Tag Archives: bison

Camping, Expect the unexpected, Hiking, National Parks, Nature Rocks!, Teardrop Travels, Travel Log

3-Week Teardrop Trailer Trip: Wildlife IN YOUR FACE in Grand Teton National Park

September 12, 2014 Sue J 9 Comments

Or is that ON YOUR FEET?

Wildlife in and around Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming aren’t bashful. In fact, they seem to know they own the place. Boisterous chipmunks like to rub it in your face, or rub their face into you, as the case may be.

In the Tetons, humans can’t vie for secondary nor even tertiary position in the food chain.

Moose ignore you while munching on a veggie breakfast . . .

Grand Teton National Park and area, wildlife viewings, Wyoming, Jenny Lake, Colter Bay, Jackson Hole, moose, mule deer, bison

Even mamma and her baby don’t seem too concerned.

Hell, bison routinely overtake the roadways as if the asphalt were designed for hooves instead of cars. An adult bison weighs about a ton. Needless to say, few autos challenge their collective decision.

This mule deer stepped right up to our campsite at Gros Ventre Campground (the same campground–just south of Grand Teton–where we had all of our moose sightings) and asked for a cup of salt.

We redirected him and his eight-point rack that-a-way while we attempted to discreetly shove our 80-pound dog this-a-way into our car to avoid a confrontation.

As if this all weren’t enough, I had a run-in with this grizzly. As you can see, I was more frightened of him than he of me . . .

From the safety of a fort we found at the edge of Colter Bay, Mark tried to track the bear after it ran away . . .

I found an anti-social elk who seemed kinda stiff . . .

and imagined how many fell to create an archway as grand as this . . .

We had some close-up moments with the wildlife at Grand Teton. It was amazing but is always dangerous. So, make sure you give wildlife respect by giving them space (Yellowstone Bison vs. Humans: You Can’t Fix Stupid), especially when they seem to want to get in YOUR face.

No matter where we drove in Grand Teton, her white-capped, rugged peaks stole the show and crowded the camera lens. Just like the wildlife, the mountains themselves reminded us that we share this planet with more powerful and beautiful things.

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As with Yellowstone (3-Week Teardrop Trailer Trip: Wild, Wicked Yellowstone National Park), we only spent what added up to a day-and-a-half at Grand Teton. A few days is not enough to explore any national park, and Grand Teton is no different. It’s a hiker’s, climber’s, explorer’s paradise . . .

Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitor Center, Grand Teton National Park and area, wildlife viewings, Wyoming, Jenny Lake, Colter Bay, Jackson Hole, moose, mule deer, bison — Okay, so I’m just faking it at the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center at Grand Teton National Park, but . . . you know . . . I could do it if I wanted to . . . IF I wanted to. 🙂

And oh so easy on the eyes. Just to prove a point, Mark said there’s no such thing as a bad picture in the Tetons and proved it by willy nilly snapping a picture out the car window without looking. And he was right . . .

We know we’ll be back some day. But a three-week road trip, in the end amounting to 4,400 miles, requires a tight schedule. Utah and five of its best national parks is the next stop. Onward and outward!

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If you have any questions about where we’ve been, any aspects of the experience we didn’t share here, please use our ‘Contact’ page to send us an email with your question(s). We’ll do our best to provide you the answer if we know it or will at least fabricate something entirely convincing.

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To see our original trip route map, click on the first post of this mini-series:

Teardrop Trailer Summer Road Trip: 9 NW States, 8 Nat’l Parks

Or any of our stops so far on the way . . .

Day 1, 3-Week Teardrop Trailer Travel Log: Willits, CA, KOA Campground

Early Day 2, 3-Week Teardrop Trailer Trip: Toilet Bowls, Vintage New Yorkers, and the Eclectic

Later Day 2, 3-Week Teardrop Trailer Trip: Drive-Thru Redwoods, Giants, and Castles

Day 3, 3-Week Teardrop Trailer Trip: Gigantic Marshmallows of Oregon

Day 4, 3-Week Teardrop Trailer Trip: Captivating Washington Coastline

Day 5, 3-Week Teardrop Trailer Trip: Olympiad Deer, Bald Eagles, and Chica Birds

Early Day 6, 3-Week Teardrop Trailer Trip: Port Townsend, WA, See It All and Sea Otters Too!

Later Day 6, 3-Week Teardrop Trailer Trip: Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, WA

Day 7, 3-Week Teardrop Trailer Trip: Goodbye Olympic Peninsula; Hello Seattle!

