We got up early this morning, but not as early as we wanted. It was sunny but cold, a perfect day to be in the Lamar Valley. There were low wispy clouds on Sepulcher and Electric Peaks. We had breakfast and headed out to the park, but we had to stop for gas first. We saw the usual complement of bison, deer and elk as we headed for McMinn Bench. We stopped to better observe some black dots on the horizon at McMinn Bench. The black dots were a large herd of elk and at least 5 sheep. There were several ‘lumps’ that were probably sheep. Then Deb noticed another ‘sheep’ silhouetted on a hill across the road. The ‘sheep’ turned out to be a coyote. He was just standing and then sat down. It was a very striking pose but we did not get any pictures. Note to self: Wake up before going into Yellowstone! This was a great start for what promised to be a great day in Yellowstone.

We headed on to the Mammoth Hotel to get our tickets for tomorrow’s snow coach ride to the interior. We planned to wave to the Mammoth web cam. There were several elk and bison herds on the way, but nothing spectacular. We arrived at the hotel and Deb went in to get our tickets. She came out without any tickets. Mammoth had a power outage and they were unable to print the tickets. They told us to come back later after the power was restored. Since the power was out we assumed the web cam would not be working so we headed out to the elk carcass near Floating Island Lake.

There were no elk near Wraith Falls and only a few bison herds in the Black Tail Ponds area. We were following a three-coach Karst Stage tour. They were going very slow and finally stopped in the middle of the road at the Black Tail Ponds trailhead. They did not move off the road so a number of cars had to pass all three coaches. There were several additional divots between the Black Tail Ponds trailhead and the Children’s Fire Trail besides the one we witnessed yesterday. The road was very icy last night. We arrived at the elk carcass and saw a lot of wolf sign around it including numerous wolf tracks along the road. The carcass did not appear to have been disturbed, however.

We headed out towards Slough Creek to see whether we could find any of the Slough Creek wolves. We saw Rick McIntyre at Wrecker pullout, but he was alone. There were no wolves in the vicinity. Several bison herds were hanging around in Little America but not as many as yesterday. When we got to Slough Creek, the parking lot was full but no one was around. We could not find any wolves and since no one was there we assumed the wolves moved.

We stopped at the end of the Lamar Canyon to look over the valley. Deb commented how great it was to see this amount of snow in the valley. We took some pictures to compare with earlier visits. We went to the Confluence for lunch. On the way we saw very few bison or elk herds. We did not see any coyotes. What started out as a great day in Yellowstone was now not looking very promising. After lunch we stopped at Hitching Post to see whether the sheep were still around. Both rams were in the same area as yesterday. When Deb got back in the car she said it was snowing. Can you imagine that, it is winter and is snowing in Yellowstone?

We went to Round Prairie to see what was up with the Druids. There were a number of people there but we were unable to find a place to park. Someone had gone off the road across from the parking area so we decided it would be better to come back later. We went to Barronette Peak and looked for goats. We could not find any. We then started back to Round Prairie. We stopped at several of the pullouts between Barronette and Round Prairie to look for sheep or goats. We did not see any. We could not find any bison or elk in this area. What happened to all the animals?

When we got to Round Prairie again we were able to find a spot to park. We talked to some of the wolf people there and they told us they had not seen the Druids. In fact no one had seen any wolves today. They were waiting here because this was the last place anyone saw the Druids and they were hoping they would come back. Rick McIntyre stopped by and picked up a very weak signal. So much for finding any wolves today.

We left Round Prairie and continued toward the Lamar Valley. We stopped at Midway and saw coyote that looked like he was going to start mousing. Instead he trotted a little ways to the west and sat down. He howled and then started barking. We watched him for a while and then continued on the Buffalo Ranch. There were a lot of people, in groups of two, looking for something in the snow. Several new classes started at the Yellowstone Institute today and this must have been their first assignment.

We stopped at Slough Creek but no one was there so we did not stay. We started back to Mammoth. We saw the usual complement of bison and elk between Slough Creek and the Black Tail Ponds trailhead. We found the large bull elk in the draw near the trailhead. They were seeking shelter from the wind and were feeding on the willow in the area. When we approached the Wraith Fall trailhead we saw about 8 cars pulled off both sides of the road. It appeared that the Wraith Falls elk had returned. There was one bull elk and someone had pulled off the road to take pictures. Unfortunately for him there was no shoulder so his car was stuck in the snow. Since there were 8 other cars there and they had already hooked up a tow rope, we did not stop.

We looked for the elk that we had been seeing at Lava Creek but he was not there. He may have been the elk that was near Wraith Falls. We continued on to the Mammoth Hotel and Deb went in to get our snow coach tickets. When she came out she said that Steve Hinch was at the front desk. Steve used to be active several years ago but has not been around recently. I went into the hotel and we had a good reunion. Steve has moved from NC and is working full time for Xanterra.

We left Mammoth and headed back to our hotel. We did not see anything at McMinn Bench. We left the park but went into Gardiner via the road in the Xanterra area as there was a herd of bison crossing the street near the arch. Back at the hotel we saw five deer. They were all bucks and two were sparring. We watched for a while and then went into the hotel.

We finished packing for our trip into the interior and then had dinner. We set the alarm and called it a night.