For most Americans, seeing a bison in the wild feels like a lucky day. But at one time, bison could be found from interior Alaska to northern Mexico, and from California to the Atlantic seaboard. Most concentrated in the American Midwest, but they also roamed into Kentucky, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. Wildlife historians and scientists estimate that 30-60 million bison migrated across the continent before colonialism nearly wiped them out.
By 1884, fewer than 400 bison remained in America, with less than three dozen inside Yellowstone National Park. Guns were mounted on trains so that tourists could shoot at bison for sport as they zipped across the prairies. Hunters would hide in ambush, wait for a herd to get close, then open fire with a rifle. Instead of running, the bison would freeze. A hunter could single-handedly shoot 75-100 in a day, often taking only the parts that would fetch him top dollar and leaving the rest to rot.
Through numerous conservation efforts, America has over 400,000 bison today. However, not all of them are wild. Over ninety percent are privately owned on bison ranches, raised for commercial meat. Many carry a touch of cattle DNA from earlier crossbreeding experiments. Only about 30,000 are part of truly wild herds.
A trip along US Route 89 takes you past several places where you can spot buffalo herds.
Grand Canyon National Park (North Rim & Kaibab Plateau), ARIZONA
In 1906, Charles Jesse “Buffalo” Jones brought a herd of 87 bison from Utah to the Kaibab Plateau. President Theodore Roosevelt set aside the area as the “Grand Canyon Game Preserve. Arizona Game & Fish took over herd management in 1929. The herd grew in size, and about sixty years later, around a hundred animals migrated to the Grand Canyon’s North Rim, where they remain to this day. Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona Game & Fish, and the Kaibab National Forest co-manage this distinct herd.
Look for bison along Highway 67 from Jacob Lake to the park, and in the meadow areas south of the park entrance. You are more likely to see them in meadows in early morning and evening twilight.
Zion Mountain Ranch (near Zion National Park), UTAH
A private herd of about 40 bison can be seen along Highway 9 just east of Zion National Park’s East Entrance. Guests at Zion Mountain Ranch can choose from multiple lodges, eat farm-to-table at Cordwood, book recreational tours for the park, or sign up for a bison feeding tour.
Antelope Island State Park, UTAH
The bison herd on Antelope Island was ferried over in 1893. Their numbers grew rapidly, and buffalo hunts were organized, attracting big-name hunters. When the State of Utah purchased the island and the herd, they turned it into a state park. Today, the herd numbers between 550 and 700 animals. Each October, they round up the herd for examinations, vaccinations, and culling when necessary, then release them to roam freely for the rest of the year. It is one of the country’s largest and oldest publicly owned herds.
National Elk Refuge, WYOMING
Ranchers around Jackson, Wyoming, supported the founding of the National Elk Refuge in 1912 to keep wild elk from eating their cattle feed during the winter months. Since then, the Refuge has served as winter habitat and a preserve for the Jackson elk herd, along with other animals, including bison, bighorn sheep, moose, and deer. The largest bison herd in the National Wildlife Refuge System, around 800 in total, uses the area for its winter range.
Grand Teton National Park, WYOMING
In the 1800s, unchecked hunting practices erased bison from the Jackson Hole area. In 1948, some Yellowstone bison were transported to the newly established Jackson Hole Wildlife Park near Moran Junction and Oxbow Bend. Brucellosis wiped out that original herd in 1963, so the following year, a new herd was sent from Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. In 1968, fifteen bison broke through a fence and became the ancestors of a growing herd of free-roaming animals. They discovered the winter range at the National Elk Refuge near Jackson, where they could thrive through the winter and grow in numbers. Today, the herd in Grand Teton numbers between 500 and 1,000.
Antelope Flats is the most reliable spot to find bison in Grand Teton National Park. In the early morning and afternoons, you can usually spot them at Willow Flats near Jackson Lake. Other viewing locations include Mormon Row, the Elk Ranch Flats turnout, and Oxbow Bend.