Day 8, 3-Week Teardrop Trailer Trip: Hay, Washington! Spuds! Spokane!

Day 9, 3-Week Teardrop Trailer Trip: It’s a Dog’s Life for Me

Midway on 3-Week Teardrop Trailer Trip: Just Stop; You’re Missing It!

3-Week Teardrop Trailer Trip: Wild, Wicked Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone Bison vs. Humans: You Can’t Fix Stupid

September 10, 2014 Sue J 10 Comments

One ton of locomotive-grade muscle vs. 140 pounds of brain matter-challenged human flesh.
Do the math . . . carry the nine . . . Bison beats Humans every time.

At Yellowstone National Park, I saw a brown blip on my visual radar. Binoculars confirmed my suspicion. I had spotted a wild animal–in this case, a bison.

bison attacks humans, stupidity, respect for nature, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, wildlife attacks — Bison at river’s edge

I trailed it for a while from across a river until I saw it come to water’s edge and realized it may actually cross the river, and sure enough . . .

Eager to snap a good photo, I ran to the car for a camera, but by the time I returned, the bison was gone. Gone! What the? Where the? Who the?

Holy crap! That’s one fast bison!

I guess I was standing there quite a while searching for the behemoth mammal from roughly 200 yards away from the forested patch it slipped into when I turned around and saw the empty road behind me suddenly full of cars and curious humans. Nobody knew yet what they were looking for. They just figured I’d seen something good and were ready to get their chance to do the same.

That’s right. To the best of my knowledge, nobody else had seen the bison or how fast the steam engine of a mammal only moments ago crossed the waterway. Nobody but me had recently been reminded the impressive power of these animals.

This guy dressed in bright purple and yellow–part of a crew of three similarly dressed tourists who had literally ran INTO, and now out of, the forest in search of the beast–had no concept of its ability to maim.

This misguided photographer sure didn’t get a fresh reminder of the animal’s strength . . .

And this trio of clueless tourists were unconcerned, backs turned to the bison, carrying on like they were at a Hollywood photo shoot . . .

In the height of concern for these folks who clearly missed the entire common-sense series of lectures from their parents when growing up, I did the only sane thing I could. I switched the camera to video mode and waited to catch what would surely be the next viral video on YouTube: “Tourists skewed like toasted marshmallows at Yellowstone National Park”

To avoid being all sensationalist and melodramatic about this account, I did my research and wanted to share with you a few words from a National Park Service web page. It reaffirms the repeated warning on every handout we received at the entry gates to the park, “Federal regulations require you stay at least . . . 25 YARDS away from . . . bison . . .” and “If an animal moves closer to you, you should move to maintain the appropriate distance.”

Here is the additional information I researched directly from the National Park Service web page:

The best description of a bison’s temperament is UNPREDICTABLE. They usually appear peaceful, unconcerned, even lazy, yet they may attack anything, often without warning or apparent reason. To a casual observer, a grazing bison appears slow and clumsy, but he can outrun, out turn, and traverse rougher terrain than all but the fleetest horse. They can move at speeds of up to thirty-five miles per hour and cover long distances at a lumbering gallop.

Their most obvious weapon is the horns that both male and female have. But their head, with its massive skull, can be used as a battering ram, effectively using the momentum produced by two thousand pounds moving at thirty miles per hour! The hind legs can also be used to kill or maim with devastating effect.

So . . . I say . . . go ahead folks. Ignore the warnings at the national parks and get those winning photographs you so desire. I’m just sitting here with my video camera focused just right, waiting to strike gold with my video of YOU on YouTube. You might be infinitely famous as a result of my efforts when your name is as well-known around the world as McDonald’s or Michael Jackson, but you’ll be six feet underground and unable to cash in on your instantaneous fame.

Me, however . . . I’ll be raking in the dough and sporting me some fancy yellow and purple hiking duds like the guy below, only I’ll be . . . you know . . . alive.

Oh. And the bison? If this all played out the way it could have, the bison wouldn’t have fared any better than its victim. Instead of sauntering away, like it was trying to do, it likely would’ve been penalized with a death sentence for bashing its 2,000-pound head into a brightly colored humanoid traipsing into the unfortunate animal’s natural, 75-foot-diameter happy space.

Well done, Einstein. Happy now?

Folks, get out there and have fun. Visit your national parks. But, for the love of Pete, read the handouts you receive at the entry gates. Heed the warnings. Be a good global citizen and respect nature. Your life could depend on it.