Some say that when tourists visit Yellowstone, they leave their brains back home. Many do, and the evidence abounds! For example, while driving through the world’s first national park, an observant visitor can see: tourists driving large often rented motor homes (they’ve never driven anything this big before), crossing the center line as they gawk at roadside bison or at a pretty scene. Drivers beware! That’s why we tell our clients that the most statistically dangerous part of any back-country trek is the drive to the trail-head. On that drive, you’ll also likely see tourists with photographic devises — in some cases real cameras — “stalking” these two-thousand pound horned hoofed beasts at way too close a distance. I’ve watched people literally within just a couple feet of wild bison, though I’ve never actually watched anyone get gored. I did once watch a bison gore my backpack, though there were no tourists inside it at the time — and it was not on my back!
Make no mistake, these animals, and all of Yellowstone’s wildlife, are wild. Yellowstone’s bison are potentially lethal! It is truly a wonder that more tourists don’t get gored or trampled into Darwinian oblivion. By the way, when I see extreme examples of wildlife viewing idiocy, I usually roll down my window and yell something like “You’re too close; you will die!” For better or for worse, though, I am aware that the vast majority will survive, despite themselves.
You might also notice a bear or two on your drive through the park, and if so, you’d also notice similar attempts by tourists to be naturally selected out of the human population by crowding these large carnivores. In fact, trying to get close enough for that great photo of a grizzly is an efficient way to enter the food chain. That has been proven on a number of occasions. Still, as with bison, it is a wonder of nature that Americas’ population is still growing, considering that over three million tourists pass through the Yellowstone entrance stations each year, many without so much as a clue that they’re entering wild habitats with big wild animals that don’t give a hoot for human safety.
Here at Big Wild Adventures, we do give a hoot and we make sure that safety is built into our guided Yellowstone backpacking trips. Although we guide in the back-country, the same safety principles pertain. And not just for bears and bison, but really, any large mammal can be dangerous when approached too closely. That includes elk, moose, wolves, coyotes, some of us humans and more. Heck, I wouldn’t even crowd a sandhill crane! In other words, give wild animals space. That’s why Nikon and Canon make telephoto lenses. In Yellowstone, it is against the rules to knowingly be less than 25 yards from any large mammal, or less than 100 yards from a bear or a wolf. In the next installment, we’ll delve further into the Big Wild way of keeping our clients safe in the back-country, and safely out of the food chain.