Wednesday, Jan 15.  No idea how to dress for sub-freezing temperatures.  High stress. Departed at 6:30 for a 45 minute drive to our first stop, which became 75 minutes.  In search of wolves.  Got advice from one of the foremost experts on spotting wolves (I’d read one of his books), though we didn’t know it at the time.  He directed us to the best spot.  He pointed my spotter scope at the wolves in seconds.  We saw wolves playing around.  Just so cool.  About a mile away, but with spotting scopes they were close enough to watch.  Trouble was the cold.  First fingers, then toes.  Everything else was fine.  Guide estimated the temp at zero degrees.  My old frostbit digits agreed.

Also saw lots of bison, a mountain goat, coyote, etc.  Our tour guide/driver was full of knowledge. Really impressive.  My lunch choice was make-your-own PB&J from little containers.  The PB was frozen.  It was indoors, so no complaints.

Afternoon was an easy snowshoe hike up to the site of a wolvers’ den.  Several stops to talk about the history of wolves in Yellowstone.  I had already read about much of it, but nice to learn again.  Succeeded in not making an unintended snow angel, so no problems.  The cold was not as bad as in the morning.

Returned to Lodge.  Excellent gift shop.  Dinner was wild boar medallions.  Excellent, though $$$.  For the second night we had a server with no skills opening or pouring wine.  I wasn’t allowed to do it myself.  But on the plus side I wasn’t charged a corkage fee.

It was a beautiful, sunny day.  Incredible vistas.  But the cold was bothersome.  Camera would freeze up seconds after pulling it out of my pocket.  So few pictures.

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