You may be thinking, a selfie with a bison? Are you nuts? If we’d been trying to get one, then yes, that would be a crazy thing to do. But it happened quite by accident.
Likely you've seen news reports where a tourist has tried to get up close with a buffalo or other wild animal in Yellowstone. That often doesn’t turn out well. More humans in Yellowstone National Park are injured by bison than by any other wild animal, including grizzly bears. The T-shirts out west, which read, 'Don't pet the fluffy cows,' are a humorous reminder of a serious subject.
American bison are North America’s largest land mammal. Adult bison cows weigh about 1,000 pounds and reach a height of 4-5 feet, while full-grown bulls can weigh twice as much, up to 2,000 pounds, and get 6 feet tall. As large and heavy as they look, you might make the mistake of assuming that they are slow.
Bison are extremely agile, and they are fast. They can spin around faster than a horse and jump over high fences. Bison can run up to 35 miles per hour (three times as fast as the average human). Don’t think you can outrun a bison. You cannot.
Throughout Yellowstone, there are signs explaining that 25 yards is a safe length between you and a bison. That's about the length of a school bus, which is easy for young kids to remember.
In 2021, during one of our daily visits to Yellowstone, we were walking along one of the wooden pathways, which allowed us to view the mud caldron in the mud volcano area, not thinking about bison, when a fully grown bull came down the hill to eat grass. He was closer than a school bus, which had me worried.
Tourists on the wooden path with us were excited and wanted pictures.
So, this is how we ended up with this selfie of us with a bison. Mike is laughing because I said, “Don’t look it in the eyes and back away, slow.” I was worried it would charge us.
After we got these pictures, we went back to our truck.
Mud flats from the boardwalk.
Afterward, because I wanted to know if my instincts were right, I read more from the National Park Service advice on preventing a bison attack.
If the bison stops what it’s doing and looks up at you, that’s a clear sign you’re too close. Back away slowly. Don’t run or make any sudden movements. If the bison is walking down the trail toward you, either retreat where you came from or leave the trail, giving it a wide berth. Surprised bison often run away but may stop and take a closer look at you. Assess the situation and distance. Either back away slowly, allowing them to move, or walk around them, and always keep your distance. Never approach a bison. If the bison doesn’t move, it’s you who should back away.
Bison warning signs that it may charge include snorting, shaking or tossing its head, pawing the ground, raising its tail, and bluff charges
Making yourself large and making noise will not scare off a bison. This will not deter an angry bison. Your best chance of escaping an attacking bison unharmed is finding cover right away. If there are trees around, take cover behind one and keep moving as the animal tries to get to you. Any large object will do, including cars and restroom buildings. Climbing a tree is also a good idea, if you can. You do not want to get caught by its horns and tossed into the air, which has happened.
The bison rut begins in July and lasts through August. In this period, bulls are fired up on testosterone and will fight other bulls for dominance over females. It’s especially important to keep your distance from individual bison and bison herds this time of year.
Later, a park ranger told us bison bulls, who can’t be part of a herd, because the bull in charge kicks him out, have learned to stay close to the tourists. This is safer for them as it’s less likely they will encounter wolves. Usually, they want to eat the grass or drink water. But you still do not want to get close to them.
By 2023, the season we worked in Cody, Wyoming, I had learned more about the animals in Yellowstone and how to be safe. As I was showing and renting log cabins, it became clear that many tourists were unaware of safety issues with bison or other wild animals. I always told them, never get between a wild animal and its young, a wild animal and its food, and a wild animal and water. You may not know if it has young nearby.
I would suggest getting a good pair of binoculars and a camera with a good zoom lens to take pictures of the wildlife in Yellowstone.
One of my newest books, MONTANA DELTA RODEO COWBOY: BODYGUARD PROTECTOR, is set around Cody, Wyoming, and Billings, Montana, both areas I learned well as we lived in Cody. The entrance to Yellowstone is just two hours away.
I have many more stories to share about our travels out west, and next month, I’ll share our trip to an old ghost town out west.
One of my writing projects is a book about our first year living full-time in the motorhome, which includes our long go west trip from Ohio to the California redwoods and back to Memphis, TN. I’ll work on this book in between writing my fiction, with plans to publish the travel tales in 2026.
