Elk On The Move In The Grand Canyon Village

When Bob and I first arrived at Grand Canyon National Park, it was getting late in the day, dusk in fact, so we were eager to find our accommodations in the Grand Canyon Village. As we drove down one stretch of the pavement, adjacent to the railway track, Bob caught sight of a number of Elk making their way from one side of the roadway to the other.

We thought this quite remarkable, for Elk to be out amongst the people, and yet we figured it must be quite a common occurrence judging by the laid-back demeanour of the elk and the fact that other visitors were not scrambling to take photographs.  

The bull headed up the opposing side of the railway clearance, with a younger animal in tow.  Bull lose their antlers in March, but the antlers begin to grow back in May as the bull elk ready for breeding season in late-summer.  It was mid-June when we came across this bull elk, so its antlers had not attained full-size yet. 

In another area of the Park, on a different day, traffic was slightly impeded when a female elk, a cow, once again found the roadway to be a good means of getting around.  The elk in Grand Canyon National Park are relative newcomers to that locale.  Even as recently as 10 years ago, it would have been very rare to find an elk within the park’s boundaries.

Elk are not adapted to the arid climate of Arizona so even Merriam’s Elk, the indigenous species originally found in other regions of Arizona, were extremely rare inside the Park.  Having been hunted to extinction by the 1890s, it became necessary to reintroduce them into Arizona, and starting in 1913, Rocky Mountain Elk were ferried from Yellowstone National Park to various regions of Arizona, which included a release about 50 miles south of Grand Canyon National Park, near the town of Williams.

Because they are always seeking a water source, they expanded their range into Grand Canyon National Park and nearby forests where numerous water sources can be found as well as vegetation that meets their food requirements. 

One afternoon, when we were in the vicinity of Canyon Village Market, we discovered a small herd grazing beneath the trees or laying in the shade.  

Their summer coat is more reddish and darker than in winter, but the well defined buff-coloured rump patch is a constant.  Elk are more than twice as heavy as mule deer and have smaller tails.  We had already seen numerous Mule Deer while staying within the Park, and the differences were quite remarkable.  I had a good look at the rump patches on this one because all of them kept their rear ends towards me as I tried to sneak some pictures.

Elk are also referred to as wapiti, a word that originates from the Shawnee and Cree word waapiti, which means “white rump”.  Bob and I were fortunate to have seen this one bull.  For the remainder of our stay at Maswik Lodge, over a week, we did not meet up with another single bull that carried a rack of antlers.  This one, though, was mighty impressive.

Frame To Frame – Bob and Jean