During one of our drives around Yellowstone, we stumbled upon the amazing (and rather amusing) scene of a herd of buffalo attempting to cross one of the main park roads through heavy traffic. Or, depending on how you look at it, a bunch of tourists trying to drive through a herd of buffalo...
On our last full day in the park, after a lovely picnic on the shores of Yellowstone Lake, we set off back to our campsite through Hayden Valley, a high alpine meadow where we had been told the wildlife viewing was good. After seeing some spectacular scenery and a few solitary buffalo, we rounded a bend to see a massive herd of them to our left on the east side of the road. We turned into a small pull-off to take in the peaceful scene.
Shortly after we arrived, the buffalo decided that they weren't happy on the east side of the road - the proverbial grass was greener on the west side of the road - never mind the heavy traffic. As the herd started to cross, we had front row seats to watch the melee that ensued. The buffalo started to walk and sometimes run around and between the stopped cars (and motorcycles!):
The park rangers eventually showed up and started trying to herd the buffalo with their trucks, with very limited success. And just when a good portion of the herd had crossed, they appeared to decide the grass was not in fact greener on the west side and started to come back across the road...
Buffalo are notoriously ornery animals and supposedly injure and kill more tourists per year in Yellowstone than all other wildlife combined. That doesn't stop a few of the not-so-bright visitors from trying to get some extreme close up photos or pet the beasts. We didn't see anyone injured, but the buffalo did decide from time to time to chase a few cars.
Heeding the rangers' warnings to stay in our vehicle, we ate lunch hanging out of the sunroof and sitting on the roof of the car.
After watching the show for about an hour, we headed out through a gap in the herd. Lucky we showed up when we did because traffic, we discovered on our way out, was backed up at a near-complete stop for about ten miles in the other direction.
There's no telling how much longer the chaos went on but the hour we were there was an incredible experience and certainly one of the highlights of our trip so far.
- Nick and Jo
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