bison and cowboys

We had a busy day Saturday (10/31/09) and none of it had anything to do with Halloween costumes. First we headed out to Antelope Island State Park for the first day of their annual Bison Round Up. The island is home to a herd of approximately 600 bison and every year volunteers drive them to the bison corrals at the north end of the island where they are inspected, ministered to and ear-tagged by a veterinarian. Some of the herd is culled and sold at auction so as to keep the herd at sustainable numbers for the size of the island; we were tempted to buy one but (1) don’t know if you’re allowed to drive your new bison straight to the butcher shop and (2) we didn’t want to have to pay our landlords extra for a second pet.


We got out there a little after 9:00 a.m. and, after a quick check of the bison corrals (empty), drove down towards the Fielding-Garr Ranch, stopping to admire pronghorn antelope, jackrabbits and a lone coyote on our way. The round up had started at 8:30 a.m. because we soon came across a sizable (although not nearly 600) herd of bison calmly walking north while a sizable number of volunteer cowboys ambled their horses alongside them. They weren’t driving the bison any faster than a walk and stopped occasionally to let the bison rest and graze; at the rate they were going it was truly going to take all day. Further south we found a smaller herd with just a few cowboys and these bison weren’t quite so biddable: one of them, I’m guessing a young male, decided that he wasn’t having any of this rounding up business and ran for the hills, gaining elevation quickly and soon disappearing from sight. One cowboy gave token chase but then returned to the rest of the herd; the escapee will only have gotten a short reprieve as the round up uses helicopters to spot stragglers and All Bison Will Be Rounded Up.


It wasn’t super-exciting but it was fun to see … which was also our experience at the Utah vs. Wyoming football game that evening. The Utes were playing the Cowboys at 6:00 p.m. so we tossed the dog in the car and drove up to the game, finding free parking at a lot halfway across the campus from the arena. Since it was a night game, we dressed the part: wool socks, long underwear, multiple layers, hats and gloves, and even stole a fleece blanket from B’s crate to sit on. Also, since it was Halloween, the game was a “Blackout” and so everyone wore black instead of red.

After a gyro (for me) and an Italian sausage (for H), and some sight-seeing at the base of the 2002 Olympic Torch, we took our seats and enjoyed the game. Although we’d hoped for big scoring and thrilling plays, it was really not to be until the fourth quarter when the Utes scored two touchdowns to win 22-10. The crowd was way into the game, however, which made it fun. It did take us a while to get out of the parking lot and back onto the beltway but even with the traffic jams, the roundtrip travel by car was shorter and cheaper than the trip on Trax last weekend.

Oh, and Real Salt Lake won their first playoff game 1-0. They play multiple games in this round with the aggregate goal leader moving on, so I wish they’d scored a few more.