Give me a home where the Buffalo roam and the hikers are kilted all day

**Matty Ross** · 20th October 13, 05:12 PM

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Antelope Island is definitely one of my favorite places to hike. Antelope is a 14-mile long Island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake here in Utah. Besides Antelope there is also a large heard of Bison numbering from 5-700. Today I walked right through the middle of a group of around 200.

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My goal for today was the summit of Sentry peak. Sentry is one of the lower peaks on the Island at an elevation of 5446 feet above sea level but only 1150 feet gain in a little over two miles.

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With temperatures in the high 50’s It was a perfect day and on a Sunday in late fall I had the mountain to my self. Well except for the Buffalo, mule deer and a lonesome Coyote.

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**mookien** · 20th October 13, 06:37 PM

Matty: Nice pics. Scary story. Who says "You can't roller skate in a buffalo herd."? Those are BIG animals. I wouldn't even have gotten as close to them as in your picture. That "lonesome Coyote" wasn't by any chance wearing a kilt, was he?

John

**Hawk** · 20th October 13, 07:01 PM

It appears you had a nice day hanging out with the "locals". So, did any of the larger buffalo take a liking to your kilt Matty?

Hawk

**Matty Ross** · 20th October 13, 07:24 PM

I have hiked amongst the buffalo a dozen times or so in the last 10 years I have never seen of heard of an aggressive one. I read today 300,000 people visit the Island every year. So I think they are used to people. The group in the first picture I walked straight toward them and they just moved out of my way.
I thought about that song this morning ; "You can't roller skate in a buffalo herd." If I had some of those mountain skates with the 4 inch wheels I think I could have done it.
I don’t think the lonesome Coyote" was wearing a kilt. I only saw him for a few seconds.

**mookien** · 20th October 13, 07:44 PM

Originally Posted by Matty Ross

I have hiked amongst the buffalo a dozen times or so in the last 10 years I have never seen of heard of an aggressive one. I read today 300,000 people visit the Island every year. So I think they are used to people. The group in the first picture I walked straight toward them and they just moved out of my way.
I thought about that song this morning ; "You can't roller skate in a buffalo herd." If I had some of those mountain skates with the 4 inch wheels I think I could have done it.
I don’t think the lonesome Coyote" was wearing a kilt. I only saw him for a few seconds.

You're a better man than I am Gunga Matty! I vividly remember a friend of mine approaching a mother moose with her calf in a peaceful and pastoral glen in Yellowstone. He yearned for a picture of them in that bucolic setting. Instead, the cow (only the Good Lord knows why they call them that - they look more like prehistoric behemoths to me) chased him many yards until he tripped over a log and broke the lens on his camera. I never heard a moose laugh before, or since.

I was more referring to that Coyote you might have gotten a glimpse of in a reflecting surface - like a mirror, maybe.