FISH CATCHING TRAVEL
The Wade Right Fishing Belt
Brought to you by
The Best Wading System on the Planet.
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“There is something in the wild romantic scenery of this valley that I cannot nor will I, attempt to describe…..but as I am neither Poet, Painter or Romance writer I must content myself to be what I am a humble journalist…………”
Journal of a Trapper, Osborne Russell 1834 – 1844.
As I read his book this passage could not have said it any better. For me, a moment in time glassing across a valley led to the number 1 outdoor experience of my life. We were set up on a viewing area watching not only a bison kill but a den. There were pups and mom was in and out during the morning. The pack was also hanging around and all was right with the world.
My eye was glued to the spotting scope as the grey Alpha female came out of the den and the black wolf, who had been laying close, both stood up together and began to move downhill. There was a slash of sage grass in front of the den and as they approached it the rest of the pack stood up and then the unthinkable happened – an attack.
The whole pack jumped the Alpha females sister, who was the Alpha of the pack last year, and began to tear her up. Initially others who were watching thought it was play, but having seen coyotes do basically the same thing it was pretty clear what was happening. Their tails were straight up in the air, not wagging, and they were so aggressive. The attack did not last long, a minute maybe (?), and her sister was left with a bloody rump and a pretty ugly looking injury to her belly, all visible in the spotting scopes.
Once she succeeded in getting away she stood there and began to howl. She just wailed over and over to the pack, but no answer, and none approached her. We learned later a spotter from the Wolf Project was also glassing and taking dictation on the behavior reported another attack later. Other folks found the scene hard to watch, the pros we were with said this was a rare happening. I found it compelling, fascinating, and beautiful. This trip is not the zoo, life and death is played out every minute of every day and I will never forget what I saw that morning.
Wolves
(Thanks to the shared photos from our group. Many were taken through a spotting scope with an iPhone attachement.)
There are somewhere between 60 – 80 wolves in the park, many are GPS collared. We were fortunate enough to see wolves everyday. And a word on optics, a GOOD spotting scope was an absolute. These folks know where the dens are, where the wolves and other critters hang out, and once spotted you could see the individual marks setting each apart. I also had the good fortune to be watching a bear in one scope, and a couple of wolves feeding on the bison kill. As the grizzly ambled down the slope to the kill I was thinking, oh my, there is a bear. Until he walked up to the kill, ran the wolves off, and climbed on top of the bison. That was no bear, that was a freakin’ giant! Boy are they big.
One wolf who had been trying to jerk a back leg off the bison laid down and watched the bear eat. Meanwhile ravens and eagles are all trying to get a bite. Then the wolf got up, walked behind the bear and gave it a nip on the ass, grabbed a big hunk and took off like a bat out of hell to the den. The pack attack and the bear/wolf confrontation made my trip, but there was so much more.
Normally I try to get stuff up as soon was we get back home from a trip, but due to the airplane turning around in mid air and heading back to Denver we were a day late, and I took off for Louisiana. But even if I did my words can not describe how great this trip was. And I really learned one thing, along with lots more, go with the pros. And thanks to the Boss and her dogged research we hit a homer. So here is a completely unsolicited ad – Yellow Stone Tracker is the freakin’ bomb and if you go with anyone else you are nuts. Could I say it any more clearly?
https://www.wolftracker.com/about-yellowstone-wolf-guides.php
Owned and run by Nathan Varley and Linda Thurston, they are the real deal. I think they know more about wolves than I do about fishing and have the chops to back it up. They are personable folks who have been there from the beginning, playing an important and active part with the introduction of the wolf to Yellowstone and have been studying them every since. Suffice to say they have the education to back it up, which was critical to our trip. Nice to see stuff, but more important to know why. And the guides with our group, Jeremy, Nolan, and Taylor were great. Jeremy is also employed with the Wolf Tracking Project, a public funded wolf research institute in Yellowstone, and is involved in monitoring and the capture and tagging of wolves. Nolan has lived there his whole life and knows the park like the back of his hand. Their knowledge usually put us where, and when, we needed to be. So check out their site it says it way better than I can.
