Category Archives: bison

Our World – The Fricking Frackers, Bison, and Longhorns of Woolaroc

Son and I went on another road trip Saturday.

First, SuperPizzaBoy does his weekly session with All Star Therapy Group. Here he riding the barrel racing pattern with Seven. Then it was off to Frank Phillip’s Woolaroc (Frank is the guy who started Phillips Petroleum way back when. He has been gone since 1950 or so but his company goes on. Woolaroc is his old ranch and museum. It is a heck of a place.)

When we got to the entrance it was a zoo. I’d never seen so many people. They told us at the gate that Phillips Petroleum was having their annual employee picnic. So we paid our admission and joined the fricking frackers of Phillips Petroleum at Woolaroc. (Note, I’m a big fan of fricking frackers.)

It was stop and go from the highway to the parking lot. The bison were wondering what the heck is going on.

Well at least some of them were. The rest were like ho hum.

This guy is all depressed looking for some reason.

There were some Texas Longhorns at the ranch.

I mean if you were a Texas Longhorn confined deep in Oklahoma Sooner country you’d be depressed also.

In the barn, the llama was bemused. He had never seen so many fricking frackers and fricking fracker family members.

The deer were on point also. If the bambi’s are not afraid of fricking frackers why should you be?

Later, I’ll post some pics from inside the museum. If you love western art, you’ll love Woolaroc.

Our World Tuesday

Our World – Road Trip with SuperPizzaBoy to Ride Horses, see some Bison, and Save a Turtle

Saturday Sweetie was going to spend some time with a friend so me and SuperPizzaBoy had the day to ourselves.

First stop was All-Star Therapy in Ramona, north of town. SPB rides there almost ever week. Here he is with “Seven” doing some rounds outside.

SPB worked under the direction of Lisa who should slap me silly for this pic. There was a daytime moon I was trying to get in the pic and didn’t even notice what Lisa was doing until later. You can just barely see the moon about right in the middle of the pic.

After All-Star SPB and I loaded up and went further north to the Nature Conservancy’s Tallgrass Praire Preserve north of Pawhuska, Oklahoma. I just love it up there for a number of reasons. You can really see a long ways. 39,000 acres of tallgrass praire. The largest remaining tallgrass praire on earth it is claimed.

You really are out in the middle of nowhere up there. You barely have cell phone coverage. An investor group wants to put a bunch of windmills up there to generate some so called “renewable” energy. They would sure ruin the view. But it would sure make investors rich! You are not one of them are you? What are you going to do with the money? I bet you are not going to build a home near any windmills.

We didn’t see any bison on our way into the preserve. We stopped and did the short loop nature trail. They have loops from 1/2 to 3 miles.

It was about as nice a day in July as you are ever going to get. It was in the low 80’s when we got there. See how lush and green the grass is. Usually everything is sun bleached, beat down, brown this time of year.

The wildflowers were pretty also.

SPB really liked the trail. He announced it was too short so we we walked a little on the longer trails.

On the way out the bison made an appearance. Here is a momma with two calves.

And then these two guys came straggling past along with a bunch of others.

In another part of the preserve we saw some cattle. Cows are more sociable than buffalo. They always stop and look where bison just barely acknowledge your present. I love these three.

And there were some white cattle also. You can tell that I really know my cows. You see you have white ones, black ones, multi-color ones, and so on. Anything else you want to know?

Very pretty coloring.

On our way out I almost ran over this dude. He was right on the edge of the ruts taking a nap.

I moved him to the side of the road. Hopefully it was the side he was wanting to go to. He was about to be turtleburger if I had left where I found him.

And then, SPB headed to Bartlesville for some barbecue and then “Home James” to the house. We were near the Pioneer Woman’s ranch but just were not in the mood to go say hello.

I love road trips. What did you do Saturday?

Our World Tuesday

The Bison of Jackson Hole

We saw lots of bison during our recent trip to the Grand Teton National Park in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

These animals are big. They didn’t seem much bothered by all the people around but I gave them a wide berth. I have a feeling that if they decided to chase you it could get serious very quickly.

There is something about watching bison that is pretty cool. It is great to see them in the wild.

This trip we didn’t get close to the Tetons except for a brief restroom stop at the park visitor center in Moose. Away from the crowds there is more room and quieter. The park headquarters is right under the flight path for the Jackson airport. A steady stream of corporate jets was quite irritating. It’s like the 1% were piling into the valley for a last stand or something.

Out on Antelope Flats where the bison were things were much more primitive. If you want to call digital cameras with zoom lenses primitive.

I just couldn’t get enough of these guys.

They have such small eyes for such large animals. I guess they see what they need to.

Camera Critters

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve

Earlier this week I took a day off and the family drove up to Pawhuska, Oklahoma to visit the Tallgrass Praire Preserve owned by the Nature Conservancy. It was my third trip there in the last year but neither Sweetie nor SuperPizzaBoy had seen it before.

They have bison, lots of bison, all over the place.

They have grand vistas of sky, rolling hills, and trees.

There are also birds, including this (What I think is a killdeer?)

She was yakking at us. We must have been too close to a nest or something. We left here alone.

The Preserve, formerly a working cattle ranch, has oil wells, apparently existing in harmony with the bison.

And there were spring breakers photographing everything in sight.

Including each other

The preserve encompasses 39,000 acres much of it the bluestem grass that the bison love to eat. Here is a link to travelok.com with some more information and describing how to get there from where you are.

On the way home to Tulsa, well outside the Preserve, we came upon a prairie fire. It was spectacular.

It’s been dry and windy lately. Hey smokers don’t be tossing your butts out the window!

We also passed this ranch gate. We’re guessing it is to the ranch home of the Pioneer Woman. But that is just a guess. If you have never checked out her blog you need to. It is something else.

Camera Critters

Skywatch Friday – Happy Thanksgiving

My brother Bob and dad, Gramps, are visiting so I took them to the Nature Conservancy’s Tallgrass Praire Preserve which is only about 75 miles or so from Tulsa. We saw lots of big sky and bison that day.

I wish everybody a great Thanksgiving today.

YogisDen.us

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