Grandpa vs. 2,000-Pound Fluffy Tank: Grandpa Speaks Out

Most grandpas return from Yellowstone with souvenirs, overpriced magnets, and maybe a slight sunburn. 65-year-old Carl Isom-McDaniel left with a shattered femur, a pretty crazy story, and a brand-new appreciation for gravity.

Wide Open Spaces reported that after a nice dinner at the Bridge Bay Campground, Carl and his grandson spotted a bison. It was chilling. It was relaxed. It was completely unbothered—right up until it decided Carl was Public Enemy No. 1.

Speaking out from his hospital bed, Carl isn’t blaming the wildlife; he’s just chalking it up to a classic case of wrong place, wrong time. Here is how the encounter went down, according to the man who lived to joke about it:

• The Target Lock: “We saw the bison and he was down, he wasn’t showing aggression or anything like that,” Carl recalled. “Until it picked a target — that target happened to be me.”
• The Flash Speed: While Carl’s main priority was getting his grandson out of harm’s way, you can’t outrun a 2,000-pound furry freight train. The bison closed the distance “faster than you could ever imagine.”
• The Launch: The bison didn’t just charge; it literally yeeted a grandfather into the atmosphere. As Carl dryly put it: “I didn’t get bruises from him launching me in the air — it was the landing that became the problem.”

The Silver Lining (And a Broken Leg)

The landing broke Carl’s femur in four different places, but his spirit remains entirely unbroken. Reflecting on how much worse a run-in with a literal prehistoric beast could have gone, Carl is just glad the bison decided to leave it at a single toss.

“Even though I was on the ground, he could’ve stomped me, he could’ve gored me, he could’ve done anything.” — Carl Isom-McDaniel, Survivor

According to bystander Mike MacLeod, Carl was in immense pain but was actively cracking jokes with paramedics the entire time.

The Moral of the Story is that if you’re going to get launched by a bison, make sure you have the comedic timing of a legendary grandpa to tell the tale.