Bears
We saw this guy on the way in the last afternoon. Basically filling his belly with grass, over 75% of their diet is grass. (Be advised any stats included in this report are from memory, so they should be close but are not gospel.) He stood up once and gave us good view of how tall they are on their hind legs.
The big picture above through a spotting scope. These with my camera from over a mile away.
So besides the big guy above we saw the other grizzly on the kill, and one morning we saw a sow and what was probably her 1 year old cub. We also got this bonus bear one morning on the way to the den. Bears are just plain cool. And with around 600 grizzlies in the park there is always a chance to see some.
A cinnamon black bear.
Big Horn Sheep
This may be a funny thing to say but I damn near cried when we saw our first Bighorn Sheep. I have seen the roadside signs in tons of states, driven through miles of mountains, and it just has not happened. I was beginning to think they were Bigfoot. Then driving in here is a bunch of rams eating fresh green grass at roadside, and my trip was complete.
Shedding that big winter coat, feeding on new growth getting ready to head to the top!
We saw these girls a couple of mornings in the park.
Luckily these were not all we saw. Fortunately we saw a couple of different full curl rams on mountainsides. They are such majestic animals and a big ram is nothing but a hoss! Watching the guides spot animals was like fishing with a bonefish guide on the flats, amazing what they would spot. After a while it was just a matter of believing your eyes.
Elk
Really not much to say about elk other than there is a couple in the park and the surrounding land. Like somewhere around 6,000 in the park and that many roaming around close.
They were not calving like the bison so we saw no calves but they were all over the park. They are one of the primary food sources for the wolves and the other meat eaters roaming the park. As they had also shed their antlers a few had nubs as the new growth was coming, and a couple of spikes still had last years. The population like the wolf is constantly monitored.
Bison
A majestic animal.
There are lots of bison in the park, if memory serves me correct 6 – 7,000. It did surprise me how high up we saw some of them. They are big and when they cross the road they have the legal, but more importantly the actual, right of way. They are big. I was reminded of the big trees in the last Lord of the Rings. Old, wise, steady, they are impressive in many ways.
Lots of them and we saw plenty of babies as they were actively calving.
You don’t get close, but they do just come strolling by.
Moutain Goat
No pictures but we spotted some on the final day and what a cool animal. High up on the craggiest stuff they can find once you spotted one they stood out like a sore thumb. A long white coat, big beard, and small horns, you can not tell females from males. This was definitely one of my favorite spots.
Other Stuff
A coyote slipping past us.
Prior to the introduction of the wolf Yellowstone had thousands of coyotes. Over the years the wolves dominated but there is still a good population around and we saw 3 on our trip.
Not a lot of moose but we managed to see these.
Many more antelope than I would have thought, some way up on the mountains.
Marmots – A funny little guy cross between a ground hot and something else.
And for you birders we saw bald and golden eagles, ospreys, several types of owls, bluebirds, swans, ducks, and a host of others. In fact the Boss had a big Great Horned owl swoop down right next to her and take a screaming mouse to the nest. Like I said, it is tough out there. Just the bird life alone would satisfy any birder.
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Our group of hardy adventurers.
This does not even begin to do the trip justice. Ours was a 4 day trip and after you landed at the airport they took care of us. Motel, food, speakers every day, all handled like the pros they are. This type of trip is only available outside of the busy summer season, when they only run day trips. In fact trips in the time period we went are already booked for next year. If you want to see how others feel about them look at TripAdvisor, a first class operation. This was a bucket list trip for the Boss and it exceeded her expectations. The only downside for us folks who tend to be a little lazy in the morning was the 5:30 am start, which obviously is important for viewing. We had snow, light rain, cold, sunny, you name it was had it all, sometimes all in the same day. Would I do it again – In a minute! So a big thanks to the folks, memories we will cherish for a lifetime.
Good Luck and Tight Lines
(This is not my best work by far but I hope it conveyed how cool it was and how great the folks were. And this monster cold hasn’t helped anything. So now I am caught up, so to speak, and it will be back to the fishing. So if I have missed you sorry. We will be out of town again this week, I am about traveled out, but promises to your grand baby can not be broken. Keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.)
