Day 2 was probably the coldest day. Our guide, Chad, explained it as follows: the sun comes up and warms the tips of the mountains, the warm air displaces the cold air, pushing it down in to the valley, where it specifically aims for our toes.

So we go out, and almost immediately, find wolves. Just behold the unbridled savagery of this one:

The biologists have named her 812D, but I've named her Zoey.

If you look at the one on the right, laying down. She's the alpha female of the pack, and she is pure white. The red is because she was shoulder deep in a carcass earlier in the day.

We did encounter a second pack later that morning, however since the pictures are taken through spotting scopes (the one above is at 60x zoom), I generally didn't take any. It was mostly just watching and enjoying them.

Let's talk about that carcass.

While there's no definite evidence, it might have been the one that was here:

The actual carcass was a short distance to the right - some rangers had dragged it further in to the park (which is how we spotted it: they were dragging it), so that animals would feel safer feeding from it, away from the road.

Let's keep an eye on that carcass, and see if anything else turns up.

I mean, yes. It flew past. But that's.. that's not what we're here for.

Look who showed up while we weren't paying attention! Coyotes!

The first one gets breakfast. Can we also stop to acknowledge that the birds are shoulder height to a coyote?

The second one gets breakfast.

And they both run off to enjoy it / hide it from the birds.

I think day 2 is going to be a two parter, because I have a plane to catch. Let's see what happens later. I haven't even gotten to the buffalo, the collapsed path, Chad, the stop sign, or the other buffalo.