YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — In winter coats and hats, the men started arriving at the Hayden Valley lookout. They greeted each other with updates, “See that carcass up in Lamar?” “Saw that lone wolf stripping it bare just this morning.” They pointed their scopes toward an opening in the trees, still swapping tales of young grizzlies, the cubs that created the Bear Jam up north, before folding their arms across their chests and settling in to wait.
The tourists filtered in and out of the lookout, squinting into the verdant valley, dotted with spring flowers in June, elk and bison crowding around the streams, a lone hiker setting out. Inevitably the “scope guys,” as we started calling them, would spot a grizzly, or an eagle, and the tourists would line up, mutter “Wow,” then jump back in their cars, set on checking one more animal off their Yellowstone National Park lists.