You can read more of my travel posts on my travel blog:
https://beautifuldaytraveler.wordpress.com/2025/10/03/the-day-a-bison-came-close-for-our-selfie/
If you have questions about our fulltime motorhome lifestyle, send me an email, and they may appear in a future Tales from the Trailer article.
I’m wishing you happy reading and a beautiful day, until next time, when I return with more Tales from the Trailer.
In the heart of Big Sky Country, where the rugged beauty of Montana surrounds her, Emma Pearl Smith finds herself on the run from one of the most dangerous Mexican cartels operating in Montana. With a target on her back and nowhere to hide, she seeks refuge in the one place she never expected - with a rodeo cowboy who lives by his own code of honor.
Her boss is killed by the cartel, just as she is about to begin her vacation in Bozeman, and her escort, Nathan Smalls, helps Emma go on the run, changing her name to Pearl Hayes.
On their way to Billings, Montana, cartel members catch up to them on the highway and begin shooting. Surprised by a DEA task force set up to stop semi shipments from the cartel, Emma and Nathan escape being killed. But with gunshot serious wounds, they are sent to the Billings Clinic.
Enter Destry Walsh, a battle-hardened Delta Force veteran whose life has revolved around keeping others safe. He's working as an RN when a young woman is brought in with a gunshot wound and sent into surgery, and the ICU, his floor. With a police guard on her door and knowing she'll need protection once she is released, he volunteers to hide her and protect her at his ranch.
When he takes on the job of Emma's bodyguard, he quickly discovers that protecting her is more than a duty - it's a fierce, unyielding passion that ignites in the face of danger. As they get to know each other, the line between shy protector and the shy secretary becomes blurred, igniting a connection neither of them can resist.
With the cartel closing in and a shadowy past that threatens to unravel their fragile sanctuary, time may be running out.
When he takes her to her first rodeo at the Buffalo Bill Cody Stampede in Cody, Wyoming, on the fourth of July, on their first date, she makes one fatal mistake.
In the dusty stands of the rodeo ring beneath the star-studded skies of Cody, Wyoming, love and danger collide, forcing them to fight for their future.
Montana Delta Rodeo Protector: Bodyguard Protector is a heart-racing romantic suspense that will leave you breathless and rooting for a couple forged in adversity, where loyalty and love are tested against the most formidable odds. Will they find the strength to survive, or will the past tear them apart forever?
Romance Suspense | Romance Western | Romance Medical [Belo Dia Publishing Inc., On Sale: August 4, 2025, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781961422056 / eISBN: 1230009178670]
A cowboy and returned warrior is just the protector Emma needs
Debra Parmley is an adventurous, multi-genre author and world traveler who, after living for 23 years just outside Memphis, in Bartlett, suggested to her husband that they not wait for his retirement to follow one of their dreams. In 2020, they sold their house and everything in Memphis to move into a 43-foot motorhome full-time to travel the U.S. Today she writes as they travel.
Published since 2008, this bestselling, award-winning author has more than 38 books in print. A Gemini, born June 7th, and sharing a birthday with Prince, Debra loves purple, polka dots, imagining stories, and playing with words.
Debra married her high school sweetheart, whom she asked out on a five-dollar bet. She has been married to her Air Force veteran husband for 43 years. Debra enjoys writing military romantic suspense and making sure her veteran heroes have a happy ever after that will last.
She also writes historical romance, contemporary romance, dystopian romance, urban fantasy romance, fairytale romance, holiday romance, poetry, and nonfiction.
Being an adventurous author and world traveler, Debra has visited over 13 countries and has even escorted a bus full of clients through Scotland when she worked as a travel agent. She has swum with dolphins off the island of Moorea in French Polynesia, sailed on several seas on many cruises, ridden the cog train to the top of Pike’s Peak, and lived in their motorhome on the sandbar called Hatteras Island. She likes to climb lighthouses because she is afraid of heights, and she is always determined to try.
You will find danger, action and adventure, and romance in her stories, backed by the belief that “every day we are alive is a beautiful day” which is a part of everything she does with her writing and her life.
In her Tales from the Trailer articles for Fresh Fiction, she shares the RV lifestyle and travel adventures in the U.S. from the point of view of a working author.
As Debra Bishop, she writes fairytales and children’s stories.
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