HYRUM — The Utah Department of Wildlife Resources wants to remind the public the season to ride a sleigh or wagon through the middle of hundreds of wild elk is almost here.
The winter season at the Hardware Wildlife Management Area begins Dec. 5 and will offer a variety of fun activities for visitors.
Rides through the elk herds
Haviland’s Old West Adventures was contracted to offer horse-drawn sleigh or wagon rides on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from Dec. 5 through Feb. 15.
In addition to rides being available on the weekends, they will also offer rides on additional days on Dec. 22, 23 as well as Dec. 29, 30 and 31.
Rides start at 10 a.m. and end at 4:30 p.m. each day. Each ride lasts about 45 minutes. The fee to go on a ride is $12.50 for those 9 years of age or older and $5 for those 4 to 8 years old. Those 3 years of age or younger ride for free.
Visitors are encouraged to dress warm and watch for the food trailer near the sleigh ride line where food can be purchased.
Activities and displays
Plan on spending extra time in the Hardware Wildlife Education Center after riding through the middle of the elk. Participants can warm up and learn more about elk there. An “All About Elk” exhibit will be available to tour in the center. Activities for families will also be offered each day the rides are offered.
“Making Christmas ornaments using sagebrush, bitterbrush and other plants found at the WMA is a fun and popular activity each winter,” DWR Hardware Wildlife Education Center Director Marni Lee said. “We’ll offer the ornament making for visitors during December.”
All of the indoor activities are free when participants visit the education center.
For more information about the wagon/ sleigh rides and other activities, visit the DWR website. You can also call the Hardware WMA at 435-753-6206 or email Lee at marnilee@utah.gov.
Brucellosis concerns
The elk that visitors to Hardware WMA will see this winter have been known to migrate long distances. Elk at the Hardware WMA have received GPS collars which have tracked them as far away as Montpelier, Idaho and Cokeville, Wyoming.
The elk are monitored for brucellosis. The disease has not yet been detected in Utah, but it is affecting elk and bison in the Greater Yellowstone Area of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
Brucellosis in cattle, elk and bison could be devastating to the wildlife and cattle industries in the state. The disease causes abortions and low fertility rates in animals that contract it. For elk, the risk for abortions is highest from February through June.
DWR Northern Region Wildlife Manager Jim Christensen said congregating many animals in one area during the high-risk period increases the risk that elk will contract the disease.
“The prevalence of brucellosis in elk wintering on feeding grounds in Wyoming is much higher than it is among elk wintering outside the feeding grounds,” he said. “Ending the viewing and feeding season at Hardware in early February should cause the elk to disperse at exactly the time when cow elk that might have the disease start aborting their fetuses, and will reduce the risk of other elk contracting the disease.”
The public can reach the Hardware WMA by traveling 16 miles east of Hyrum on Route 101. Driving through the scenic Blacksmith Fork Canyon and be enjoyable while driving to the WMA.