September 6-10, 2007 - One of the most exciting
things in Yellowstone is seeing the big game
animals up close. Our first morning in the park,
after driving down from Glacier NP, we took a short
hike from the campground to the visitors center. As
we climbed up the hillside through the forest we
looked up -- and saw a buffalo on the ridge above
us. I stopped dead in my tracks, remembering the
sign I'd seen at the campground, "More people are
gored by buffalo each year than are attacked by bears." Yikes. There had been another
sign explaining what to do in case you encountered a buffalo or bear in the park. I wracked my brain trying to remember the
instructions, as each animal required something different. Do you make noise, or not? Back up slowly or run for your life? Be
aggressive or passive? The buffalo snorted at us. Mark reached for his camera but I was frozen to the spot. Suddenly the
mammoth, ungainly beast leaped away. He moved across the
impossibly steep and rocky terrain with the grace and agility of a
dancer. In an instant he was gone. We gaped at each other,
wide-eyed. What a way to be welcomed to Yellowstone National
Park.
When we arrived at the visitors center we found it was occupied
by a herd of elk. It was elk mating season and they like to
congregate at the visitors center. They wandered up and down
the grassy areas as if they owned the place while the rangers
waved the cars through and tried to control the exuberant park visitors.
A huge male was seated motionless in the middle of the grass with
his harem of females surrounding him at a distance. He barely moved a muscle as he sat in the sun. We watched him, willing him
to turn to face us. He wouldn't move, despite the crowd of onlookers snapping his photo. Almost imperceptably he moved his
head slightly. This seemed an indication that he might stand up and the rangers leapt into action, waving everyone away from the
grass to give the big guy room. "These are wild animals," they explained to us. "They are unpredictable." That proved true, as
the enormous elk must have decided he didn't need to stand up afterall, and he stayed seated in the sun for another few hours.
One morning we woke up to see a young buck elk flirting with a
young female right outside our trailer window. We grabbed the
cameras and started shooting right through the window. They
touched noses and then reared up on their hind feet, pawing at
each other. They did this for about 10 minutes, pausing to nibble
the bushes every now and then between flirtations. When the
young male leaned over to munch on a leaf we could see that his
antlers were soft and fuzzy.
Out on the park roads it was common to see elk and bison
roaming around. The animals use the park roads in the winter
because it is easier to walk through the snow there. So they do
own the roads afterall, and they continue walking along them in
the summertime too. After a while we got used to seeing the
huge buffalos. They didn't get any prettier, but from the safety of
the car they seemed a little less intimidating.
The tamed wild animals are just one of the many marvels at
Yellowstone. We were intrigued by the steaming and gurgling of
the hot springs and geysers as well.