We left Custer State Park this morning, after camping 2 nights there.
We had a great campsite, a shady spot right on the banks of a stream – the only thing we could hear after we went to bed. (Tonight, we in a commercial campground right next to I90 – 11 pm on a Saturday night and there is still some traffic noise.)
Today was the first day since the 3rd that we didn’t see any buffalo (American bison). And, of course, in Custer State Park, we saw plenty of people gaga over the buffalo.
The guy in the second photo was trying to get closer and closer to the buffalo – very slowly, very carefully and very stupidly.
We were in our car, stopped and I wasn’t planning on moving until this guy got away from the buffalo. A fellow in a white car behind us came up and asked if we could move over so they could drive through. I told him, “No” and that I wasn’t moving because I didn’t want to spook the animals and make it more dangerous for the people that were way too close to the buffalo.
Well, the impatient guy actually asked the fellow out there to move, telling him that I wasn’t going to drive through with him there.
Fine. The guy moved and I drove through the herd of buffalo.
That’s right. I drove forward slowly, just like I would if I were trying to drive through a herd of cattle or sheep. And just like cattle or sheep, these big critters just moved out of the way – and the guy in the white car who was so impatient stopped in the middle of the herd so he or his family could get some pictures.
The dark red on our route is from Fishing Bridge RV Park in Yellowstone to Sitting Bull Campground in the Bighorn National Forest, west of Gillette, Wyoming. The next segment is from Sitting Bull Campground to Game Lodge Campground in Custer State Park, South Dakota. The last segment is today’s journey to Sioux Falls, SD.
I’m certainly glad that we only witnessed fools around critters this trip and am most definitely glad we didn’t see any tragic results, though the possibilities were there.
