My wife and I were up at our cabin weekend of May 2.
We mostly relaxed around the cabin but we did go for a hike to the soda springs. On our way home, I saw what looked like an adult bobcat as it darted from one bush to another, about 200 yards ahead of us at the trail intersection of the soda spring trail and the Franklin/Farewall trail. As I was looking ahead of its path to try to see exactly what it was, my wife looked back to the gap between the bushes where I had first seen it and she reported seeing a very large tan animal with a long, skinny tail that was not at all fluffy. She and I can only concluded that it was an adult mountain lion. After my wife shouted out about it to me, I looked to the gap between those bushes and saw a second animal like that first I had originally seen (I believe the two I saw were adolescent mountain lions and the one my wife saw was the adult mother). They were moving very quickly down the mountainside from around the crystal lake waterfall toward the trail intersection of the franklin/farewell trail and the soda spring cut-off.
We decided to cross the valley, put the stream between us and the mountain lions, and scale the other valley wall until we merged with the White Chief trail. We carefully and watchfully made our way back to the parking lot from there along the White Chief trail.
Just wanted to send along the message to let people or park services know. I think it might be good to make people aware if they intend to spend time walking around up there.
On a more positive note, it was gorgeous up there: very quiet and the road was entirely passable with no problems. Some trees had been chainsawed to allow cars through at some spots along the road but there was plenty of room to drive past, so long as the uphill side of the trees don’t slide down onto the road.
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