During our visit to Yellowstone National Park, we were driving over the Fishing Bridge at the start of the Yellowstone River where it leaves Yellowstone Lake, when we came upon an entire herd of buffalo on the move! Their group was heading away from the Yellowstone Lake area and going to cross the same bridge we had just driven over! They were all starting to walk along the road and causing a very Yellowstone style traffic jam! A park ranger was next to the road with a flag on a pole trying to push the buffalo back off of the road so the cars could go by.
My brother and his family were also on the trip, and he had just an hour before said he was hoping to see a huge buffalo herd. Dreams really do come true! 🙂
There was a parking lot off to the side of the road, and we pulled in to see if we could see the herd moving through…. and we could!
One of the people in our crew used to raise buffalo, so she was giving us some much welcomed advice about the do’s and do not’s around the buffalo! There were quite a few babies in the herd and you could tell the adults were all very protective of them! We parked in the parking lot and watched as the buffalo all just moved along by us. If a baby would move towards the cars, the adults would surround it and herd it back to where they wanted it to be. It was pretty amazing to watch.
Our cell phones didn’t work very well in the park unless we were by one of the main visitor centers. Our buffalo expert also had the good sense to bring a set of walkie talkies so our two cars could talk to each other while we were moving around the park! Super helpful and it was awesome so we could point out sights to each other as we drove around… landscapes or wildlife spotting!
As we sat in the parking lot watching the herd move through, we saw another rather crazy sight. One of those wild humans, came walking up behind a group of the buffalo with grass in her hand. As if she was going to feed it to them! We were totally sure we were going to end up with one of those videos of someone getting thrown in the air by a buffalo! But she did finally turn around before getting all of the way up to them. Seriously… don’t do that at home! (Face palm!)
We pulled out of the parking lot, and followed the group along a side road for a little bit. They were mostly walking along in the field next to the road, and Ryane said as long as we didn’t make them feel like we were threatening them with our car, we should be fine! We were able to get some great shots of them while they walked by us!
It was getting near sunset time and as they walked towards the west, they were kicking up a lot of dust. The way they looked walking off into the sunset and the dust was something straight out of a movie set! There was a barn and a dirt road, and it was just so cool!
As we headed back to the road, headed back towards the bridge ourselves, the whole herd was also crossing the road and getting onto the bridge to get across. Not much to do but wait for them to go by and enjoy the amazing view! It was a sight to behold!
Visiting Yellowstone National Park is such an amazing experience. The unique scenery and the abundance of wildlife makes every moment so precious! So many memories will be made when you visit this park!
If you want to see more from the buffalo herd moving through the area, check out our YouTube video:
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