We were hiking back to our car on friday at Yellow River State Forest, Iowa and saw a large black coyote/wolf right behind our car that quickly scurried into the woods. I seemed to big to be a coyote and I don't think coyotes are ever black but I know that wolves can be. The nearest wolf population is in Wisconsin not to far away. Do you think it could have been a wolf? I think it was a wolf because it was to big to be a coyote, and the fact that I have never seen or heard of a black coyote.
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/er/mammals/wolf/wolf_map.htm
The place we were at bordered the SW side of Wisconsin on the Mississpi River. There are lots of small islands on the mississipi in this area so I think it would have been possible for a wolf to cross the mississipi.