Close Encounters of the Bison kind!

Close Encounters of the Bison kind!

Bison Video

July 20th, 2025-”A 75 year old man and his 72 year old wife were trampled by a bison herd at the Teddy Roosevelt National Park today as they drove their motorcycle through the park.  Their chihuahua mix dog survived the attack by growling at the herd.”  No….that didn’t happen but we came damn close!!!  

We decided to drive the rest of the south unit roads of the Teddy Roosevelt park today since we had been hampered by weather for the last few days.  Today promised no showers until after 5 pm.  Great, the weather was beautiful and we left the campground at 10:00 am.  We drove our Honda Goldwing as that is our vehicle for side trips while away from our Mini Winnebago motorcoach. We are crossing  the US on our National Parks tour.  This is our first park and we weren’t going to miss seeing parts of it.  On a previous drive through the park we saw not only beautiful scenery but also bison walking along the side of the road.  We were hoping to see them again today.

As we rounded the corner on “Scenic Loop Drive” we noticed cars slowing down to nearly a stop.  Then we saw them, a herd of bison crossing the road right among the cars. We came to an idle as we saw them lumbering into the road in front of us.  Henry thought of maybe turning around but I knew we shouldn’t move,

 We could hear the rumbling of their voices as they slowly closed in on us.  There were two calves among the herd and we knew the elders would be super protective of them.  Then one bison, we thought she might have been the largest one, stopped directly in front of the bike.  She was probably two or three feet in front of us and she just stared at us.  We could smell her musty odor.  Meanwhile smaller bison were filing past us on both sides including the calves.  I envied the people in cars!  At least there was a barrier between them and the beasts! One came so close to us I could have reached out and touched it!  The matriarch just stayed there staring at us.  Luckily Lola, who was in a pack on Henry’s back, was also petrified.  Normally she was barking at the beasts but that was when they were a safe distance away.  These buggers were directly in front and around us.

After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably two or three minutes, the matriarch decided to move past us and not bother us.  THANK GOD! I was praying the whole time for God to protect us.  It took  a while for cars to begin to move again because the whole herd was on the road and we had to wait until they all passed us.   As we proceeded on the other side of the herd a lady in a car in opposing traffic held up her thumb to us as if to say to us  “Good job staying alive after that one!”

I have to say that was one of the most scary moments in my life.  I’ve had a few but this one was the closest I have felt to death in a long time!!  I love wildlife but not up close!!