A file photo of sleigh rides through wintering elk at Hardware Ranch.
HYRUM — It’s that time of year when the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources gives sleighrides through the middle of hundreds of wild elk.
Haviland’s Old West Adventures will once again offer horse-drawn sleigh rides through the elk herd at Hardware Ranch on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from Dec. 1, through Feb. 11. The 40-minute rides begin at 10 a.m. and end at 4:30 p.m. each day.
“If your kids are wanting to see Santa’s reindeer this holiday season, you can provide the next best thing by visiting the Hardware WMA and seeing hundreds of their cousins,” DWR Hardware Wildlife Education Center Director Marni Lee said. “Elk and reindeer are both members of the Cervidae family.”
Rides cost $10 for those 9 years of age or older and $4 for those 4 to 8 years old. Kids 3 years of age or younger ride free. Tickets are only sold at the Hardware Wildlife Education Center and must be bought in-person on the day of your ride.
DWR Hardware Wildlife Education Center will also be set up activities for children to make crafts suitable for the season.
“Making Christmas ornaments using sagebrush, bitterbrush and other plants found at the WMA is a fun and popular activity,” Lee said. “We’ll be making the ornaments during December.”
Haviland’s is also offering sleigh ride reservations for groups of 25 people or more Monday through Thursday. Call 435-744-3229 to reserve a sleigh ride for your group. One of the food trailers will be set up near the ride line so people can buy food before and after the sleigh rides. Santa Claus will greet children every weekend through Christmas Eve.
The Hardware Wildlife Education Center has a new “All About Elk” exhibit that will be available to see in the center’s habitat room. There will activities for families in the center at 11 a.m., noon, 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Families can plan on each activity running about 30 minutes.
There’s no cost to visit the center and participate in the activities.
The elk at Hardware Ranch this winter have been known to migrate long distances. Some elk at the Hardware WMA have GPS collars and some have traveled as far as Montpelier, Idaho and Cokeville, Wyoming.
The farther north the elk migrate, the greater the chance they’ll contract brucellosis and bring it back to Utah. Brucellosis has not been detected in Utah’s elk, but it is affecting elk and bison in the Greater Yellowstone Area of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
Brucellosis in cattle, elk and bison causes abortions and low fertility rates in animals that contract it. Animals contract the disease by encountering an aborted, infected fetus or contaminated birth fluids.
Large numbers of animals in one area increases the risk that the elk will contract brucellosis.
The disease in elk increases the risk for abortions from February through June.
“Ending the elk viewing and feeding season in early February should cause the elk to disperse at exactly the time when cow elk that might have the disease would start aborting their fetuses,” DWR Regional Wildlife Manager Jim Christensen said. “Getting the elk away from each other should greatly reduce the chance that the elk wintering at the Hardware WMA contract the disease.”
Hardware Ranch Wildlife Management Area can be reached by traveling 16 miles east of Hyrum on state Route 101. Going through scenic Blacksmith Fork Canyon on your way to Hardware Ranch is a scenic drive along the Blacksmith Fork River.
For more information about the sleigh rides and the wildlife management area, call the ranch at 435-753-6206 or email Lee at [email protected].