This goofy heron was one of the few highlights of Day 2

Today was a tough, tough day.

We left a half hour earlier in order to get out to the Lamar at sunrise. Rumor had it that there was a carcass relatively close to the road that may have some action on it. We made it out fine, seeing a moose in the dark at Floating Island Lake and bypassing a mob of wolf watchers at Slough Creek.

Unfortunately, there was no action anywhere in the valley, and the carcass was waaaay out in the river.

Mildly disappointed, though not entirely surprised, we turned back to see what the hubub at Slough Creek was all about. Just a ways down the road from the parking lot/turnout, a bevy of scopers were set up looking out at the far hillside (the site of the Slough den a couple years ago before the Unknowns kicked 'em out).

We got to see fifteen wolves in one glance through the eyepiece, and some folks there said they counted as many as 19. I had never seen so many wolves together... it reminded me of Tim's captures of the 22 member Leopold Pack a few years back. That was pretty cool to see, along with the fact that there are a lot of dark/black wolves in the pack, which appeals to me for some reason.

The wolves weren't alone though. A bison made his way into their midst and started rolling in the dust, piquing the curiosity of some of the younger pack members. They approached the bison cautiously before backing to a safe distance. We noticed a pronounced limp on one of the wolves, which had an injured paw. It gave the bison a wide berth, but some of its brethren continued to approach the huge beast until it finally got fed up and started chasing them around the hill!

Eventually, the game got old, and the bison galloped down the hill away from the pack. Next, our attention was diverted by a huge grizzly bear that was ambling along down the hill from the wolves. He briefly started making his way toward them (to the point where we had both bear and wolves in the scope together), but quickly veered off on his own adventure. Oh, and to cap it all off, a couple of horses had apparently escaped from the corrall the night before, and were exploring a nearby ridgeline while all this was going on.

Great fun. No pictures. We worked our way back to Floating Island Lake, which ended up being our breakfast spot. Bart and Monique pulled up at this point, as did Dave and Sunny, who seem to know whenever we're eating. A quick bite and a quick chat, and then off we went again. Up to Tower, where a couple of sheep were resting in the exact same spot where Helene took her darling lamb photo. I snapped one pic, which was the first one in the four hours we'd been exploring.

The "action" was pretty much the same the rest of the day. Dunraven was abandoned and we made it down to Hayden, which was also empty except for bison. On the way back through the valley, we spotted a new Y-Net tag, this time being fortunate enough to meet GARY. He told us about some great moose action in the Tetons, making me wonder if I should get down there sooner.

I was quickly distracted by a heron down by the river. Seeing how we were down on our luck, I had to try to get a shot of something, even if it was likely that it would fly away before I even set up (as is usually the case). Fortunately, it didn't take off right away, and a couple shots turned out okay, including this humorous pose. Looks like it forgot to put on pants this morning.

We caught a hawk near the road on the way back toward Canyon, but we'd decided to try for the owl again, since we figured that might almost be easy to find compared to a lot of the other critters right now. We stopped at the pullouts, and ran into three more Y-Netters... Kevin, Laurie and Brian. Soon, Gary pulled up and it was one big convention. Kevin and Laurie had been in the woods shooting the owl, but indicated that it had disappeared, so our plans were foiled.

An alternate idea was formed when we listened to Kevin and Gary discuss some of the elk action down near Madison and West Yellowstone. Apparently, the elk carcass that we thought had been abandoned had attracted the grizzly family as recently as yesterday morning, and there were some other bull elk still in the vicinity with their harems.

After lunch we headed down to Madison, and found the carcass easily enough, but all was quiet except for ravens. Further along the Madison, we came across a bull with a decent-sized harem, but they were still trying to sleep their afternoon away.

This bull had already survived a battle to the death

That big long southern tour cost us a couple of bear jams near Hellroaring and Elk Creek, which were just clearing out as we arrived in the evening. Another fruitless search all the way up over Dunraven led us to give the Tower Road one more go. And hey, we saw a bear! Unfortunately, it was digging around down the hillside behind some deadfall and tall grass and refused to reveal itself. There was a Rosie resemblance, but just as we were speculating about that, Loren drove by to tell us that Rosie was down toward Petrified Tree.

So one final hop back in the car, and down to the tree we went. Empty. We wondered if Loren had perhaps meant that she was down there earlier, causing one of the two jams we missed. Regardless, it was getting dark, so Helene and Rene headed to Lake (where they're staying the next two nights) and I turned for Gardiner.

Over the hill, around the Elk Creek bend and boom! There was Rosie (no, I didn't hit her with the car). She was grazing contentedly, but it was too dark for decent photos... just enough light to spot the signature ear tags.

It was a difficult day, but that means things can only get better. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my Teton wildlife jinx has worn off... I'll be down there tomorrow afternoon, staying at Colter Bay for one night. Likely no trip reports until I return to Gardiner Sunday evening.