Unit 6 – The Lamar Valley-Mirror Plateau Wilderness
With over 430,000 acres inside Yellowstone Park which adjoins another 520,000 acres of wilderness in Wyoming’s Shoshone National Forest, the Lamar Valley-Mirror Plateau Wilderness is one of the largest in Yellowstone. The wilderness is bordered by the Northeast Entrance road, the Tower-to-Lake section of the Park’s loop roads and the East Entrance road. The National Park Service currently recommends over 424,000 acres of this area be formally designated wilderness. In addition to the upper Lamar River Valley and deep forest of the Mirror Plateau, the area contains the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, a section of the mighty Absaroka Mountains and beautiful Pelican Valley. This is wild Yellowstone at its finest.
It was in this area, on a late April evening, that I first heard wolves howl in Yellowstone. This most exquisite of nature’s melodies came unexpectedly out of the night while I was camped at the confluence of Cache Creek and the Lamar River. I could have listened to the sound all night, but the wolves used their music sparingly, leaving the crowd, wherever they might have been, wanting more.
Hiking out the next day I noticed how the elk behaved differently from the Park’s dull, unafraid roadside elk. These beasts could not afford to be slovenly, for there were wolves about. These elk wouldn’t even let a lone hiker within 100 yards of them. Led by the bulls, they maneuvered around the valley in tight-knit, almost militaristic bands, instinctively back on alert after generations of wolf-free conditions. Any weak or diseased animals had long ago become prey. They were a beautiful sight, much more beautiful than the elk blocking the Park’s traffic, without a care in the world.
Gradually that day I realized that this was the way elk should behave in the wild. And it dawned on me that this ecosystem, and especially the small part I experienced that day, was now in balance. The predators and the prey were all doing their thing, naturally.
The sound of the wolves gave me renewed hope for the Yellowstone area and, indeed, hope for all mankind. It symbolized how we can correct past mistakes and invest in our future. During the long political battle fought to bring the wolves back, both sides definitely had their say. Since the wolf reintroduction, the states of Idaho, Montana and even Wyoming have shown that they can live with wolves, even if it is a difficult co-existence.
Yes, the sound itself was proof that democracy works. The howling of the wolves showed me we have a heart as well as a mind.
