I’d lived here in Sequim for nearly a year before I had my first elk sighting. I’d read that the herd size varied from year-to-year, but supposedly numbered 90-ish. Of course, there is the Elk Crossing sign, which flashes when the radio collared elk are nearby. My husband and I joked that we figured the State Wildlife guys had collared some cows by mistake, as we’d never seen any elk.
The flashing signs, activated in 2000 as a joint project for the safety of both humans and elk between the Washington State Dept. of Wildlife, the Point No Point Treaty Tribes, the Makah Tribe, and other organizations, are triggered by radio collars attached to about 10 elk, lighting up whenever they are within a quarter mile of the highway.
I eventually managed to figure out where the elk are most likely to hang out around Sequim, though most of my photos were long distance shots showing vaguely elk-shaped brown blobs. But I’ve been lucky this last month, and have managed to catch some photos when they were actually reasonably close.
The Olympic Peninsula has several elk herds, but the Roosevelt Elk population within the entire Northeast portion of Olympic Peninsula is limited to one herd that resides in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley.
Olympic Elk Herd distribution map. Map courtesy of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The herd can often be found along Schmuck Road, Happy Valley Road, Palo Alto Road and sometimes along Brown Road here in the Sequim Dungeness Valley.
So when you visit Sequim, keep your eyes open and I hope you see more elk than just this one!
Hahaha, yes those elusive Sequim elk!! So glad you caught up with them!
Nice photos! Glad you finally got a chance to take some close up.
I thought I saw two elk in port Ludlow. It was very late and dark but hey were much larger than deer. Has anyone heard of herd members in port Ludlow or Chimacum?
Hi Jason,
The Olympic elk herd (generally north of the Chehalis River and west of the Hood Canal) totals about 8600 outside the Olympic National Park and about 5,000 inside the park, according to the Dept of Fish & Wildlife. The DFW designates game management units (GMU), and the Coyle GMU covers the Port Townsend, Port Ludlow and Chimacum area, with a total of about 100 elk. So it’s possible!
Yes they were on the egg and I only 2
Had a small farm on McFarland. Woke up often to part of the herd in my field.