VIDEO: Huge Herd of Elk Crosses Road Near Deer Lodge

Now, nobody lives in Montana because they're in a hurry. But there's a misconception about Montana that we'd like the chance to clear up. You might think that with our average population density of 7 people per mile, Montanans enjoy a veritable Autobahn all the time. But it's not true. There are traffic jams in Montana. And not just in Billings, Bozeman, Missoula, and Great Falls.  

It's just that the traffic might be elk, or buffalo, or bear, etc. In this case, it happens to be elk. 

This video was filmed on October 27th of this year outside of Deer Lodge, MT.  It captures a truly massive herd of elk as it crosses the road.  Elk often travel in long, strung-out herds.  Sometimes those herds separate into male and female sub-herds, but in this case it's a mix of cows and a few bulls.  They proceed through the crossing without incident until, a little more than halfway through the video, one of the elk snaps the fence.  The sound spooks the herd, which bisects within seconds, half running to the left and half to the right. It's a pretty amazing image, which at least to this writer recalls Sunday school scenes of Moses splitting the Red Sea, if the Red Sea was made of fur, antler, and venison.

See the awesome video below, and leave a comment if you've ever had to sit in a "Montana Traffic Jam."