— — the herd that decides when the road moves.
“In the upper Lamar, the herd has the right of way. Coming in from Silver Gate on the Northeast Entrance Road, a single bull can stop a line of cars for twenty minutes; a whole crossing herd can stop it for an hour. The valley holds one of the largest free-ranging bison populations in the country, and the road runs through their country, not the other way around.
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The Lamar Valley sits in the northeast corner of Yellowstone, reached from the Montana side through Silver Gate and Cooke City along U.S. 212. The road drops in along Soda Butte Creek and opens onto a broad glaciated trough at about 6,500 feet, often called America's Serengeti for its concentration of bison, elk, pronghorn, and wolves. The Northeast Entrance, the smallest of the park's five gates, stays open to wheeled vehicles year-round on the stretch from Gardiner through Mammoth and Tower to Cooke City.
Before dawn the valley empties of cars and the sound goes down to wind, water moving over stones in Soda Butte Creek, and the low knock of bison on the move. Wolf-watchers gather at the pull-offs near Slough Creek and the Confluence with spotting scopes; nobody talks above a low voice. By eight the buses arrive and the silence breaks. The half-hour before sunrise is the one most photographers and biologists drive in for, and it is the only time the valley sounds like itself.
Bison are in the Lamar year-round, but their visibility shifts with the calendar. In late April and May the rust-coloured calves arrive, called red dogs by locals, and the herds string out across the valley floor. July and August bring the rut, with bulls bellowing and tearing wallows in the dust. By November snow has closed U.S. 212 east of Cooke City, but the Northeast Entrance Road from Gardiner through Mammoth and Tower stays plowed and drivable all winter.