Snowy Range Pass

Snowy Range Pass

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Buffalo encounter
















Yesterday, we made a trip back to Custer State Park to have a relaxing drive thru more of the wildlife areas and enjoy a quiet picnic lunch. We found a spot along a creek that looked good. There were a few buffalo nearby but appeared to be a reasonable distance away. Anneke decided to hold a table and I started for the car to get lunch. Then the buffalo all started to move at once. I forgot the lunch and picked up the camera. I saw Anneke moving quickly away from the picnic area. The buffalo were crossing the creek directly by the picnic table and two bulls actually started heading butting where she was sitting about a minute earlier.

She was stuck near a small bridge with others as I walked the edges of the area getting pictures. There was an unusual amount of bulls in with the females and they clearly had something besides lunch on their minds. They were bleating and chasing the cows everywhere.

After twenty minutes or so, Anneke was able to rejoin me in the parking area and as we were getting ready to leave one woman trying for a picture got to close and a small bull actually charged her. Luckily she was close to the parking area and the bull gave up as she reached the cars. Other people were much farther away and had this happened to them, it might have had a more painful end. As the sign warns, these are wild animals and are dangerous.

Bottom line, we enjoyed our lunch in the car.

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