One moment, Carl Isom-McDaniel was enjoying Yellowstone National Park with his grandson.
The next, a massive bull bison was charging directly at them.
The animal pursued the pair around a cluster of pine trees before reaching McDaniel, catching him near the hip with one of its horns and launching him approximately eight feet into the air.
The Washington grandfather crashed back to the ground as horrified visitors watched from across the campground.
He suffered multiple broken bones.
Yet while lying injured and waiting for an ambulance, McDaniel reportedly remained conscious, kept his spirits up—and began making jokes.
“He was in a lot of pain with his leg,” photographer Mike MacLeod recalled, but he was still talking and joking with the people gathered around him.
The terrifying encounter unfolded Friday evening at Bridge Bay Campground, near Yellowstone Lake. McDaniel, a retiree in his mid-60s from Kendall, Washington, was visiting the national park with his grandson when they encountered the agitated bull.
The attack was captured by MacLeod, a professional photographer from Montana who had already been watching the animal’s increasingly unpredictable behavior.
According to witness accounts, the bison had moved through the campground and threatened several groups of visitors before turning toward McDaniel and his grandson. At one point, it reportedly charged a group of teenagers, who managed to scatter before anyone was injured.
The bull then stopped near a picnic area and rolled in the dirt—a behavior known as wallowing.
For a moment, the immediate danger appeared to have passed.
But when the bison rose, MacLeod noticed signs of agitation. The animal kicked at the ground and moved in a way the photographer compared to an angry rodeo horse.
McDaniel and his grandson had stopped to photograph the bison from what witnesses described as a respectful distance.
When the animal stood and began looking toward them, McDaniel apparently recognized the threat.
“Let’s get out of here,” he reportedly told his grandson. “I don’t like this.”
They began moving away.
A passing pickup truck briefly distracted the bull, but once the vehicle disappeared, the bison turned back toward McDaniel and his grandson and began chasing them among the trees.
The younger man managed to escape.
McDaniel did not.
Video and witness accounts indicate that the bison caught him with its horn and hurled him high into the air. Reports placed the height of the toss at roughly eight feet.
MacLeod initially watched through his camera.
Then he realized the animal might attack again.
He put down his equipment, ran toward the bison, waved his arms and shouted in an effort to draw its attention away from the injured man. Other visitors reportedly joined him, making themselves appear larger and creating enough noise to persuade the bull to leave.
The intervention may have prevented McDaniel from being struck a second time.
Tourists then gathered around him and remained by his side until park emergency workers arrived approximately 10 minutes later.
Despite his injuries, McDaniel was awake and communicating.
He was eventually transported for hospital treatment, where the extent of his injuries was described as multiple broken bones. Reports said he remained in good spirits following the attack.
The man behind the viral footage was not an anonymous tourist.
McDaniel is known in his Washington community for his public service. He has reportedly served on local water and parks boards and helped lead a community newsletter.
That background made the image of him helplessly spinning through the air even more shocking to people who knew him.
Witnesses emphasized that neither McDaniel nor his grandson appeared to provoke the bison.
MacLeod said visitors in the area were generally giving the animal space and that the pair had been trying to leave when the charge began. The photographer described the encounter as an instance of being in the wrong place when an already agitated wild animal changed direction.
Bison are especially unpredictable during the summer mating period, commonly called the rut. Bulls may become more aggressive as they compete for females, and behavior that appears calm can change in seconds.
Yellowstone requires visitors to remain at least 25 yards—or 75 feet—from bison. Park guidance also warns people never to approach the animals for photographs and to turn around or move away when a bison enters that safety zone.
The animals may look slow because of their enormous size, but Yellowstone officials say they can run three times faster than a human. Bison have injured more visitors in the park than any other animal.
Those facts make the video difficult to watch.
McDaniel can be seen attempting to escape, but there is little a person can do once a charging bison closes the distance.
The encounter also shows why following the minimum-distance rule does not eliminate every risk. Wildlife moves, circumstances change and an agitated animal can cover open ground almost instantly.
McDaniel survived because the horn strike and fall did not prove fatal—and because nearby strangers ran toward danger after seeing him hit the ground.
His grandson escaped.
MacLeod and other tourists drove the animal away.
Emergency workers reached him quickly.
And through the pain of several broken bones, McDaniel reportedly found enough composure to joke with the people trying to help him.
The video captured the terrifying power of one of North America’s largest land animals.
But the moments after the attack revealed something else: a grandfather’s remarkable calm and a group of strangers who refused to leave him alone on the ground.
