The Fourth of July in Yellowstone

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

By Brooke Williams

Although we worried about the Fourth of July crowds, our decision to make a family trip to Yellowstone last weekend was a good one - for both obvious and less obvious reasons.

Our plan was to see wolves in the Lamar Valley.
What I did not plan was the wild spectacle of dragonflies in the Norris Geyser Basin on a hot afternoon.

Since Terry and I have been making regular trips to the Lamar Valley, we were confident we would see wolves if we could find the large group of official ‘wolf watchers’ at any one of the turnouts between Slough Creek and Pebble Creek.
 Last Friday afternoon, the Lamar Valley was greener than we’ve ever seen it, and the perfect number of clouds filtered the falling sun, creating two hours of the most memorable moments I can remember.

We’d driven for half an hour and had made a few stops when we came to a turnout where dozens of pickup trucks, rental cars and SUVs were parked two and three deep. More than a hundred people representing three generations were scanning the landscape on both sides of the road through binoculars or tripod mounted spotting scopes. Some held radios or antennas to track the wolves wearing radio collars. The vehicles owned by the most serious among them had license plates from various states personalized with the name of their favorite pack or individual wolf and some of them had a stuffed toy wolf sitting on their dashboard.

These official wolf watchers were very accommodating - sharing not only any information they had, but also views through their $1,000 spotting scopes when the huge coal-black male (#302) appeared in the distance, looking for the best place to cross the road with food for his young. He was joined by a lighter female, and we watched them both for an hour before deciding to head back to Roosevelt. We hit the jackpot when a huge but lanky young wolf crossed the road 10 yards in front of us, stopping for a few seconds as if to make sure we knew who it was we were looking at.

Just past dawn the next morning, as we were driving east commenting on the fact that nothing could match the experience of seeing that young wolf that close, we came around a corner and saw two completely oblivious black bears mating 10 yards off of the road. We watched with a dozen other cars for 20 minutes. We saw sandhill cranes, a hawk we couldn’t identify, a moose in a small pond, pronghorn antelope and a faraway grizzly, but no more wolves. Our next stop was the Norris Geyser Basin.

Not long after we started along the boardwalk, I noticed a small pool across the trail from the Puff and Stuff Geyser filled with a plant I didn’t recognize. Dragonflies by the dozens swooped among the plants. I picked out at least four different species and noted their characteristics. I’m not sure how many people walked by without stopping, even though I was looking at the dragonflies through my binoculars, which I would have happily shared. I stayed a long time in the heat by myself, dragonflies swirling around me, thinking about wildness, and hoping never to miss the real point.
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The Fourth of July in Yellowstone | Planet JH News Article: Left Wing Local

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