As we left Gardiner this morning and entered the park, Mike told us a little about the history of the wolves in Yellowstone. Our top priority for the morning was to try and spot some wolves. At first, it started out slow but it got interesting! Doug McLaughlin, a wolf connoisseur, was driving throughout Lamar Valley trying to locate the wolves of the 8 Mile Pack. During this time, we were looking for wolves ourselves. We met Doug on the road in the Lamar Valley and quickly turned around to follow him. This turned out to be somewhat of a wild goose chase for a little while, but we heard that he was anticipating the 8 Mile Pack’s arrival within the valley. We saw Doug parked on the side of the road, so we joined, and we accumulated a curious crowd. We waited for around a half-hour but did not see any wolves. Doug spoke to us about the wolves, mainly 06, as she was an extraordinary wolf. He then told us to keep doing what we love, and to find our passion in life. When we were wrapping things up, Doug got a radio call saying that the Junction Butte Pack was spotted near Slough Creek. We all packed up and hurried over! We got to see three wolves through the spotting scopes, two black and one gray. The wolves were about two miles away. It was a short viewing as they ran over the ridge, but exciting!

We went and had lunch, followed by a hike near Pebble Creek. Here we viewed bison and got to see an old wolf kill site of an elk. Once everyone finished looking at the elk carcass and antlers, we made our way towards pika habitat. All along the sidehill among the scree, we could hear the “meep” call of the pika. Two were spotted, but unfortunately, I did not get to see one! To finish up the day, our tour guide Mike read us an essay written by Aldo Leopold. It was inspiring and gave a great perspective on why wolves are important to the ecosystem. There’s no such thing as a boring day in Yellowstone!