Our Colorado bison encounter (aka how we almost became THAT viral video family)
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In the middle of 2023, Dad arranged for our extended family to spend a week in Breckenridge, Colorado. Due to some work-related scheduling issues, Aiden was unable to join us and Aly was only able to spend an extended weekend with the family. So, Christy, Mihret, and I flew out to Denver on a Friday morning. Aly was going to join us late that night, flying out of Indy after a long day at work. So the three of us had a day to hang out in Denver to hang out and start getting used to the high altitude’s famously thin air.
We arrived in Denver early in the morning. After getting our rental car, we hit the road. We couldn’t go too far because we needed to pick Aly up from the same airport. Could we have made this less complicated? Sure. But some things were up in the air until the very last minute. But I digress…
We were hungry. So we visited Moonlight Diner and grabbed breakfast. It was a fun (and popular) little spot. And the food was great.
Jaw-dropping wildlife
After we filled our bellies, we were ready for our first Colorado adventure – the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. After a brief tour of the visitors center, we downloaded the audio tour and set off to do what you do when you go to a wildlife refuge – began to look for animals.
Our goal? To see a deer or two. Maybe an eagle or a pelican. Nothing too major. We set the bar a little low because, well, wildlife is pretty unpredictable. Sometimes you’re lucky to see a butterfly. And then other times?
Well…
Now, here’s a little bit of context: if we just saw one bison from a half-mile away, we would have been ecstatic. It had been a long time since I’d seen a live bison. Christy didn’t think she’d ever seen one. As students at Mililgan (go buffaloes!), we’d seen plenty of buffalo paraphernalia.^ But we’d never seen any live bison in the wild.
So you would imagine our surprise when we came around a bend in the road and found this…
There were bison.
Everywhere.
Pretty cool. Right? Well, it got cooler. And maybe just a little bit scary.
You know the age-old, worn-out joke, right? Why did the chicken cross the road? Well, we found a cousin to that question.
Why did the herd of bison cross the road?
To get to the other side (and eat more grass)!
As you can see in the first picture, some bison had already made their way across the road. But then the rest of them must’ve decided that the grass was greener on the other side of the road, because they all started moseying on over to the other side. Within minutes, we were surrounded.
It was incredible. But also a little intimidating. As you can hear at the end of the video, Christy said out loud what both of us were thinking. “What do we do if one of them charges us?” Because we’ve all seen those videos of people’s cars getting attacked by moose or bison or a similar large animal. And in the back of my mind, I thought I remembered hearing a recent news story about a similar attack.*
Needless to say, we were a little bit nervous. It was a rented car. after all. And we certainly didn’t want to become one of those families. You know…those videos that wind up with tens of thousands (or maybe even millions) of views and make the video’s subjects look like complete morons? Yeah. No thanks.
But there really wasn’t anything we could do to prevent anything from happening. I mean, we weren’t going to provoke them or anything. That would just be asking for one of them to do something awful.
So we did our best to remain calm and enjoy the unexpected and amazing experience. And, of course, we had to take a few pictures.
About that selfie with the bison
OK, that selfie of me with the bison doesn’t look safe at all. No wonder I was scared about us becoming a viral video. Right? What on earth possessed me to get out and take a picture with a real bison?
Well…it was because of a dare.
When we sent family a few photos of the traffic jam we were stuck in, my sister in law wrote back and dared me to get out and take a selfie with one of the marvelous beasts. There may have even been some money involved.
Never one to pass up a great photo opportunity (especially one that could involve money), I sprung into action. I took a quick photo and sent it to her. She was amazed.
She never gave me my money, though.
Nevermind the fact that the bison was actually a stuffed one on display in the visitors center. But you won’t tell her that, will you?
It can just be our little secret.#
endnotes
*I have searched all over for the news story. I think this is the one I was thinking of.
^ I know. Technically, buffalo aren’t indigenous to the United States. They’re all bison. But I can’t go back and rename Buffalo Mountain and Buffalo Creek in East Tennessee “Bison Mountain” and “Bison Creek.” So in reference to Brutus, the beloved mascot of THE Milligan College University, I’ll continue to use buffalo and bison interchangeably. Thankyouverymuch.
# Seriously. Don’t try to take a selfie like this with a live buffalo in the wild. That’s how people get themselves hurt. Or killed. You don’t want do that.
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