10/28/2025
The first time I saw a wolf, close up in Yellowstone, was just a short distance upriver from this location and it was the most memorable, surreal moment in seeing wildlife that I have ever experienced. Because, you see, I wasn't chasing wolves and had no clue where they were. I was brand new to Yellowstone, having only had a few very short visits before then, and had not yet moved to Gardiner. I was just wandering around the southern portion of Yellowstone, kind of lost in the awe that I felt.
A coyote was mousing in the Mud Volcano flats meadow, in beautiful morning light. A touch of frost lingered on the tips of the gold grasses. I got my best coyote shot ever, even 13 years later I've never achieved better. In the distance, some elk ran down the hill and into the Yellowstone river. It looked like more were following. I didn't know anything about Nez Perce picnic area and the gravel road that led back to the river but followed another photographer who was going back there to capture the elk crossing the river.
When I pulled in, facing the river, the scene stunned me. The random nature of being there at that moment, so clueless and so wide open. Three elk ran down the hill into the river, followed by 3 wolves, a white, and 2 blacks. I did not know these wolves or that they were some of the most famous in the park. The wolves ran down the hill and stopped at the river's edge.
Shaking, I took a few photos while trying to grab for my tripod. I took a few more and then followed a few people down to the river's edge. The elk stood still in the middle of the river. The wolves watched them. The wolves looked at us and they looked at the elk. The wolves yawned and laid down.
I didn't know what to think, what to say or what to do. My camera equipment was not very good, my lens didn't have a far reach. I clicked away. The wolves leisurely got up and one by one they wandered back up the hill and were gone.
From this experience, one might think that wolf sightings were a dime a dozen in Yellowstone. But, I soon learned how random and special each moment was. I don't expect a wolf to do anything, they appear or they do not - they wander free on the Yellowstone landscape expect for those time when they must navigate their course according to the location of visitors along the road.
So, 13 years, almost to the date, descendants from the Canyon alphas, the White Lady and 712, fed on an elk carcass a few hundred yards away from when I saw my first close wolves.
