October 2nd, and finally we made it to a part of Arkansas a couple of hours west of us, to view the elk in Arkansas. The trip would not take so long except the roads to get there are thru mountainous country and the roads are very curvy. The elk were in a valley easily seen from the road and safely behind a fence.

We got there a little after six when the sun was still shining on the mountain in the background and partially on the meadow. There were three separate elk herds visible, about 40 elk altogether.

There were about a dozen cars parked on the road and twice that many people out with cameras. The elk took no notice of us. The bull in the picture below was the youngest bull, with the smallest rack, and he only had one young cow in his "harem".



Two of the bulls were very big, with impressive racks and making lots of noise. They sort of whistle and snort at each other from a distance, telling each other to leave their women alone.

I made a short movie, with sound to try to capture the sound, but there was too much road noise with cars going by so it didn't turn out very well. I would like to try that again sometime so I could that sound they make with those of you who have never heard it. I think it's very eerie, almost a haunting sound, but beautiful in its own way.

These bulls are very impressive, about the size of a horse. The bigger they are and the louder they are, the more cows they attract to their harem.

It was well worth the drive and one I'm sure we will take again. Don't know why it's taken us so long to go see such a spectacle. Maybe because we saw quite a few elk in Colorado and weren't that curious. Still, it's neat to see them in Arkansas. These are elk that were imported from Colorado and seem to be adapting well to conditions here in the south.