About 20 minutes before sunset, the early summer heat wave had—at last—begun to loosen its grip on the day at Golden Pond. According to the AccuWeather app on my aging iPhone, the temperature was 86 degrees (the “RealFeel” temp remained a sizzling 97). Humidity rested at a damp 84 percent. The waist-high prairie grass was hardly disturbed by the 2-mph south/southeast breeze which, according to AccuWeather, occasionally gusted to 4 mph.
I clicked off the car’s AC, and my wife and I lowered the windows.
We were on the 3.5-mile loop road that roughly circles the Elk and Bison Prairie, one of the centerpiece attractions of the 170,000-acre Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, a 40-mile-long and 6- to 8-mile-wide federal property that separates Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake. About one-third of the LBL property spills into Tennessee.
The Elk and Bison Prairie is a 700-acre fenced enclosure just off U.S. 68/80 and about a half mile north of the area’s Golden Pond Visitor Center. It is fully within the Kentucky section of the LBL.
The prairie opened in 1996 and has finally achieved the look and feel of the open prairie land that was largely absent of people but flush with wildlife (including elk and bison) that marked the region before settlers arrived. There is some timber, of course. But reintroduced Eastern gamma grass, switchgrass, Indian grass, Little Bluestem and other warm-season grasses define the landscape. It’s a pretty place.
Wildlife, of course, are what help bring the prairie to life. About 50 bison currently reside there, along with 40-50 elk. There are plenty of other animals, too—turkeys, coyotes, rabbits, squirrels, skunks, deer, raccoons, hawks, eagles, songbirds, snakes, butterflies and more. While the area is fenced, the animals are free ranging. Hunting is not allowed.
Most visitors come for the elk and bison.
Elk are large animals. An adult male can reach 800 pounds or more—four times larger than a whitetail deer. I’ve always found it stunning how little cover elk need to seemingly disappear. We’d hardly gotten inside the prairie when my wife spotted a head poking out of the chest-high grass near a low knoll. We slowed the car to a crawl and moved into a creek bed at the base of the knoll. I let the car roll to a stop. Two elk appeared out of the grass to our right, one nearly close enough to touch. These animals are no doubt accustomed to vehicular traffic (slow moving though it may be). But they are wild critters, not pets. Not even close to pets. Signs warn visitors: “Do not approach wildlife.” It’s good advice.
A horsefly buzzed the elk (which appeared to be a young cow) that was grazing near our car, prompting her to bolt across the road and vanish into the grass. She disappeared in less time than it’s taken me to describe it. My wife and I looked around. We counted seven elk grazing quietly, all but one within 30 yards. They would appear out of the grassy cover then, hardly moving, seem to vanish into it.
I was surprised at the number. Animals are generally smarter than people when it comes to behaving sensibly in hot weather. They often feed and move at night. These elk were enjoying the approaching twilight.
Up the hill and near a spot that marks one of the highest points in the prairie, a large bull elk—its impressive freshly grown set of antlers in full velvet—stood near the roadside, grazing quietly and seemingly oblivious to the admiring humans who had stopped to gawk. The elk released at the prairie’s opening in 1996 were Rocky Mountain elk that had been transported from Elk Island National Park near Alberta, Canada. The prairie herd has since become self-populating and has been used for seed stock for other elk re-introduction projects, including a small free-ranging herd in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. More recently, 43 LBL elk were transported and released in West Virginia.
Elk that originally prowled lands east of the Mississippi River were Eastern elk, a subspecies of today’s Rocky Mountain elk transplants. The difference between the two critters would have been subtle. It’s a moot point. Eastern elk are extinct. No one has seen one for more than 150 years.
We encountered a group of about 25 bison, including a few calves, grazing between a patch of timber along the creek and the road. Bison, sometimes called buffalo, can weigh up to a ton and are the largest land animal in North America. They often appear slow and clumsy. They are not. Bison can bolt into a sprint without cause or warning. They also can be aggressive, particularly if provoked. Prairie bison sometimes serve as traffic barriers, wandering onto the one-way road that loops through the prairie. When that happens, you wait, watch and wonder what the world was like when millions grazed and thundered across the Great Plains. Then in little more than a generation, they were nearly wiped out. By 1880, only a handful of bison remained. Today, North America is home to about 200,000. A few live here. Come see them, and don’t miss the elk.
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The Land Between the Lakes Elk and Bison Prairie is open daily from dawn to dusk. Entry fee is $5 per vehicle, payable at the gate. Visitors must be in an enclosed vehicle. Bicycles, motorcycles and pedestrian traffic are not allowed.
The prairie is just north of the junction of U.S. 68/80 and Ky. 458, which is the north/south route through the Land Between the Lakes. For more information, go to landbetweenthelakes.us or call the Golden Pond Visitor Center at 270.924.2233.
Readers may contact Gary Garth at editor@kentuckymonthly.com.