We had a full day to spend in this area so we headed out
to “The Ultimate Elk Viewing Experience”.
We turned down a road too soon but it ended up being a
beautiful drive through a heavily forested area.
We had the road to ourselves and were able to stop and do
a little bird watching along the way.
This flock of Wild Turkeys crossed the road in front of us.
And a Red-tailed Hawk soared overhead.
This flock of Wild Turkeys crossed the road in front of us.
And a Red-tailed Hawk soared overhead.
We eventually got on the road we were supposed to be on
and it wasn’t long before we saw cars pulled over and people pointing up the
hill. We got out to see the elk. Turns out, the elk were so far back in the
dark woods they were barely visible. We
didn’t stay long before getting back in the truck to go to the visitor
center.
What a treat it was to see this massive bull elk. From what we could see he had a harem of
about eight ladies.
They moved out of the trees and across the road at a
brisk trot and were gone. We were
extremely lucky to be driving up to the visitor cnter at that exact moment.
About 1,000 elk live here and are the largest herd in the
northeastern U.S.
By the mid-1800’s unregulated hunting had wiped out the
state’s native elk herd. Reintroduction began
in 1913 when 177 Rocky Mountain Elk were brought into Pennsylvania.
We made it to the
beautiful visitor center. There weren’t
a lot of visitors here today but from the number of parking spaces it looks
like this place could be very busy in the summer.
Inside the visitor center
is a large gift shop.
There are also a lot of
very nice displays.
Elk skull
We paid $5 each for a 30 minute
video in the 4D Theater. It was a very
nice, informative movie. There was even
smell-o-vision which I think is where the 4D comes from.
While discussing
prescribed burns, smoke comes out of the fire ring in front of the screens.
Three large screens
showing different images kept us turning our heads to see it all.
I’m as tall as an elk!
This nice statue is right
outside the visitor center.
We drove around for a
while and came across some areas that are planted in the spring with various
grains for the elk.
This area had been strip mined
and is now reclaimed into grasslands.
The elk are best seen at
dawn and dusk so we felt very lucky to see our small herd.
Stay tuned - more to come
on our travels from Maine to Texas.
We saw a flock of wild turkeys the other day too as we were leaving the North Rim.
ReplyDeleteWas this an elk "sanctuary" or an elk hunting "farm" or something else? There was one in Idaho that was really just there so people could come hunt them.
This was the center of operations for restoration of elk in Pennsylvania. As the populations have increased the state has begun to allow some limited hunting. But this property is protected and definitely not a hunting "farm".
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