On Day Seven, the weather forced me to completely change my plans. It has been raining on and off all week. Usually, that is fine if it matches the mood of the towns, but this day brought a continuous, torrential downpour. Knowing the rain was going to hang around the area I was traveling, I chose to head south into Oklahoma early.
I had been toying with the idea of hitting a bison reserve, researching a couple in Kansas and one in Oklahoma. They are all connected by tallgrass wildlife preserves and organizations dedicated to protecting these open spaces. The biggest reserve in the area, down in Oklahoma, was four hours away from where I was staying, so I made the decision to start the journey early in the morning.
The downpour made for a heavy drive just to reach the highway, and things only got more interesting once I went off-road. It was nothing but long, empty, muddy dirt roads stretching through field after field. When I finally arrived at the reserve headquarters, a staff member was waiting on the front porch to greet me. It turned out she was not getting many visitors due to the storms, though she mentioned a car full of soccer fans from Norway had been out earlier just having fun in the rain.
She warned me that I most likely would not see any bison, noting how disappointing it is when people drive all that way only to see an empty landscape. She mentioned hearing them in the distance occasionally but doubted any were close to the road. She also warned me that the trail might be flooded out in one spot, meaning I might have to turn back.
With her map in hand, I started driving the loops. In the first section, the landscape was quiet. I saw a deer, plenty of rabbits, and tons of birds. I even followed a roadrunner who decided to stay right in front of my truck for as long as he could. He would sprint ahead, turn around to watch me, and then bolt again. It was incredibly comical, almost exactly like the cartoon, though slightly frustrating since he stayed directly in my path when all he had to do was fly away.
I finally reached the area she warned could be flooded, and that was where I spotted a herd. They were way off in the sky-line, much further than my longest lens could reach. At that point, I figured that distant view was going to be my only shot. Still, I pushed the truck through the high water, made it up to the other side, turned the corner, and found a completely different herd grazing right on the shoulder of the road. There were dozens of bison of all different ages, and some of the biggest bulls were standing just yards away from my window.
The rain turned out to be the best part of the day. Because of the weather, I was the only person out there. On a normal day, a crowd would have formed, which easily could have scared or harassed the herd. Instead, it was just me. I rolled down my window to take it in, and eventually opened the door to just sit there in the cab, watching and photographing them for about an hour.
The best part of the experience was the sound. Listening to their heavy grunts, deep moans, and the constant chomping of the grass was incredible. They reminded me a lot of my dog, Argos. They are absolutely gorgeous, powerful creatures, and the rain made the whole experience even better. When I made it back to the main building, the woman at the desk was genuinely excited to hear what I had found.
Before leaving, I explained that I needed to head back up into Kansas, but I wanted to go east so I wasn’t repeating the same route. There is absolutely no cell signal in that region, and since this detour was unplanned, I didn’t have a physical map or a pre-loaded itinerary for the area. I asked her how to navigate back, and she literally just pointed out the window and told me to take that dirt road and head north.
It wasn’t quite that simple. I had to rely entirely on the compass in the truck. Whenever I hit an unmarked fork in the mud, I just chose the path pointing north or northeast. That turned into a tense, hour-and-a-pointless-forty-five-minute drive with no cell service, no pavement, and nothing but a compass heading. It all worked out in the end. I eventually struck a main road and ended up exactly where I needed to be. The entire detour was completely worth it.
Raw video below with sounds.
Day Seven.
tr/trp
Wow , that is F’ing cool. Best pictures to date for my
Money!!!