Steinke Ranch

 

Steinke Ranch

After we attended my niece’s wedding, we headed for western South Dakota to explore around there.  Before we got there, though, we spent a nice on a buffalo (the rancher’s term) ranch.  It was very nice to be able to have our choice of where on his ranch we would set up camp.  He gave us a tour, and we actually were with him in his UTV when he had to herd a couple of buffalo back to the field where he wanted them to be, at least temporarily!

Once we chose our site, the rancher said that the buffalo needed to be herded into the field next to us.  He told us to remain in our rig while he herded them right past us and to the “next door” field.  They weren’t moving fast as they headed toward us but knowing each one of them weighed in at about 1200 pounds made my heart flutter a bit.  I was certainly glad to be in a very sturdy RV!! (Just as an fyi, the small white building is a blind, which is used by hunters when it’s deer season.)

Here's a good view the buffalo strolling past our RV.  One important piece of information – these are actually bison.  I began to call them buffalo on this blog, because that is a common name for them.  However, bison have the large hump on the back of their shoulders, which you can see well in this image.  Buffalo do not.  Now, you may be wondering why all you ever see is the humped shoulder variety.  That’s because bison (with the hump) live in North America, while buffalo (no hump) live in Asia and Africa.  From here on out, I’ll be calling them what they are – bison.

This was kind of a cute sight – a baby bison!!  All babies are cute, or so they say!!  I actually do think this little guy (or girl, I don’t know which) is pretty cute.  Mama wasn’t too happy with the RV, and in the second shot (on the right), you can see her giving me “the eye”!  Another interesting thing about bison, is that both males and females have horns, so you can’t use that to figure out their gender!

So, this guy (I’m assuming he was a guy because he seemed rather aggressive toward the RV) decided he wanted to try to intimidate the RV into moving.  Even though I knew I was safe in the Dodge Ram 5500 that our RV is built on, as he came closer and closer without slowing down or moving over, my breath did come a bit quicker!  He did slightly move over at the last minute, but he walked very close to the side of the rig.  I do want to explain that we were inside the RV, because the rancher said it was mating season, and the male bison could get very aggressive very quickly, so he wanted us inside for our own safety.

After the bison were on their side of the fence, we did get out and wander around our campsite a bit, just as the sun was setting.  I’m always amazed at how flowers can bloom in what seems like the most inhospitable environments and had to take an image of one of them!  The two sunset views are from early on in the sunset (more orange image) and just before the sun disappeared behind the trees and horizon.  It was very peaceful at our campsite, as the bison traveled toward the other end of the field, and we had no other campers around us.  Just a lovely evening!!

We were up early the next morning, and I was able to capture this beautiful beginning to the day before I was even fully awake!!  The peacefulness from the previous evening carried over into the morning.

Here were a couple of bison who came relatively close to the fence to have breakfast.  I think this was the same Mama and Baby as the previous day, simply because there weren’t that many in this herd.  And the male bison looked very majestic just standing n the field, calmly watching us.  They were especially watching Max, as we think he may have looked a bit like a wolf to them, and they are not fond of wolves!

And here’s another sunrise view, a bit later, just before we headed out to continue on our journey.  What a lovely break from the more populated areas of our trip!!

Enjoy!