Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park

The Lamar Valley owes its broad, open floor to the glaciers that once filled this part of Yellowstone. As the ice advanced and retreated, it carved out a wide, flat bottomed valley and left behind rounded hills and scattered boulders dropped by the melting glaciers. The Lamar River now winds across the valley floor, feeding the grasslands that support so much life.

That open grassland is the key to the valley's wildlife. Unlike the forested plateaus that cover much of the park, Lamar is a sweep of sage and grass where animals gather in the open and can be watched from a distance, making it a natural theater for the drama of predator and prey.

Wolves were absent from Yellowstone for much of the twentieth century after being hunted out of the region. In the mid 1990s they were reintroduced to the park, and the Lamar Valley became a center of that effort and of the research that followed. The valley's open terrain made it possible to observe the packs closely, and it remains one of the best places on Earth to see wild wolves.

The wolves reshaped the valley in ways scientists are still studying, influencing the movements of elk and, in turn, the health of streamside willows and the animals that depend on them. Watching a pack move across the hills at dawn is a reminder that this is a working wild ecosystem, not a static scene.

Wolves get much of the attention, but the Lamar Valley is rich with wildlife of every kind. Some of Yellowstone's largest bison herds range across the valley, and it is common to be stopped on the road as hundreds of animals amble across. Grizzly and black bears feed on the slopes, pronghorn and elk graze the flats, and coyotes, foxes, badgers, and raptors round out the cast.

The mix changes through the year, from the calving and courtship of spring to the bugling elk of autumn. Because so much of the valley is open and visible, patient watchers with binoculars can often see several species in a single morning.

Wildlife watching in the Lamar Valley has grown into something of a culture. On many mornings the pullouts fill with regulars, guides, and researchers, their spotting scopes trained on distant hillsides, and newcomers are often welcomed with a look through a scope and a quiet word about what is happening across the valley.

That shared attention is part of the experience. Standing at a pullout in the cold air, watching a far off pack or a bear on a hillside alongside a line of strangers, is a distinctly Lamar way to spend a morning, and it draws people back year after year.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.