“Running of the Bulls”

The most famous “Running of The Bulls” takes place every July in Pamplona, Spain.  The runners are dressed in the traditional white shirt and trousers with a red waistband and neckerchief.  They carry a rolled-up newspaper to swat the bulls if necessary.

“Running of the Bulls” also takes place every summer in Yellowstone National Park.  The runners are dressed in the traditional souvenir t-shirt, utility shorts, and fashionable running shoes.  They carry cameras and cellphones to snap a picture of the bull up close.

After a surge of bison gorings in the 1980s, Rangers began distributing warning flyers to visitors at park entrance gates.  Despite efforts made by park service staff to warn visitors about these dangerous and unpredictable bison, there were weekly incidents with visitors ignoring the warnings and getting too close.

The first bison goring I responded to was just south of Mud Volcano.  The communication center had received numerous 911 calls from visitors about an elderly woman being gored.  I knew it would be bad.

Ranger Gary Youngblood and I were the first Rangers on the scene.  As I got out of my patrol car, I saw several visitors standing around a woman who was lying on the ground. 

When I tried to do a patient assessment for Lake Hospital, the woman refused.  She didn’t want anyone looking at her injuries, especially two male Rangers.  I insisted and she finally agreed to let us help her. 

Her injuries included a deep puncture wound to her right buttocks, chipped teeth, and several broken ribs from being thrown in the air.  She needed to be transported immediately by ambulance to Lake Hospital.

When Lake Hospital Ambulance arrived, paramedics scooped her up and transported her nine miles south to Lake Hospital for emergency treatment and life flight to Idaho Falls if her injuries became life threatening.

Youngblood and I stayed on the scene. We had a job to do.  Time to paint the bull.

I won the coin toss. Youngblood would be the paint thrower.  And I would cover Youngblood with a shotgun loaded with slugs as he got close enough to pitch a ziploc bag filled with yellow paint at the bison still laying down in the meadow.

Youngblood’s first pitch with the ziploc bag hit the bison but failed to open and the bison began standing up.  On the second pitch, Youngblood slowed his windup and delivery and hit the bison. This time it worked.

The painted bull was now up and running after the pitcher who had left his pitching mound and made an escape into a stand of lodge pole pine trees.

Suddenly, the bison spun around and charged me.  And now it was my turn to make a run for it.  I ran as fast as I could through the open meadow to the Grand Loop Road where there was a buffalo jam that had backed traffic up for miles in both directions.

At the same time, a tour bus filled with visitors from Japan had stopped on the road to get a better look at two Rangers running through the woods with a bison on their heels. 

Lights, camera, action:  take one.  The Yellowstone Adventure. What more could you ask for?  Every passenger on that bus had a camera and was trying to get a closer shot of the action.

“Get back on your bus! Get back on your bus!” I kept yelling as I ran for safety.

When I got to the road, I hid on the driver side of a small car occupied by newlyweds.  For some reason, they were oblivious to events unfolding right outside their car.  When they did take notice, what they saw was a Ranger standing next to the driver door holding a shotgun and a large brown creature coming up fast on the passenger side of the car.

I could hear both screaming at the top of their lungs as they looked back and forth at the bison and then me.  After a few minutes of snorting, head shaking, and foot-stomping near the car, the bison made his point and lost interest in chasing the Rangers. He turned away and headed for the Yellowstone River and washed away any evidence of yellow paint marking him as a bad boy.

Somewhere in Japan, there are photos and videos of two Park Rangers being chased through the woods at Buffalo Ford by one of the biggest bison ever to roam the hills of Hayden Valley.