Yellowstone National Park, WYOMING & MONTANA
The most important bison herd in the United States lives in Yellowstone National Park, home to the largest population, numbering 3,500 to 6,000 animals. It’s also the only place where bison have lived uninterrupted since prehistoric times. They came within 23 animals of being erased altogether. The descendants of that handful of survivors make up the bison herd today. You can see them year-round in the Lamar Valley and Hayden Valley. In the summer, they seek grasslands where they can graze freely. In the winter, they migrate toward the hydrothermal areas and along the Madison River.
Blackfeet Nation Bison Reserve (near Glacier National Park), MONTANA
In the face of near extinction, a few iinnii (Blackfeet word for bison) were captured on Blackfeet land and eventually protected in Canada’s Elk Island National Park. While there, they were protected from crossbreeding experiments with cattle, so they retained their pure DNA. After 125 years in Canada, the Blackfeet Nation in Montana received 87 direct descendants. The goal now is to allow these bison to live wild, free-roaming lives across tribal lands, into Glacier National Park, and across the border into Canada’s Waterton Lakes National Park. This initiative is a collaboration between both parks and the Blackfeet Nation.
The herd’s location is seasonal, but people often see them grazing along US Route 89 between the city of Browning and Babb near the Canada border.
Visitor Centers with Bison Exhibits
- Antelope Island State Park Visitor Center: Bison artifacts and replicas, educational displays, and live sighting information offer a glimpse into the island’s bison history, how and where they live, plus fun interactive elements for all ages.
- Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitor Center: Explore places, people, preservation, mountaineering, and Indigenous tribes, and learn about the vital migration of animals across this landscape, including bison. This visitor center is in Grand Teton National Park.
- National Elk Refuge & Greater Yellowstone Visitor Center: Located in downtown Jackson, Wyoming, this visitor center features interactive dioramas, local geology, and wildlife displays. The second floor is an observation deck and pond overlook with views of the nearby National Elk Refuge. Winter sleigh rides begin and end here.
- First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park: Just outside of Great Falls, Montana, tour this state park’s visitor center to learn about the largest buffalo jump in the United States. Hundreds of years ago, the indigenous people orchestrated bison drives over the nearby cliff. Learn about the bison, and hike or drive to the top of the jump.
Bison are the largest land-dwelling mammal in North America and became the country’s official national mammal in 2016. Males can weigh up to 2,000 pounds, and females up to 1,000 pounds. They are usually a deep chocolate color with ragged hair on their head, shoulders, and forelegs, and shorter hair on their hindquarters and flanks. Calves start out a reddish color. Both males and females sport short horns that curve upwards.
The protruding shoulder hump on all bison is not fat storage. It’s massive shoulder and neck muscle. In the winter, they swing their heads back and forth to clear snow from the grasses below. They are great swimmers and runners, reaching speeds of up to 35 miles per hour, and can jump up to five feet over obstacles. They wallow in dirt to rid themselves of loose hair and parasites.
If you see a herd of bison moving along, you are typically seeing the cows, calves, and other young. The bulls are more solitary or travel in small groups with other males. In late summer or early fall, they rejoin the herd for the rut. The bulls bellow, stir up dust in their wallows, and go head to head to show off as they prepare for mating.
Cattle ranchers typically fight against free-roaming bison initiatives because of brucellosis, a bacterial disease carried by bison and elk. If it passes to cattle, it causes them to abort, reducing herd size and profitability of their operations. No documented record shows bison passing this disease to cattle. It is usually spread to ranches from elk, but bison are the scapegoats in this issue. The Threshold podcast has an entire season on bison worth bingeing, and it offers an enlightening dive into brucellosis.
Stay Safe & Never Pet the “Fluffy Cows”
Bison are not your friends. They are powerful wild animals that are known to charge and impale careless tourists.
- Maintain distance: Keep at least 25 yards from bison without exception.
- Use a zoom lens: No photo or selfie is worth the pain and suffering they might inflict. Use a telephoto lens.
- Stay in your vehicle: If you see bison on the road or in a parking lot, stay in your car. Take your time and show them respect. Don’t honk or zip around them.
- Watch for warning signs: Bison usually signal aggression by raising their tails, bobbing their heads, pawing the ground, snorting, bellowing, or bluff charging.
- Back away slowly: If you encounter a bison, back away slowly without running. Running can trigger their chase response.
* All images ©2024 Vicky Derksen
