Elk travel in large herds and move considerable distances with the changing seasons. In summer and early fall you might encounter them near Grand Park, Palisades Lakes, or the Cowlitz Divide. In winter they'll be at lower elevations, perhaps Grove of the Patriarchs or outside Mount Rainier National Park around Greenwater and Packwood.

An adult elk eats 20 pounds of vegetation every day.

During the fall rut, bull elk make loud bugling calls to attract cows and scare off other males. They sound a bit like a child in the early stages of learning to play the French horn.

Beginner hikers may wonder how to distinguish elk vs. deer. Key differences: elk are bigger, likely be seen in larger groups, have darker colored legs and necks where deer are a single color all over, and have white rump patches with short stubby tails.

Roosevelt (aka Olympic) elk were once native to Rainier, but their population declined throughout the Cascades as settlement and hunting increased. Even after the creation of Mount Rainier National Park, elk were vulnerable to hunters when they left the park to winter at lower elevation. By the start of the 20th century, they had become rare.

Between 1912 and 1932, elk were brought from Yellowstone National Park and released in the Cascades with the goal of restoring a population for the enjoyment of tourists.

Cue a century of concern as conservationists pointed out that the imported animals were Rocky Mountain elk, a different subspecies from the native Roosevelt elk. Perhaps they should be removed again to preserve the original ecosystem? After a 1962 survey found many elk, worries grew to include: was the population exploding? Were invasive elk behaving in a different way from native elk and damaging fragile meadows through overgrazing? Some believed that elk had never been native to Rainier. Should their population now be controlled?

Like it or not, the Roosevelt and Rocky Mountain elk crossbred many years ago. The herds living on Rainier today are a blend of both subspecies, and they've been here long enough that at this point I think they have a solid claim to belong on the mountain.