A bull elk in Cataloochee Valley, North Carolina. October 20, 2010.
One of the high points of our visit to North Carolina was getting to see the elk in the Cataloochee Valley. We got up early on a foggy Wednesday morning and drove to Cataloochee.
Elk once roamed the southern Appalachian Mountains, but they were eliminated from the region by over-hunting and loss of habitat. The last elk in North Carolina was believed to have been killed in the late 1700s.
In February, 2001, there was an experimental release of 25 elk into the Cataloochee Valley of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In 2002, another 27 elk were introduced.
We first saw elk in a field along Ranger Station Road, the main road leading into the valley. There were twenty of so elk in a field bordering the road. The bull elk in the picture above was apparently the dominate male, and his bugling call could be clearly heard.
The herd we saw consisted mostly of females and young elk, although there were one or two other males in the herd as well.
A bull elk relaxing in a field in Cataloochee Valley, North Carolina. October 20, 2010.
We then drove over to see the Palmer House on National Park Road. As we pulled into the parking area, we saw two more bull elk in a field across the road. The bull in the picture above was one of those bulls.
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