What most people do not know is that Pennsylvania is home to one of the largest herds of wild elk (wapiti) east of the Mississippi river. The herd numbers close to 800 animals and covers an area of 3,750 square miles in Elk, Cameron, Clearfield, Clinton and Potter counties, otherwise known as the PA Wilds area. The last native Eastern elk in Pennsylvania was killed by a hunter in the middle 1800’s. The present herd is from stock brought in by sportsman and the PA Game Commission in the early 1900’s. If you are a Pennsylvania resident and have never been to this area to see the elk, make the trip, it’s worth the time.
I stopped at the 255/555 split to set up the digiscope so I would have it ready right away if I needed it. In this area you never know when you’ll see or get a chance to photograph wildlife. I drove east on Route 555 through Medix Run and onto Benezette, PA. I turned left onto Winslow Hill Road and started my way up the mountain towards the PA Game Commission/Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation viewing areas. I was barely started up the mountain when I saw my first elk of the day; 4 cows were in the yard of a church enjoying a salt lick. I didn’t get any pictures of these cows because I had no place to pull over. I didn’t want to get too close and spook them from the area either.
I continued my drive to the top of Winslow Hill, when I was almost on the plateau at the top I saw a lone elk in a field. He was walking into the woods at too great of a speed for me to make an attempt at pictures.
I continued to drive along Winslow Hill Road; I saw 5 elk already but I wanted more. I stopped at the first viewing area to see what was there. I saw nothing in the valley but as I looked around through the binoculars, way off in the distance, I saw seven more elk on the edge of a strip mine. Finally I was able to set-up for pictures. Sadly the herd never stopped moving so every picture was blurred. The distance could have been a factor as well; I estimated the herd to be close to 800 yards away from me.
I left that spot and moved on to the “Official” PA Game Commission/RMEF Winslow Hill viewing area. This was the first time that I was there that I had the place all to myself. It really didn’t matter though because I didn’t see any elk anyway. It was time to get back on the road and off of Winslow Hill. I drove off the mountain and followed Route 555 East to Hicks Run Road and to the camping area where I stayed during my first trip to Elk County. I saw no elk during the ride through the state forest but I did see 14 deer.
Finally it was time to find this trail head. As I was driving down Route 555 I almost ran over a Turkey Vulture. This guy must have been very hungry because I was able to get within a few feet of him with the truck before he flew away. As the turkey vulture was flying away I saw a bull elk cross the road about 200 yards east of me. I slowly drove closer to the spot where he crossed the road and saw two spike bulls and two raghorn bulls. A raghorn bull is a young, branch-antlered bull that hasn’t developed the size needed to defend a harem of cows. I snapped 40 or so pictures of the four bulls before they grew tired of watching me and made their way into the forest and up the mountain side.
A short way further east I found the intersection for Huston Hill Road. According to the directions that I have, I’m supposed to turn left onto Huston Hill Road, make a few right turns and I’ll be on Castle Garden Road which is where the trail head is located. None of these roads are paved and only Huston Hill Road could be considered an “Improved Gravel” road. The rest of these roads are basically improved logging roads or Jeep trails. I had Skeeter the Truckie in 4wd and was having a blast. Yes, my truck is named Skeeter the Truckie, what’s wrong with that? After maybe 20 minutes I found the trail head and marked a waypoint on the GPS. The Elk County Crew and I will definitely be able to find this trail during our October trip this year.
I had heard that Castle Garden Road from Route 555 to the trailhead was a rough road but I wanted to check it out for myself. Before I got to the rough part of the road I spotted another road that appeared to lead to a mountaintop overlook. You just know that I had to check this out. WHAT A VISTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It seems that this is the highest point in the area and no matter which direction that you looked you saw nothing but mountains and trees, no signs of civilization at all!!! This is what Pennsylvania looked like hundreds of years ago. I tried for some panorama shots and marked a waypoint for this overlook, the Elk County Crew will love this when October finally rolls around.
