We got up, showered and packed the car for another day in the park. It was a little nippy but the sun was shining. The temperature was 13 degrees and the wind was blowing. We decided to go to the Mammoth Hotel Dining Room for Sunday Brunch. Since it was a much nicer day than yesterday we wanted to do the Upper Terrace Loop before going to the Lamar. We left the hotel and headed to the park. We saw two spike bull elk and a deer near the Xanterra building.

After we entered the park we saw a bald eagle on a snag just before the Sheep Management Area. Deb commented that we had not seen any sheep for a few days. Just then she noticed a bighorn sheep silhouetted against the sky at the top of the mountain. Another moved up to the ridge. A little bit further down the road we saw three more sheep just below the ridge. When we stopped to take some pictures we saw two more sheep much lower on the hill.

There were a number of herds of bison and elk between McMinn Bench and Mammoth. There was a nice sized herd of bison at Boiling River. We stopped at the Mammoth Hotel Dining Room for Sunday Brunch. After breakfast we headed to the Upper Terrace Loop. Deb checked the conditions and found that the trail was extremely icy. We decided that this would not be the best time to do the loop and headed out to the Lamar.

We saw a few elk and a solitary bison as we left the Terraces area. We saw a few bison in the Wraith Falls area, but we did not see any elk. a number of bison herds were scattered between Wraith Falls and Frog Rock. The roads were in very good condition with only a few small areas of ice. No one was looking for wolves at either Elk Creek overlook. We stopped at Tower Junction to look for the Agates but did not see any.

We saw a few bison and elk in Little America. There were a number of bison herds throughout the Lamar Valley. We saw a coyote walking past a bison herd just before the Buffalo Ranch, and another one near Midway pullout. Several cars were parked at Trash Can and a lot of people were up on the hill looking towards the rendezvous area. The Druids were bedded down so we did not stay. We did not see the rams at the confluence.

We went to Barronette Peak to look for goats. We did not see any. On the way back to the Lamar we noticed a lot of cars in Round Prairie. Several people were watching a kill site but the only things on the kill were some ravens. We went back to Trash Can and as we were pulling in, the Druids got up and started running westward along the Lamar River. We watched them for a short time and decided to go to Dorothy’s Knoll in order to get a better viewing area.

Vincent was at Dorothy’s Knoll and he was watching everything from that vantage point. There are three stands of cottonwood trees out from the Buffalo Ranch. The Druids passed the first stand, but showed some interest in the second stand. They finally stopped at the third stand and we determined they had a kill there from the large number of ravens that flew off as the Druids arrived. We decided that I should go back to the Buffalo Ranch to determine whether that was a better vantage point. Deb and Vincent waited at Dorothy’s Knoll.

It turned out that the area at the Buffalo Ranch presented a much better view of the Druids. I radioed Deb and Vincent and told them to come down. The Druids worked on the carcass for a while and then played as only wolves will play. There were two eagles, a golden eagle and a bald eagle, in the trees near the carcass. Soon the alphas tried several times to mate. They were unsuccessful but that did not stop them. MDMatt joined us at the Buffalo Ranch. We watched the wolves for over an hour and then went to Hitching Post.

We turned around and were going back to the Buffalo Ranch when we saw Ballpark Frank. He said there were wolves at the Round Prairie kill and they were howling. Vincent and MDMatt came up right behind Frank so we told them about the Round Prairie wolves. Deb and I reversed direction again and headed out to Round Prairie. When we arrived we discovered that the wolves were there earlier but had bedded down in the tree line and were no longer visible. We waited for a while and then decided to call it a day and go back to the hotel.

We came around the curve west of the confluence and saw the bighorn rams halfway up the slope. They had moved there to get out of the wind. We met John Uhler at the last turnout before the Buffalo Ranch. He was watching the Druids but they were not doing much of anything. They were bedded down and occasionally 480 would attempt to mate with 286 but they were unsuccessful. We did not stay to watch the wolves.

As we came out of the Lamar River Canyon, about 15 bison were walking in the road ahead of us. We waited for them to leave the road. We saw another bald eagle flying over the road past the Lamar River Bridge. There was a rainbow ring around the sun. A lot more bison and elk had moved into the Blacktail Ponds area. The bison were on the slopes and the elk were lower down. The bull elk had returned to the Wraith Falls area. We saw lots of elk as we traveled down from Mammoth to Gardiner.

We went back to our room and started packing as we would be leaving tomorrow for Bozeman. This was our last full day in the park.