Springtime Adventures in Yellowstone

Here's a link to my first syndicated Travels with Lonely Planet column.

What if the exotic menagerie of captive creatures at the San Diego Zoo's famous Wild Animal Park were actually wild? This fantasy struck me recently while stuck in a traffic jam caused by a herd of prehistoric-looking bison. They were moseying across Yellowstone's West Entrance Road with their newborn calves in tow. I was rubbernecking. Early childhood memories of giraffes licking the windshield of our family station wagon at a drive-through safari flashed into mind.