Hey Folks,

Next week, I am heading out to Western Pennsylvania to go find and photograph elk. Has anyone been out that way before and have any tips as to the best places to view/photograph them?

James

I was born and raised in Sharon, PA which is western PA and I have never seen elk there or anywhere close to it. I guess you learn something new every day. I am going to google this now!

Welcome, Margaret!! Yes, there is a small to medium sized herd of Elk in NW PA, in both Elk (appropriately named) & Clinton County, I am told. I am heading out to Elk County in two weeks with a friend of mine. We have been dealing with the Chamber of Commerce, who have been very helpful.

I was able to find this little article on their presence in PA. It is an old article (2000) and they were apparently reintroduced in 1999.

http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/pae/es_map/articles/article_66.mhtml

James

This is very exciting to me. I have been living in Florida for a few years now and I will be going to Erie,PA at the end of September. I have already told my husband we are going elk hunting. (With the camera of course!) St. Mary's is about 3 1/2 hours away. Have a safe trip and let us know what you saw.

Margaret

Hey Margaret,

You will, of course, be going at peak time..the end of September is the high time of the rut and hopefully you will get some great shots. I hope that if things go well that I will be able to take another weekend and do this as well.

-JM

BTW, some more links about elk in PA:

http://www.stateparks.com/elk.html

http://www.visitpa.com/things-to-do/attraction-details/index.aspx?id=8279476

http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/view.asp?a=471&q=150286

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elk_State_Forest

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/stateforests/paelk.aspx

Hey James, Great links about elk in PA. I got good information from your links. Thank you very much.

I spent about an hour battle planning with my friend that we are going out to PA with tomorrow. The drive is about 300 miles from my apartment in Manhattan. I had not realized just how huge PA is (LOL, I know that those of you from 'large' states may take exception to this...but for those of us from around NE, PA is a monster). This is not really NW, but North Central PA.

We have about 3 or 4 hot spots and I hope to have goodies to share later on. If not, well, it is always a fun opportunity to explore.

James