Bison Gone Wild

While we were sad to be leaving the Grand Tetons since they were probably one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever been, we were ecstatic to be moving on to Yellowstone. For once, luck was on our side when we arrived at Yellowstone because our campsite was ready 3 ½ hours early. Thank God they were early risers. At this point we’ve become professionals at setting up our tent and campsite and whipped it together in 2 minutes and 38 seconds tops. Since this wasn’t part of our original plan (stupid wildfires) we had not done our proper research on various sites to see throughout the park. So naturally, our first stop was to go to the general store to get some food, followed by the Visitor’s Center to have them map out our day for us…priorities. The rest of the day was spent feeding the animals and taking the animals for rides to the various sites, breaking all federal regulations. Clearly we felt like being rebels that day.

While touring the mud volcano on foot we encountered our first bison face-to-face. Just to give you a clear image, there were designated walkways with wood railings for a majority of the path, however, some areas did not have these railings. Apparently the bison are very well aware of this and took the liberty of joining us on the walkway. We were hesitant at first to cross this part of the walkway since the bison was literally 10 feet away from us, but after some discussions with him, he agreed to let us cross. Unfortunately, some people were not as smart as us and did not obtain the bison’s approval to cross. While we were walking on the path we heard a loud scream, and when we turned around we were horrified to see the bison legitimately charge a young boy.  Luckily the boy’s father temporarily distracted the bison long enough to allow the boy to get away. By the way, this is actually not a joke, this actually happened. Between this and the atrocious smell of the sulfur, we opted to use our speed pass and cruise along the rest of the way through the mud volcano.

We may not have mentioned this yet since parts of it may or may not be appropriate for this blog, but we have an ongoing bucket list for this trip, one of which includes watching a sunset. With the little research we had done, we learned that it was highly recommended to see Old Faithful at sunset. Double whammy!

Initially, we were unimpressed with this Top 10 attraction to say the least. In fact, we probably would have ranked it 97^th or 98^th. That is until we saw it erupt. Please refer to the video on Britt's Facebook.

After going through withdrawals, we decided to satisfy our cravings and ended the night with some delicious ice cream. It was no Sweet Claude’s, but it got the job done…

Uncertain of what to do the next day, we decided to go back to the Visitor’s Center to look for some cool hiking trails. En route, we were rudely interrupted by a herd of bison that decided it would be a fantastic idea to make camp in the middle of the road. Unfortunately, these bison were unwilling to listen to our pleas. They did, however, think it would be hilarious to surround our car. Threatening the lives of humans must be their daily entertainment because it must have been hysterical to watch us scramble to get as far away from our doors and windows as possible. But let’s be serious, if you were surrounded by 10 bison that were as tall as you, weighing in at 2000 lbs a piece, you’d be scared sh*tless too. Again, please refer to the video on Britt's Facebook.

Let’s just say we all needed a new pair of underwear afterwards. After this experience, we had all decided that we wanted to be around people while we were hiking.  This way, if something were to happen, we’d throw the other people in front. Hey, it’s every man for himself out in the wild. Upon arriving at the Visitor’s Center, we were given absolutely no helpful information for hiking trails. In fact, she was probably the worst ranger ever. One of the two trails she directed us to was supposedly covered in bears. Why would anybody sane enough want to hike that trail by themselves? To add to her list of great advice, she provided us with trails that didn’t overlook any of the scenic overviews of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone (something we had specifically asked for). Clearly, she was useless. Thank God for Doug though because he hooked us up big time. He basically planned out the rest of our day, directing us to the best lookout points and the best attractions at Yellowstone that we hadn’t yet seen.

While we absolutely loved the time we spent camping in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, we were ready to sleep through the night in a real bed, take a shower, and be around civilization. Just an FYI, if you visit Yellowstone in the middle of the summer, it does not mean that it is still warm at night. In fact, it kind of felt like our tent was an icebox at night. Thank God for mummy bags.

Until Next Time,

Arrivederci