Day 49

Elk Hunting

Jun 24, 2013, 10:16 AM

This morning we are in our way to see some elk. There is a town about 40 miles north of us, Gaylord, Michigan, where they have an elk herd and viewing areas around the town. I have seen elk plenty of times in zoos but never just around. I'm looking forward to this. 

Jun 24, 2013, 1:28 PM

Well it isn't quite what they claim on the website, but we did see elk. There is a viewing area at the end of this one street. I was expecting a park, oh no, there was a chain link fence at the back of the Elk's Lodge. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. We drove down the street that the website shows for the elk viewing area and the road ends, there is a swatch of grass a fence and a large, huge really, field. That is where the elk are free to roam. The herd is supposed to be quite extensive. Well we stood there looking, looking, looking, and nothing. We saw nothing! I got back in the car and got on the hot spot to see if there was another place to go and there was another park that had trails and stuff. So we went there. We walked almost the whole place. I think it was about 2.5 miles all totaled, I think we walked two miles. There was supposed to be a wildflower meadow trail, we went down that trail, but we didn't see many wildflowers and there was no meadow. We walked the path that went along the elk viewing area, no elk. We were batting 1000 so far. When we were walking in there was a guy coming in with a mower and Steve asked him about the elk, so when we got back to the car we decided to give his place a try. He said sometimes they can be seen in the shade at the end of this road and through a gate, whatever. I wanted to see the elk!

So we went down this road and it seemed to come to an end except for going into the public works garage area. So we gave that a try, it could be the gate mower guy was talking about. Well we were able to get right up to the fence, but still no elk. Steve stopped, he saw an elk!! We walked down to get a better look. There were four elk. They were behind a ridge and only one could be seen because he was standing. He was not too afraid of us walking closer. I was able to get some good shots. 

After we were done pestering the wild life we went to see the little alpine village that is supposed to be Gaylord. That was a bit overrated. There was a two block stretch of shops and restaurants that were in buildings fashioned like an alpine village. Not really much, so we went back to a restaurant that Steve saw that boasted home cooked turkey. So we had lunch at Gobbler's. It was very good. We had open face hot turkey sandwiches. Then home again. 

After a little while we took a drive. I wanted to maybe walk around the lake a little. Well that didn't happen. We drove out toward the lake and then put a park into the GPS, I thought for sure there would be a park with maybe a beach or a little path or something we'd be able walk around. Well we went on a wild goose chase. The GPS said we were about five miles away from the park, but then when we turned onto the road it said we had to go seven miles, ok no biggie. Then we took another turn and we had another five miles to go and this happened several times. We did find the park but it was a playground and it wasn't on the water and we never did find anyplace along the water with a beach. Don't you know the GPS took us all the way around the lake before getting back to the campground. We did find a nice boat launch so we took a few pictures, or actually I took some photos. Then back for dinner. Steve has tomorrow all planned out. So stay tuned for that. Good night all!!