Yellowstone bison toss leaves man with four broken femur fractures

Yellowstone officials tell visitors to stay more than 25 yards from bison, but one close approach at Yellowstone Lake Campground ended with a Washington state man thrown about 8 feet into the air and left with a femur broken in four places. The man later said the worst part was not the lift from the animal, but the impact when he hit the ground.

The attack happened July 10, 2026, around 8:30 p.m. at the campground in Yellowstone National Park. Coverage identified the victim as 65-year-old Carl Isom-McDaniel, also referred to as Carl McDaniel. He said the bison did not seem aggressive until it turned on him, a split-second shift that left him with multiple bone fractures and a painful fall that became the most severe part of the encounter.

Yellowstone’s warning is plain: keep your distance from wildlife, especially bison. Park officials and the U.S. National Park Service have repeatedly said bison can charge with little warning and can run faster than many people expect. The gap between that guidance and visitor behavior is what turns routine sightseeing into an emergency, especially when tourists move in for photos or stand too close for a better view.

The Yellowstone injury also fits a recurring pattern inside the park. The National Park Service documented a woman gored by bison in May 2022, another woman gored in May 2023, a woman gored in June 2024, and a man gored in June 2025. The service also posted a separate June 10, 2025, bison-attack incident notice. In the July 2026 case, the National Park Service later issued a visitor-injury notice, adding another entry to a long record of close encounters that ended badly.

Bystanders saw how quickly the scene could turn again. Photographer Mike MacLeod said he feared the bison would come back and “really do him in,” a reaction that matched the danger park rangers have long tried to make clear. In Yellowstone, the animals are not tame backdrops for visitors, and this latest injury showed how fast a casual mistake can become a serious public-safety event.