Now Kids, Don't Try This At Home!

The reckless adventurer in me, made me do it. (honest!)

A day trip to the Midway Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park, WY located on the Firehole River between the Upper and Lower Geyser Basins was the perfect destination for the day's activities. Home to the Grand Prismatic Spring and Excelsior Geyser, it was definitely worth the drive from our home base in Canyon Village. The Grand Prismatic Spring is by far the largest hot spring in Yellowstone, and is thought to be the third largest in the world. In 1871, the Hayden Expedition named this spring as such because of its beauty, and artist Thomas Moran created water-color sketches mirroring its "rainbow-like" colors. Now, a geyser basin isn't exactly where a person is going to find a cornucopia of bird species, let alone any living creature other than the numerous boardwalk shuffling, deluxe motor coach disembarking, tourist. I took a chance anyway and strapped on the old Bushnells, and slung the Fuji Finepix 5200 around one shoulder, hoping for a chance to capture an image or two of a "frequent flyer

Other than the occasional Raven of which their were few, hopping along the tall grass next to the Firehole river bank and an overfly of an American Robin, apparently birds had no reason to visit the barren, boiling, roiling, landscape. I was lamenting this fact while traveling the plank pathway when things got interesting. Up ahead standing in the center of a loop of walkway two furry behemoths stood. The heat from the nearby spring and the smell of sulphur clashed with the bucolic backdrop against which the mighty bison are usually seen and photographed. "What the heck," I thought. "Why not take a couple of photos myself and maybe even a video, after all, I was not seeing any birds, and they were just standing there..."

The rest of my family (and anyone else within my reach) seemed to have vacated the immediate area for the opposite side of the loop from the drooling, snuffling, leviathans. I however did not see the mass human exodus as I was busy peering into the viewfinder of my camera at one of the beasts. I had set the device for a digital movie and was dutifully training the lens on an approaching bison. The dark brown, hoofed giant clip-clopped its way up onto, then lumbered slowly across the boardwalk as I panned. An excited warning shout from several family members barely registered in my head as I reasoned I had maintained plenty of distance from the subject of my feature film. I did too, from THAT bison. I had nearly forgotten its "buddy" and what it may have decided to do at that moment. before I knew it, too stunned to move I swung the camera around into the (far too near) face of the copy-cat friend as up onto the wood it clambered and across, it bulldozed to the other side as the high pitched squeals from the witnesses to my near-miss collision, sounded the alarm in my preoccupied brain. "Whew, that was close!" exclaimed someone. "He's nuts!" echoed somebody else. I'm thinking; "That was dumb, Joe."

Yeah, I guess that proves the old axiom; Better to be lucky than good!













Birdstud Takes Charge!