Ok, back to Castle Garden Road. I made my way down from the mountain top to the rough part of the road. According to my topo maps there was an 1800+ feet elevation change in a little over a mile. A little further down the road I was glad that I had good tires and solid 4WD. The road was rock and mud and for the most part maybe 4 feet wider than the truck. The road clung to the side of the mountain for the entire descent. If I went off the road I was either going straight up or straight down the mountain. There were no guardrails and the berm on the edge was no more than 18” high. The mud on top of the rock made the road a little slippery as well. I truly enjoyed the experience but the pucker factor was an honest 8.5!!!
I eventually got to the bottom of Castle Garden Road, took the truck out of low gear and 4WD then turned west onto Route 555. It was time to leave the PA Elk Country and go to the wetlands of Mercer and Crawford Counties. On my west I saw three more groups of elk: 12 cows in the front yard of a camp; 2 bulls near the river and 3 bulls near the intersection of Rock Hill Road and Route 555. That brought my total to 33 elk in 2 ½ hours. I wasn’t done for the day yet, not by a long shot.
I had a stop to make south of Franklin, PA, before I headed to what would be my base camp for the next two days. I wanted to check out a wetlands area near Polk, PA. This stop was just to scout the wetlands to see if it would be worth the trip back in the future. After seeing the area, I believe that it would be worth the trip back, especially in the Fall.
From Polk I drove to the village of Sandy Lake which is near the camp where I’d be staying for the next two nights. I followed the GPS directions to the dam on Lake Wilhelm, from there I’d use my memory to get to the camp. I followed the south lake road along the lake shore for a few miles until I got to the intersection where the camp sits. Instead of going to the camp I turned and drove down to the cove on Lake Wilhelm that sits below the camp. I should have been more cautious on my approach because I spooked a large flock of Hooded and Common Mergansers from the cove. Luckily they didn’t fly too far and I was able to get some shots of them with the 40x eyepiece on the digiscope.
It’s now 1:30 PM, I’ve unloaded the truck, have the camp set up, had lunch and put a camera battery in the charger. I suppose that it’s time to check out a few of the areas I have marked on the map and GPS.
My first stop of the afternoon was at a place called “The Wells”. It’s the site of an artesian well on the edge of Geneva Swamp in Crawford County. Due to the heavy rains and snow melt the area was flooded. I stopped at a few other places around the swamp and they were flooded as well. There was supposed to be a cold front moving in during the late afternoon and evening. Already the predicted high winds were picking up and the temperatures were falling. It was going to be a rough afternoon.
I left the swamp and drove to the Pymatuning area. There are some ponds near the park maintenance buildings that I wanted to see. The ponds were very accessible but they held the usual Canada Geese and a few Ringneck ducks.
The next stop would be the spillway at Pymatuning. By now the wind was steady at 20-25 miles per hour so at the spillway there wasn’t much to be seen. I was able to get some good shots of some coots, turtles and deer in the vicinity of the spillway. I saw but got no shots of a Bald Eagle.
Due to the increasing wind speed I figured that I would work my way back to the camp. I drove along some back roads looking for photo opportunities the entire way. That is something nice about being able to do this: I wasn’t rushed or had to worry about taking care of other business for three days, I could go at my own speed and get any shots that came my way. I stopped at a few places that I had marked off on my map and GPS. These were in the game lands portion of northern Lake Wilhelm/Goddard State Park. Before I left Pittsburgh I was told of an eagle’s nest in that area. I saw the nest but didn’t see any of the eagles. I saw and got shots of two ospreys on a nest but due to the high winds very few of those shots were usable to me.
My last stop for the day would be the marina at Lake Wilhelm. I saw the usual geese and a hen Common Merganser but again the wind caused me problems and very few of those pictures came out.
I finally got back to the camp around 6:45 PM. I was hungry and worn out from a long day. I put in nearly 16 hours already, took about 300 pictures and drove over 300 miles. It was time for some chicken, a shower and bed. I have another loooooong day ahead of me tomorrow. Hopefully the wind will die down like it is supposed to do and I’ll be able to get some good shots.
Stay tuned for the next post “Day 2 Up North”. I’ll be going to Erie National Wildlife Refuge, Woodcock Creek Lake, Cambridge Springs, Edinboro, Pymatuning and Lake Wilhelm again.
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