For whatever reason, I had the bright idea to pick a central location for my trip into the Great Plains to stay, Lead South Dakota. Staying here was a good idea for a few National Parks I was planning on seeing, but it meant I had a long day to get to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I didn't mind too much in the morning as I was excited to see some of the Great Plains and the drive is an equally exciting part of the journey as the destination.
I took my time taking as many side roads as I could afford to take. It still being late in the Spring, all the plant life was still so green and vibrant; it was as if I was in the old Windows XP background. Also, one of the most exciting thing for me around this trip was to find some Bison, so every corner and hill hide the potential excitement of seeing them. I knew that TRNP had Bison, but finding them early in the trip would be awesome.
I got to the park in the early afternoon and started to make a game plan. I would see what I could of the south unit, then drive around and hike into the South Unit's Petrified Forest, after that I would head up and see what the North Unit had to offer. Unfortunately, I would not have enough time to visit the Elkhorn Ranch Unit.
After a busy afternoon of making all the stops and even a few hikes in the south unit, I finally came across a lone Bison. To say I was excited was an understatement if I only knew what was ahead of me. He was slowly meandering around in a field munching on some food. The light wasn't that great, but I was able to zoom in and get a pretty cool high contrast black and white. He eventually made his way further into the field where I no longer felt safe pursuing him, so I peeled off, finished exploring the South Unit, and made my way to the Petrified Forest.
As I neared the trailhead to the Petrified Forest, the wind picked up quite a bit, and a pretty gnarly storm was on the horizon. I decided to take the gamble and head in anyways. It was about a mile or so hike to the Forest, and no one was around. I love going to these places and having them all to myself; it's magical. I held out as long as I could, but the storm was starting to pick up and move in fast. The clouds did add quite a bit of drama to the petrified forest. As I was hiking out, more like running through the rain, I came over a hilltop field I had to cross. Can you guess what was now there that wasn't before? Buffalo! But this time I was feeling entirely different about them since I was on foot in the middle of a storm and they were in between me and where I needed to be. I did my best to stay calm and went out of my way to give them space.
I was now off the North unit and feeling great. I was having a blast seeing all these wondrous things feeling quite content. With about two hours in between the Petrified Forest and the North Unit, the storm was gone, and the light was terrific. I hardly saw another car driving the entire time I was in the North Unit, there were a few campers, but Park was pretty much mine. I made my way through, again stopping everywhere trying to see all that I could when the most amazing thing happened. I drove up a hill around a corner and right there in front of me was about 30-50 Bison in a golden field with the sun setting behind them. I nearly fell over.
I have no idea how long I was there with them, half the time I was merely watching trying to remember to take photos. It was absolutely magical. It was just them and me, no one was around, and they were close. I stayed safe in my truck and did my best not to disturb them. I waited as late and as long as I could, but I was at least five hours away from my pillow that night.
But, the day still had one more amazing treat in store. After failing to find a spot on the drive back to shoot the sunset, I was pretty much just focused on getting home for the evening. It must have been close to midnight when I started to notice some funny looking clouds in the sky. At first, I did assume just that, clouds, but as I kept driving their perspective and relationship to the horizon was not staying consistent. It took me a few more minutes to realize that it wasn't clouded at all, but the Northern Lights! Holy crap, I didn't even know you could see them from the lower 48. I pulled over as soon as I could and fired off as many pictures as I could, but the moment was fleeting and not meant to last. Today was one of the best days of exploring I ever had.
Photography Date: 5-27-17
Writing Date: 7-25-18
