Cataloochee Valley Elk

We went to the Cataloochee Valley for four days in September, but left one day early. We were there for elk pictures. We left a day early because of a rain forecast.

The valley is in a hole, and all the roads in and out are dirt. We didn’t want to drive the 2WD van out on the wet dirt. That turned out to be a better call than we could have imagined. The forecast rain turned into Hurricane Helene, and the Cataloochee Valley was wiped out. It is still closed with no expected date for reopening.

We did get some elk pictures before we left.

There were fewer elk in the valley than the on our previous visit, a few years ago. We talked to a ranger. He confirmed that the herd was much smaller. He estimate 25 elk. We think we identified three bulls. Seems that the elk have been migrating out, mostly to Cherokee.

Still, we were able to hear the bull elks’ haunting calls and watch all parties prepare for the rut. These are magnificent animals. As always with animals in national parks, some of the people tried to get too close to the animals. A ranger was right there to push them back. We think the rangers did a great job of protecting the animals and people, but giving photographers plenty of space to take the pictures.

It’s a shame that the elk have mostly moved on, and that the campground and valley were so damaged. Maybe with nobody there the elk will come back. We’ll definitely be back. It’s a great little piece of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

After the hurricane, we helped a little with the recovery effort. All future trips were cancelled for the time being. We did plan a birding trip to Florida, but their weather was cold enough that van camping would be not that good. We finally did get a short trip to a wildlife refuge near Chattanooga. That’s the topic of our next post.