FICTION — Rock Ptarmigan News Service
MISTY RIDGE NATIONAL PARK — A bull elk assumed temporary control of traffic operations Thursday after standing in the center of a two-lane park road and declining to delegate.
The elk entered the roadway at approximately 7:26 a.m.
The first vehicle stopped.
Then the second.
Within six minutes, traffic extended around a curve in both directions.
The elk remained in the centerline.
“It had complete operational authority,” said shuttle driver Renée Wallace. “Nobody voted on this.”
Park rangers arrived and instructed motorists to remain in vehicles and give the animal space.
The first shuttle in the southbound line contained 27 passengers, all of whom could see the elk clearly without leaving their seats.
This did not prevent three passengers from standing up for a better angle.
Wallace asked them to sit down.
“The animal is already life-size,” she said.
Elk are large wild animals capable of injuring people, particularly during calving season and the fall rut. NPS guidance in the Great Smoky Mountains, for example, advises visitors to keep at least 50 yards away.
The elk did not review the guidance.
It took three steps toward the northbound lane.
Northbound traffic stopped.
The elk turned.
Southbound traffic stopped.
For approximately eleven minutes, the animal created an alternating traffic pattern that transportation consultant Gary Mills described as “inefficient but strangely equitable.”
Mills was on vacation.
He regretted making the comment because reporters immediately asked follow-up questions.
“I am not professionally evaluating the elk,” he said.
The elk continued evaluating traffic.
At 7:38, it moved to the shoulder.
Several motorists began rolling forward.
The elk stepped back into the lane.
Traffic stopped again.
Ranger Mia Torres raised one hand.
“Please wait for us to clear it,” she said.
A visitor in an SUV lowered a window to photograph the animal.
Torres instructed the driver to remain inside and stop attracting attention.
The window went back up.
The elk resumed its position.
“It was managing the corridor by presence,” Wallace said. “That is one management style.”
At 7:44, a cow elk appeared on the opposite side of the road.
The bull crossed toward her.
Both animals moved into the meadow.
Torres waited several seconds to confirm the road was clear, then signaled vehicles through.
Traffic moved smoothly for approximately four minutes.
Then two drivers attempted to stop independently near the meadow to take photographs.
Congestion returned immediately.
Wallace looked toward the elk.
“I would like to apologize for anything I said about its leadership.”
Torres asked drivers to continue moving.
By 8 a.m., normal traffic had resumed.
No collision occurred.
No one approached the elk.
The bull remained in the meadow grazing.
Mills said the experience had demonstrated one clear transportation principle.
“What?”
“Sometimes the wildlife jam is not caused by the wildlife.”
Torres heard this.
“That one you can quote.”
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