The Elk

** Image ID #1420704 Unavailable **

The Elk

Today we were able to see the elk in Hurn Field along Highway 20 heading east toward Concrete. It was a sunny day and we were on our way home from town. They were grazing toward the middle of the long field. Ron decided it was time to go home and get the camera and binoculars. When we got back to the field the elk were still there. It's a big field though and even after zooming way in on them with the camera we couldn't get a close up shot of them.

These are the elk that originated in Yellowstone National Park and Eastern Washington. They are called North Cascade Elk (Nooksack Elk). They have been coming to Hurn field to eat and rest for many years. In 1999 the property was bought by The Skagit Land Trust and turned into a maintained habitat for wildlife in the area.

You can see the elk in the field all through the winter months. After they breed the antlers fall off of the bulls. With our binoculars we could see some of them growing new velvety antlers. During the summer they will all move to higher ground. We saw what we think was the big bull elk at the edge of the woods above the herd. The rest were laying on the ground and grazing throughout the field. We counted 59 elk in this herd.

We got to see several elk that we believed to have been from this herd in our own neighborhood when we were out walking one evening! We take the big block walk – one that goes all the way around the Cedar Grove Community where we live. As we were walking along the road that runs up above the Skagit River then loops back and takes us to our home, I saw what I thought was the back end of a horse, or cow, or possibly an elk off in the distance and walking down our road and crossing the road ahead of us. We came to the end of the road and sure enough there was an elk standing at the edge of a yard staring right at us! She was a “cow' alright - a female elk, and she was a big one. We weren't the only ones who saw her either. There was a fellow standing in the middle of the road taking pictures of another elk out in the woods. Then we looked around and saw a few more back behind some houses. We spoke with a neighbor and she said that she and her friend saw the biggest bull elk she had ever seen just the other day on their walk.

That was the first time we have seen the elk in our own neighborhood since we have lived here in Concrete, almost two years now. We usually see them in Hurn Field. One time we did see a whole herd of them grazing in someone's yard down in Cape Horn.




Word Count:501