I like to call them buffalo, but they are actually Bison.

This one was sitting on a hill in the middle of a grouping of hot springs. He/She/It seemed incredibly content, just sitting there chewing. The pathway ran about 5 feet away from it, and the path was crowded with tourists walking to the next vat of hot smelly water with steam ascending into the air.

Wisely, no one was staying on the path near this one. They walked past, ogling but not stopping. I walked to within about 15 feet, took this photograph, and then turned around and went back down the hill. I figured as long as there were a couple of people closer than I was, I was safe. If it rampaged, it would stop to trample and mangle the people closest to it before it would get to me. (I use the same philosophy on the freeway. As long as there is someone going faster than me, I figure they will get the ticket and not me. Just don’t be the fastest, or in the case, the closest.)

As I went down the hill, a park ranger was heading up, apparently worried that someone would be stupid enough to actually try to pet the beast. I suspect that there are people that stupid. Thus the Darwin Awards.

Bison are just so strange looking… their heads are too big. Tiny eyes, the cutest little tongue (I mean, just look at it), and mouths too small for their nose. But lookit the horns…. mean.