Elk used to live throughout the eastern United States, but European colonizers overhunted them and they went extinct in the 1800s. Since the 1990s, these 700-pound animals have been making a comeback in Appalachia, including in Far Southwest Virginia.
The best time to see elk is sunrise and sunset, when they’re most active. So, in the dark, 6:30 a.m., a crowd of people gather to board a tour bus.
“I like nature, so this is one of the important things in life,” said Svetlana Mosina, from Richmond. We’re standing atop a former strip mine, near Grundy in the southwest corner of the state. A bus pulls into the parking lot, with a sign that reads “Experience Appalachia’s greatest conservation story.”
In the 1990s, Kentucky brought elk from western states and successfully introduced them into the eastern mountains there. In 2012, Kentucky started giving Virginia some of their elk. Now, the herds have more than tripled and there are more than 250 elk in Southwest Virginia.
Gene Hook and his wife now make it an annual tradition to see the elk and enjoy the changing fall colors. This is the sixth year they’ve traveled from southern Indiana to camp with friends.
“God’s creation. It’s just beautiful up in here,” Hook said.
As we board the bus, the sun peaks out from the ridgeline. After a few minutes, we spot a group of 12 male elk.
Passengers step out into the field, and the only sound is the clicking of cameras and phones.
Sharon Pressler, from Chatham, said this is the third time her family has made this trip. She stands beside her son, who’s set up a tripod to take photos.
On the bus, she and her son share what they’ve captured. Her husband sits smiling beside them, looking out the window at the elk grazing.
There’s a calm contentment that settles among the bus passengers, as we head towards another area the elk like to roam.
This project is a collaboration between the Nature Conservancy, which owns this land, the Department of Wildlife Resources, and local volunteers, like Leon Boyd, who’s guiding this tour.
“I grew up right here,” Boyd said. “So all of this was grounds that I hunted on as a kid for rabbit and squirrel.”
Boyd and other volunteers with Southwest Virginia Sportsmen have spent years reworking this land. Pulling up invasive plants, like autumn olive, that mining companies planted when they reclaimed it. Boyd’s group planted native grasses that elk like to eat.
“And now, with just a little bit of effort, and a little bit of work, we see the abundance of wildlife,” Boyd said.
By day, Boyd works for a drilling company, but his passion is bringing people up to these mountains.
“We find ourselves, sometimes out here with folks that may be battling some issues in life, whether it be cancer or something else,” Boyd said. Recently, they hosted a busload of people from an assisted living facility.
“And if you can give them a moment to just take the view in that we have this morning, or sit with them and show them wildlife, and just see the glow on their face, and you give them that moment of relief to forget about what’s going on, I think that’s the most rewarding part of it,” Boyd said.
For our last stop, the bus driver maneuvers over gravel switchbacks to an incredible view, where we can see into eastern Kentucky. A dozen small mountain ridges are below us, and there’s a herd of elk. We hear the ethereal sound of an elk bugling in the distance.
That sound, absent from Virginia for 150 years, has returned.
Boyd said these views never gets old, but some things have changed for him. He’s not as interested in hunting as he once was.
“My dad told me, when I was just a young man, he said, ‘you know, they’ll come a time in your life you start to appreciate more things around you, rather than just killing it.’ And I think I’ve reached that in life,” Boyd said.
Breaks Interstate State Park hosts guided bus rides during the spring, summer and fall, and they fill up quickly. Last year, they brought 1000 people from 17 states and two countries.
The next bus tour will be in the spring, when the elks begin calving.
