2/05/2011

HARDWARE RANCH
Cache Valley, Utah

I spent the weekend in "chilly" Logan where I visited Hardware Ranch (40 minutes up Blacksmith Fork Canyon) It was beautiful.  There were 500 head of elk in a very large meadow. We went out by sleigh and just sat and watched them.


In 1946 Utah State received a grant from the federal government to start a feeding program for the elk. This kept the elk far up the canyon and away from Cache Valley where they were making life hard for the farmers.  They begin feeding around the middle of December and finish the end of March.  In an average year there are at least 500 elk and sometimes as many as 700.  The elk are tagged and tracked.  They roam as far as Colorado, Idaho and Wyoming, always returning for the easy feed.



There are many areas in the United States where elk are fed but Hardware Ranch is one of only two places that allows people to watch the process first hand. About 18,000 people visit the ranch every year.  The elk are huge and their antlers enormous.

QUESTION:  What's the difference between horns and antlers??
ANSWER:  Animals with antlers shed them every year and then grow new ones.  Animals with horns keep them for life.


We were pulled out onto the field by a team of Clydesdale Horses weighing about 4,000 lbs.  They were massive.



IT WAS COLD!