LA traffic’s got nothing on this.
As we enter August, many families are heading out on a vacation to cap off the summer with some memories at the one and only Yellowstone National Park.
According to Statista, over 3 million people have visited the environmental preserve every year since 2008 and this season has been no different, as the National Park Service reported 454,929 recreation visits in May alone and expect large increases in June, July, and August, by far the most visited months historically.
While most of these people behaved themselves and were able to take in the sights of huge landscapes and wild animals, there’s of course been a few hiccups.
There was this woman who got gored by a bison (but later got engaged at the hospital) and two separate incidents where tourists tried to “help” a seemingly struggling creature. One group of tourists picked up a newborn elk and drove it to the ranger’s station and another man lifted a baby bison out of a river bank. The well-being of the elk is unknown but the bison calf had to be euthanized after its herd rejected it.
But for the most part, people go and have an incredible experience at Yellowstone and one of those good times was captured on video by a family who traveled out west from Pennsylvania.
While driving their car through the park, they were stopped by a large herd of bison hanging out on the road. They all did the safe thing and remained inside their car and got to experience the beauty of these majestic creatures up close and personal.
The encounter lasted for a half hour and only was broken up when park rangers brought out their police cars and pushed the herd past the line of cars and back into the fields.
This is the kind of Yellowstone tourist experience we can all get behind. There’s not many places left in the world where you can stumble into a bison herd, which is just one of the many reasons Yellowstone is special.
I’ve got to get out west to see it for myself.
