Monday, September 12, 2011

Yellowstone - Day 3 and 4


Well, I've seen most of the official sights here in the park already, so decided today to head down to the section of the park furthest from me, and explore that area all day.  Turns out that section of the park has the largest buffalo population and I saw huge numbers of them in almost every open prairie, and blocking the road a number of times during the day.  I could almost imagine what they used to look like when they  dominated the land out here, especially when looking down on them along the river in the valley.  It was fun to turn off the car and just sit on the hill, listening to them in the distance. 

At one point today, I came across a smaller group that was about 30 yards off the road, and a number of the bulls seemed really agitated. Three of them were bellowing much louder than any I'd heard so far today, and they were each tearing up dirt and grass with their front legs, so I had a feeling something fun was about to happen.  I sat and watched as two of them suddenly charged each other and started slamming heads.  Here is one of the shots from the little encounter.

You don't realize just how big these guys really are until you feel the ground shaking when they are throwing down.  Not even sure I can explain what it felt like other than you could just feel how heavy they were and how hard they were going at it.



Another thunderstorm moved in late this afternoon and dumped rain again for a short time.  As the rain stopped and the sky cleared up, The land was just lit up with sun rays as they began breaking through the clouds.

Here are a couple more animal shots from the day as well.



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