It’s early morning, the sun is rising, and you’re driving into Yellowstone National Park for the first time with your family.
As you come around a sharp curve on the East Entrance Road, you see flashing lights and a Park Ranger standing in the road in front of his patrol car. He is holding a gun and motioning at you to keep moving. Your two kids in the back seat are pressing their faces against the side window of the minivan.
“Daddy, is the ranger going to shoot that elk?”
Yes. It’s true. That was me standing there getting ready to pull the trigger.
Summer after summer, I managed to avoid striking wildlife along Yellowstone’s narrow winding roads but not that morning.
Going on duty, I reminded the dispatcher to give me the easy calls. After all, it was my last day on duty for the season. A fisherman with a hook caught in his ear would do fine.
After completing a morning patrol of the East Entrance Road, I was headed back to Lake Ranger Station when an elk dropped from the sky and through my windshield. For a moment, I couldn’t see the road in front of me with this 500-pound cow elk lying across the hood of the car.
When I got stopped, the elk managed to get off the hood and landed on the road about 10 feet in front of the car. Its front legs appeared to be broken. I knew I would have to put the animal down and out of its misery.
And that’s when the family in the minivan pulled up behind me to see Ranger Rick’s roadkill.
I didn’t pull the trigger until the minivan was around the next curve in the road and out of sight and earshot.
Once again, it was the voice of 611 Gale, with a few simple requests.
“700. 611 Gale.”
“This is 700.”
“700. I’ll need a supervisor, accident investigator, tow truck, front loader, and probably an ambulance for me.”
Hours later, I was looking up at the ceiling of an emergency room, like a deer in headlights, while two Lake Hospital nurses removed shattered pieces of windshield glass from my forehead.
“Rick, your hairline is really starting to recede. Have you ever thought about getting a toupee?”
“I’m good. I’ll just keep my head covered with my Smokey Bear hat.”
After getting released from Lake Hospital, I spent the next two hours at Lake Ranger Station completing government forms about the accident, discharging a firearm, and justifying major damage to a new patrol car.
And the question that always had to be asked by the Yellowstone National Park Safety Officer, “What could you have done to prevent this kind of accident?”
“Hmm. Let me think about that for a minute. Aren’t there dozens of road kills like this every year in Yellowstone?”
“Just answer the question Ranger Rick.”
A Ranger's Journal 