground squirrels. Seems the badgers had depleted the local supply and moved on.