Thrilling Encounter: Brave Man Confronts Bison in National Park Under the Moonlight

One summer in the late 90’s, my husband and I were camping along the southern edge of Yellowstone. After three days of sandwiches, I needed “real” food and told my husband we were driving into Jackson (WY) for dinner. I made this revelation just as it was starting to get dark.

As I was driving through Grand Tetons NP in the darkness, my husband turned to me and said, “I have to pee.” Well, there weren’t any bathrooms around, but my headlights shone on some large rocks up ahead off to the side of the road. I told him I’d stop at the rocks; he could run out behind them, do his business, and hop back in the car.

After stopping, he hopped out of the car and quickly made his way behind the rocks. He hadn’t been gone for a minute when he came racing back to the car. Jumping in yelling “GO! GO! GO!”. What’s wrong, I asked. He yelled, “Those aren’t rocks! They’re bison!”

Sure enough, I backed my car up and shone my lights on a large group of bison lying down chewing their cud. My husband told me he had started to pee on one of the “rocks” when the rock started to shake violently. It was then his eyes began adjusting to the dark and he saw the bison looking somewhat annoyed by my husband’s wet intrusion and shaking his entire back to get it off.

That’s right, my husband has pee’d on a bison and lived to tell the tale.

Moral of the story – Don’t wander out in the National Parks at night without a flashlight and don’t pee on the bison.

By Rebecca C. B