Bison tosses man through air at Yellowstone campground

A 65-year-old man walking with his grandson at Bridge Bay Campground near Lake Yellowstone was sent flying by a bull bison on Friday evening, July 10, at one of Yellowstone National Park’s busiest summer areas. Witness video showed the animal chasing him through trees before tossing him about 8 feet into the air, a split-second encounter that turned a routine walk into a severe injury.

Multiple reports identified the man as Carl Isom-McDaniel of Kendall, Washington. He was later reported to be recovering after surgery with several broken bones. Photographer Mike MacLeod, who captured the encounter on video, said Isom-McDaniel remained conscious and was joking even though he was in significant pain.

The incident put a hard edge on a warning Yellowstone officials repeat every year: visitors should stay at least 25 yards away from bison. At Bridge Bay, the risk is amplified by the campground’s location near Yellowstone Lake, which the park describes as one of North America’s largest high-elevation freshwater lakes and a major draw during peak travel season. When visitors close that distance, a bison can move from grazing to charging in seconds.

The Park Service said the July 10 attack was the second reported bison injury in Yellowstone in 2026. The first came on June 26, when a 12-year-old visitor was injured near Mud Volcano at about 9:15 a.m. The back-to-back cases underscore how quickly the park’s wildlife can become dangerous when people crowd animals that are not domesticated and do not tolerate repeated intrusion.

Yellowstone was established on March 1, 1872, as America’s first national park, and its scale continues to attract millions of visitors each year. That same wilderness is what makes the safety rules matter. Park officials say Yellowstone is a wild and awe-inspiring place, and some of the hazards here may be unfamiliar to visitors who treat bison encounters like photo opportunities instead of immediate safety threats.