Pennsylvania’s elk watching season officially gets under way Saturday and Sunday, August 20-21, with the annual Elk Expo of the Keystone Elk Country Alliance and Elk Country Visitor Center.
The largest elk celebration in the northeastern U.S. is held each year at the visitor center in Benezette, near the start of the elk ‘s rut season.
Pennsylvania has an elk population of about 1,400 in the mountains and valleys of Cameron, Clearfield and Elk counties, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, which held its first modern elk hunt in 2001 and last year awarded 187 elk hunting permits.
The expo will feature exhibits, seminars, antler scoring experts, a presentation by Game Commission elk biologist Jeremy Banfield, calling contests, more than 100 vendors and live music.
It will feature the annual drawing by the commission of hunters who will receive elk hunting tags out of the thousands of applications and the drawing of the winner of the KECA bull elk hunting tag.
The KCEA notes August 28 on its calendar as the start of the rut, the mating season when the bulls gather harems of cows and battle each other for dominance.
September is the most popular time for visiting the Pennsylvania Elk Range for viewing the animals.
Weekends throughout the month draw large numbers to the region, resulting in traffic jams on the rural roads.
State agencies have done much to provide large, public viewing areas with blinds and some with hiking trails. They’ve also created a looping, 127-mile Elk Scenic Drive throughout the region that connects the viewing areas and other significant spots.
The Pennsylvania Great Outdoors tourist bureau has created the Elk Viewing Guide, which links guidance on viewing the animals with travel information about the region.
Elk populations continue to grow in eastern state, including Pennsylvania
According to the KECA, elk once lived throughout Pennsylvania, but rapid settlement and exploitation by early immigrants diminished the herds. By 1867 there were no elk in Pennsylvania.
In 1913 the Game Commission began reintroducing elk in Pennsylvania. Today’s herd of nearly a thousand elk developed from 177 elk that were trapped in the western U.S. and transferred to northern areas of Pennsylvania from 1913-26.
