September, 2024
The elk came back! 🙂 How wonderful is that? You remember … in last week’s blog post, I reported that the elk were hiding across the highway in the large grassy field right next to Hood Canal. Well, the very next day, today … they came back into the campground, hiding no longer. 🙂
They didn’t come back until the afternoon, and they came in the north end of the campground (I’m camped at the very south end of the campground), so I didn’t see them until later in the afternoon when they were traveling south through the campground on their way back to highway 101, and likely back out to the grassy field for the night.
Here’s a video below. I was standing in the grassy center circle of the drive-around in my little group of campsites when I took this video. My truck and trailer are about 40 feet behind me. That fence above the elk is the edge of highway 101, hence the road noise in all of these videos.
More videos below. As the elk moved towards that grassy center circle, I moved back off of it!
In the photo below, you can see that I moved up onto the ramp that leads up to the cabin door … just to be safe. The elk were approaching the big white truck and Towhee the Trailer.
This one female (below) kept taking a few more steps even closer. I kept very quiet. But she must have gotten a whiff of me …
She was tall! The top of her head had to be about 6 feet tall. I suspect she was Clarice, the alpha female. I stayed right there on that ramp, with the guardrails around me, and simply turned my head to the left, then to the right, as they do when they are simply looking around, not being aggressive. I hoped she got the message. She seemed to! She turned her head away from me and looked at my truck and trailer some more, then slowly turned and walked away from me, not at all concerned that I was there, not looking back once to check to see where I was.
In the video below, the elk are walking towards their exit path which will take them across highway 101 and over to the grassy field along Hood Canal. At the very end of the video below, you’ll see a vehicle drive up, heading around the circle. I hollered a “hello” and waved at the two guys in the vehicle, and they stopped. I smiled at them and said something about the elk. The driver of the vehicle admitted they were going to drive by the elk and HONK the horn and scare the elk. I kept smiling, tho I didn’t feel like smiling. I said, “oh gosh, you don’t want to get caught doing that. The elk are protected wildlife and you would be arrested, I’m serious, I’ve seen people get arrested doing that.” They listened to that and seemed to take it in. We chatted amiably some more. I manged to keep them parked right there using friendship and laughter, until the elk had all gotten off the blacktop and were well on their way over the grass and beyond those two RV’s.
Photo below … the elk were heading into a stand of trees where they gather just before they walk across highway 101. Notice the picnic table on the far left of the photo below … you’ll see it again in one of the photos below.
Below … heading towards highway 101.
And then, a minute or two later, back at that picnic table that I mentioned above … here come the two younger male elk. I never saw them right next to the other members of the herd but they were always somewhere nearby.
The main part of the herd seemed to be waiting there in the woods for the rest of them to catch up before they headed up and over highway 101.
What a thrill to be able to be so close to these wild animals, any one of whom can kill a human easily although that’s extremely rare. Roosevelt elk grow to around 5 to 5.5 feet tall at the withers, their heads are from 6 feet to 7 feet tall when they are alert and standing upright. The bulls weigh between 700 and 1,200 pounds. Cows weigh between 575 and 625 pounds. The length of the body of an adult will be between six feet and ten feet long. That’s a LOT bigger than I am!! They look so docile here, but if they feel threatened they can be aggressive faster than you know it, and one kick of their front or rear hooves can kill a human. It really was a thrill to be accepted by them (as long as I kept my distance and acted appropriately).
My momma taught me to respect and honor and love all beings. It sure was easy to do that with these elk. It felt like they were doing the same with me. What a wonderful experience. Seemed like all these elk wanted was a safe place in the woods.