Wednesday, April 2, 2014

B is for Bison Jam

No, bison jam is not something you spread on your toast, and no, it is not a group of bison playing musical instruments. It is this:


Bison jams happen when a herd of bison take over the roadway, and all the cars have to stop and wait for them to pass on by. If you have to be in any sort of traffic jam, bison jams are always the best.

I worked in Yellowstone National Park in the first half of the '90s, and it was a great experience. I always try to head out that way for a vacation whenever I can, and the picture above was taken at the end of May, 2010. May is one of my favorite months to visit Yellowstone since it's not as crowded as June through August, and there are a lot more animals visible for us tourists since the high ground still has lots of snow. And also - babies! Lots of bison babies. Who doesn't like babies!?


Autumn is a great time to see the park, too, since there are bull elk in rut; they battle each other and also like to bugle to let the females know they're around. So I could have used Bugling Elk, Battling Elk, or Bull Elks in Rut, but I don't really have any good pictures of those. Plus, like I mentioned earlier, the month of May has lots of....Babies!!! Which is also a B word, but a little too broad of a topic for the purposes of this journal entry.

10 comments:

  1. We only get Regular Old Cattle Jams and Sheep Jams round these parts. A Bison Jam looks far more interesting!

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  2. Great post! I love Yellowstone...and the Tetons. We saw a lot of Bison...and I even had Bison Pot Pie!

    Here where I live it is deer jams. They are so used to people and cars that I have to continue moving my car forwards slowly to get them to move so I can get to my house.

    Happy A-Z April!

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  3. That is awesome. Bison Jam. Love it. Here in Rochester, N.Y. we have Canada Goose Jam. Their babies look like furry footballs.

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    1. I grew up in Rochester, MN, and we had a lot of Canada Geese hanging out there, too.

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  4. Great Post! I will never forget what a Bison Jam is, but I confess when I read the title I did picture toast! #AtoZchallenge happy to connect.

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  5. I've been seeing reports of the bison running on the road, apparently because a volcano in Yellowstone is about to erupt. Did you ever see them running while jamming?

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    1. Ha! Bison run on the road all the time. They are basically herd animals, so in the same way cattle might stampede, bison will do the same thing.

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