Getting A Charge Out of Yellowstone

While in Montana, all of us took a trip down to Yellowstone for a snowmobile tour through the park and three of us returned to drive out and back on the 53-mile stretch of road open on the north side of the park.  Both adventures are highly recommended.  We saw some great spots in the park and a ton of wildlife including bison, elk, bighorn sheep, wolves, bald eagles, and coyotes.

It was all pretty exhilarating, but a near charge brought about the most heart-pounding moment.  Our group of 12 snowmobiles had stopped for a break along with a number of other snowmobile tour groups.  As we stretched our legs, a herd of bison approached the rest area and began to congregate on the only road out.  The herd included calves.

Our guide, Turtle, decided we'd be the first group out after a large bus on snowmobile tracks edged it's way through to encourage the bison off the road.  We moved by the herd slowly in a twelve sled train.  Then Turtle took a right turn .... going right back through the herd.  I realized we were splitting the herd and had some reservations, but this guy Turtle, he navigates this park everyday and wouldn't be putting his tour group in any real danger.  We progressed in tight formation at a snails pace.  Two thousand pound horned bison are literally 15 feet from us looking everyone of us dead in the eye.  Then two bison start moving at an uncomfortable pace (towards us) and start jumping around.  I immediately begin assessing my options of getting the heck out of there.  Ditch, wooded hill, and bison to the right, slow moving snowmobile train in front of me, herd of bison very close and jumpy to the left.  I held my breathe and tried to keep it together as we passed the remainder of the herd.  We made it through without incident.

Back to Turtle doing this everyday, I thought perhaps I was overreacting and surely this wasn't too out of the ordinary for him.  Then he says "Man, that was pretty intense huh?".  That made the rest of the bison passings much more unsettling despite being far less "intense".  At some point we asked him how fast a bison could run.  He said "about thirty-five miles per hour".  How did he know that?  "That's what our sleds used to be governed at.  We couldn't outrun them."

All kind of buses, vans, and whatever that thing is on
snowmobile tracks doing tours through the park.

Entering Yellowstone

Elk

One of the bison entering the rest area.

The bison blocking our exit.

You think this is close?  Unfortunately I don't
 have a picture of how close we really got.

Old Faithful.  More hmm-inspiring than awe-inspiring.

Grand Prismatic under the steam.

Two coyotes near the center of the picture just in front of the river.

Bald eagle.  One of four we saw on this trip.

Big elk.

North entrance to Yellowstone.

A grey wolf amongst the branches near the center of the picture.  He was
 accompanied by a white wolf which may or may not be in the picture.

Bighorn Sheep on the rock ledge near the center of
the picture just under the tree leaning to the right.

Bighorn sheep on the road at the Yellowstone River

Yellowstone River

Bison on the road.  It's easier then walking through the snow.