Bison Bison everywhere

After leaving Tower Falls, we headed for the south exit of Yellowstone National Park.  Along the windy road, we passed several herds of Bison. As we crested a hill on the highway, I saw some vehicles stopped up ahead and sure enough, there were some Bison on and near the road.  "Bison crossing" would be a worthy road sign here.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm lens at 300mm focal length and an exposure of 1/800 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.

A Bison calf moves slowly across the ridge not too far from the roadway.  The cars tend to slow to a crawl when there are so many animals so close to the road, so the opportunity to shoot from the car as we drove past was too hard to pass up.  This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/1000 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.

More Buffalo than you can count.  A bull stands at the top of a hill not too far from the calf above as we drove past.  This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/500 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.
 

Another bull wanders the grassland of Yellowstone.  This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/800 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.

This bull seems to be watching the traffic go by (it was bumper to bumper for quite some distance).  I took this out the drivers side window as my sweetie drove slowly down the road.  This image was taken at 205mm focal length with an exposure of 1/640 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.

This herd of Buffalo were milling around on a hillside by the road that has a hydrothermal vent near its top which you can see in the middle of the frame with a beast in front of it.  This image was taken at 75mm focal length with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.

Where the Buffalo roam

After passing over Dead Indian Pass, the road from Cody Wyoming into the Northeast Entrance of Yellowstone dropped into deep valleys with creeks and rivers surrounded by mountain ranges.  Between the Yellowstone National Park N.E. entrance and Tower Junction, some of the valleys widened into large grassy areas perfect for the large herds of Buffalo that we saw there.  This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

These herds of Buffalo were hundreds strong and we saw several different herds in at least 3 or 4 places along the roads inside the park.  There were many young ones mixed in as you can see above.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm lens at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

This bull was on a hill near the roadway overlooking the valley where the rest of the herd was.  There were a few others on the other side of the road as well.  This guy was eyeing the visitors like us pulled off the side of the road in a pullout as he slowly worked his way down into the valley.  There are warnings in the park literature and at park facilities about the dangers of the wildlife in the park.  I could imagine how bad it might be if an animal this large decided he didn't like the way you were looking at him and decided to charge your car or even you standing outside of it!  This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

A few minutes later, the same bull had moved down into the valley and was rejoining the rest of the herd.  These animals are magnificent creatures and their return in strength of numbers was obvious in Yellowstone.  This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/160 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

We passed other herds of Buffalo and I promise to post some more pictures an a later post.