September 30, 2022
The day has finally arrived, The Buffalo Roundup. Everyone has recommended that we get up early. I thought early was 5:30AM. I guess I was wrong. We arrived at the gate to enter the south side of the Wildlife Loop at 6:30AM. The Roundup starts at 9:30 AM. We got stopped about 4 cars back to make our turn. For the next 2 hours we slowly creeped along the roughly 7 mile trip. We got to our parking place, grabbed our chairs and the camera and tried to figure out the best place to view the herd. I snapped a few pictures and then attempted to film a video with my Nikon. Dummy me, I forgot to charge the battery. So I had my phone as a back up. Normally the Governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, would lead the herders on horseback. Unfortunately, she recently had back surgery so was unable to participate. However, she did walk her horse around the crowd and made an appearance. As an outsider, I think she is doing a great job.
Back to the roundup. As we were coming in, once we crossed the cattle grate, you could see hundreds of bison just mulling around and several cowboys/cowgirls keeping watch. This was one of two staging areas. It was awesome. In the viewing area, you’re basically watching the herd go by. You can hear the thundering of the hooves. Well, not this year. This has been an abnormal summer. Sunny, hot and drier. This year they had to take it easy on the bison so as not to push them too hard. They did come running by but not thundering. It was kind of neat to see the large cloud of dust and approximately 1,400 bison in one place.
The Buffalo Roundup is a 3 day event. At another location in Custer State Park, they set up an arts and craft fair. The day of the roundup, they also have cowboy pancakes for sale at the north and south viewing areas. We were too late for these. Then between the two viewing areas, they set up the corral where they herd the bison into. They are checked for health issues, some are tagged and then some are sold. The reason is that the park can only sustain about 1,000 bison. Also at this corral, you could purchase some BBQ. It would of been a very long walk and it was starting to warm up so we opted not to go. So we went home. In addition to our pictures and video, I have put the link to the YouTube video of the 2022 Buffalo Roundup. It's hard to believe our time here is over.
