We traveled out of Wyoming today into Colorado. Before we got to the border we made a stop at the Terry Bison Ranch. They are the second largest bison ranch in the world. For those who are wondering, Ted Turner has the largest. Back when Mitchell was about 2 1/2 years old, we did a 28 day road trip with Mom-mom and Pop-pop Fitzgerald. This was one of our stops. Back then, we took a ride out to see the bison in a beat up old school bus that was painted red, white, and blue. At the time, we could feed the bison out the door. The website talks about this old bus but reports there is now a train that you can ride out to see the buffalo. We were excited to get up close and personal with them and to see how the ranch was doing since we last saw it 15 years ago.
We got to the ranch and it looked familiar. They were trying to go for an old west feel with a mocked up town. There is also a campground that we didn't remember from before. We got to the ticket counter and learned that the train was broken down, but we would go by bus. We thought this was cool, it was just like before. We pet the animals while we waited to get on the bus. We met a very large cow that is a Dunkirk from England and a pony named Peanut. We were told by a cowgirl there that she was a miniature. The normal sized ones are taller than the fence. We got on the bus and are pretty sure it is the same one from 2002.
We traveled out to the field where the bison roamed. This time, we could all buy food and feed them out the windows of the bus. They came right up to us and when they stuck out their tongues, we dropped the pellet into their mouth. Sometimes you got licked by a gooey tongue, but for the most part, it worked well. There was one bull who came over and would roll in the dirt once in a while and several young calves. One was still milking. Overall, it was pretty cool. There was one there named Gene Simmons (yes, after the guy from the rock band Kiss). You can probably guess why, he had the longest tongue ever. He got fed on the steps since he was sort of famous. The last time we were there, they talked about the bison Tinker. He was in the movie Dances with Wolves. Now they had a memorial for him. He lived to be 35 years old.
So a few facts about bison. They can run up to 40 miles per hour. They can jump from a standing position six feet high and from a running position higher. The bulls weigh in at 2000 lbs and stand 6 feet tall. They are 10-12.5 feet long. The bison are also called American Buffalo. Needless to say, with their stealth and their sheer weight, you don't want to tangle with one of these, so we stayed on the bus. We were out with them for about an hour and made our way back to the ranch. This ranch was 2/3 in Wyoming and 1/3 in Colorado. At the state line, we saw a large buffalo on a cliff. We learned on our tour that it was a Verizon cell phone tower. We saw them all along our journey, but just thought they were campy things someone put along the road. There's a picture of the buffalo below.
We spoke to a guy from the area while on the ranch and he told us about a toll road that avoided Denver traffic, as it was about 4:00 when we left the ranch. It was great - we made good time. When we got closer to Colorado Springs, we were at a standstill and it started to rain. We were looking at the mountains around us and later found out it was Pike's Peak. The roads were stop and go till we got to the campground. We got our site number and it was a back-in. That wasn't necessarily bad except we were across from a dog park and the lot across from our site was full of really big trucks and it was tight. Carolyn pulled into an empty spot to back the camper, but it just wasn't working. From out of nowhere, a lady asked if she could help us by moving her suburban. We thanked her as she did, but it was still really tight. Her boyfriend came over and told us turn by turn how to maneuver. Both were super helpful and friendly. They both stood out in the rain to help us get in perfectly. We don't know where they came from and didn't see them or their suburban after that, so we had to think they were angels that appeared to help us out.
The Ranch
Part of the herd
The bull rolling around
A cow (female).
The bull.
Hands reaching out feeding.
There was a pecking order and the calves got pushed out of the way when it came to feeding.
A storms a comin'
Cell phone tower buffalo.
Calves.
The gooey tongue.
Mitch trying to eat a pellet.
We got in the back of the bus so we had the extra window.
On the bus.
Mitch with Peanut.
More of the ranch.
Caris with the Dunkirk named Rosie.
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