10-09-2007, 04:10 PM
HYRUM - Your family can participate in several outdoor activities at the Elk Festival at the Hardware Ranch Wildlife Management Area.
Photo courtesy of Marni Lee You might even see some wild elk.
The festival is free of charge. It will be held Saturday, Oct. 13. Activities run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
You can reach the ranch by traveling 18 miles east of Hyrum on SR-101.
"The festival is a family-oriented event," says Dan Christensen, superintendent of the Hardware Ranch WMA. "The activities are designed to immerse children of all ages in wildlife and its habitat."
Activities at the Oct. 13 festival include: horse-drawn wagon rides to see the elk; pumpkin painting; mountain man story telling; animal track stamping; pellet gun shooting at the Division of Wildlife Resource's shooting trailer; an elk bugling and cow elk calling contest at 1 p.m.; and exploring exhibits in the ranch's visitor center.
Kids can also receive a set of balloon antlers and match silhouettes of animals with the animal's name in a wildlife mural match!
If you hop on one of the free wagon rides, you might see some elk in the distance. "On Oct. 2, we spotted our first elk of the fall, a six-point bull with 20 cows," says Marni Lee, Hardware Ranch assistant manager.
This is the ninth year the ranch, which is operated by the Division of Wildlife Resources, has held a fall event to celebrate the return of elk to the bench above the WMA's visitor center.
For more information, call (435) 753-6206.
Regular elk viewing season
Photo courtesy of Marni Lee The elk festival is the kickoff for the fall and winter elk-viewing season at Hardware. The ranch's visitor center should open on Dec. 13. Its sleigh rides through the elk herd should also begin that day. Dec. 13 is also the day the WMA's staff should begin feeding the elk.
Once the ranch opens for the winter, its hours of operation are noon to 5 p.m. on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. (The ranch's sleigh rides and all of its facilities are closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.)
If you'd like to ride through the elk herd on one of the horse-drawn sleighs, you must buy your ticket before 4:30 p.m.
Morning school programs for public school groups will also be available in the ranch's visitor center starting in mid-December. The programs are available by reservation only. To reserve a spot, call (435) 753-6206.
"The restaurant at the ranch will not be open this season, and we will not be offering moonlight rides and dinners, or private parties," Lee says. "You're welcome to bring picnic lunches and eat in our indoor dining room, though. Please remember that cooking is not allowed in the parking lots or the buildings."
Hardware Ranch attracts about 50,000 visitors each year. People visit the ranch to hunt, fish, view wildlife or just to enjoy the pristine Northern Utah facility.
The ranch is best known for the horse-drawn sleigh rides that take you among 400 to 600 head of wild elk feeding in the ranch's meadow.
The ranch is also one of the major trailheads on the Shoshone Trail. The trail draws several hundred off-highway vehicle and snowmobile enthusiasts to the WMA every year
Photo courtesy of Marni Lee You might even see some wild elk.
The festival is free of charge. It will be held Saturday, Oct. 13. Activities run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
You can reach the ranch by traveling 18 miles east of Hyrum on SR-101.
"The festival is a family-oriented event," says Dan Christensen, superintendent of the Hardware Ranch WMA. "The activities are designed to immerse children of all ages in wildlife and its habitat."
Activities at the Oct. 13 festival include: horse-drawn wagon rides to see the elk; pumpkin painting; mountain man story telling; animal track stamping; pellet gun shooting at the Division of Wildlife Resource's shooting trailer; an elk bugling and cow elk calling contest at 1 p.m.; and exploring exhibits in the ranch's visitor center.
Kids can also receive a set of balloon antlers and match silhouettes of animals with the animal's name in a wildlife mural match!
If you hop on one of the free wagon rides, you might see some elk in the distance. "On Oct. 2, we spotted our first elk of the fall, a six-point bull with 20 cows," says Marni Lee, Hardware Ranch assistant manager.
This is the ninth year the ranch, which is operated by the Division of Wildlife Resources, has held a fall event to celebrate the return of elk to the bench above the WMA's visitor center.
For more information, call (435) 753-6206.
Regular elk viewing season
Photo courtesy of Marni Lee The elk festival is the kickoff for the fall and winter elk-viewing season at Hardware. The ranch's visitor center should open on Dec. 13. Its sleigh rides through the elk herd should also begin that day. Dec. 13 is also the day the WMA's staff should begin feeding the elk.
Once the ranch opens for the winter, its hours of operation are noon to 5 p.m. on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. (The ranch's sleigh rides and all of its facilities are closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.)
If you'd like to ride through the elk herd on one of the horse-drawn sleighs, you must buy your ticket before 4:30 p.m.
Morning school programs for public school groups will also be available in the ranch's visitor center starting in mid-December. The programs are available by reservation only. To reserve a spot, call (435) 753-6206.
"The restaurant at the ranch will not be open this season, and we will not be offering moonlight rides and dinners, or private parties," Lee says. "You're welcome to bring picnic lunches and eat in our indoor dining room, though. Please remember that cooking is not allowed in the parking lots or the buildings."
Hardware Ranch attracts about 50,000 visitors each year. People visit the ranch to hunt, fish, view wildlife or just to enjoy the pristine Northern Utah facility.
The ranch is best known for the horse-drawn sleigh rides that take you among 400 to 600 head of wild elk feeding in the ranch's meadow.
The ranch is also one of the major trailheads on the Shoshone Trail. The trail draws several hundred off-highway vehicle and snowmobile enthusiasts to the WMA every year