Elk Festival showcases Quinault's noble creatures
By Kaitlin Manry - Daily World writer
Saturday, April 9, 2005 11:18 PM PDT

DAILY WORLD / KEVIN HONG Elk have their eyes on human visitors during a guided bus tour at the inaugural Quinault Rain Forest Roosevelt Elk Festival Saturday. The festival runs through today.
LAKE QUINAULT - A dozen tourists excitedly crept down a gravel farming road near Lake Quinault on Saturday.

Squinting through binoculars and camera lenses in the bright afternoon sun, all eyes focused on 13 brown bearded bodies feasting in a grassy meadow.

"Isn't this exciting," whispered Jami McFarland of Puyallup, as she watched the creatures, now frozen in fear, some 50 yards away.

Roosevelt Elk, usually prized for their antlers and meat, won admiration and plenty of "oohs" for their graceful appearance at the Roosevelt Elk Festival this weekend. "They're beautiful," said Puyallup Police Chief Robin James, after seeing elk for the first time. "They're a lot more regal than deer. (With) the thick robe thing they have going on, they're a lot more noble."

DAILY WORLD / KEVIN HONG Elk have their eyes on human visitors during a guided bus tour at the inaugural Quinault Rain Forest Roosevelt Elk Festival Saturday. The festival runs through today.

The two-day elk festival drew 60 people from Washington and Oregon to the tiny lakeside resort area.

"The idea came because we see elk every day and we take them for granted and we wanted to be able to share our community with everyone else and talk about habitat and conservation," said Kellie Daniels, festival chairwoman.

The event featured safari-style elk watching tours, a guided rain forest hike and photo trip, tours of the Lake Quinault Museum, wildlife lectures and booths from a variety of organizations, including the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Kids made elk track castings and stared at the festival's mascot, a girl dressed up in a furry elk costume.

DAILY WORLD / KEVIN HONG Dressed as the elk festival mascot, Annie Christiansen, 12, takes a break for a game of chess with Tia Allen, also 12, at the Lake Quinault Lodge Saturday.
"It's hot," said elk imitator Tia Allen, 12, as she stood in the Lake Quinault Lodge without her antlers. "It's really fun because kids go up to you and just the looks in their faces."

Her cousin, Karli Sansom, 11, who had also worn the Lake Quinault High School elk costume, added, "They just kind of say, 'Look. That looks like an elk.' "

The Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife helped sponsor the event to showcase the "unique wildlife viewing opportunities" of the Lake Quinault area, according to Regional Wildlife Manager Jack Smith.

Riding along South Shore Road in a tour bus, festival-goers gazed out the windows at a rain forest draped in moss.

DAILY WORLD / KEVIN HONG Dressed as the elk festival mascot, Annie Christiansen, 12, takes a break for a game of chess with Tia Allen, also 12, at the Lake Quinault Lodge Saturday.

"It's beautiful," Smith said admiringly. "Look at all the shades of green. How many shades of green do you think are out there?" As they searched for elk, resident tour guides and scientists alike shared insight and stories about the landscape. "You don't feel like you're on a Disney kind of tour where you have a talking box thing," James said, as his daughter skipped beside him, holding a tuft of elk hair a guide gave her. "It's more personable. They all definitely know their stuff. They know the trees, flowers, fauna - everything." James said he liked the festival so much he would come back again for it, which he says is the measure of a truly good event. "We take for granted what we see every day," said festival guide Corey Daniels, as he watched water pour down Merriman Falls, near South Shore Road. "This morning, when we (first) saw elk, Good Lord, we couldn't get them off that bus fast enough - and we only saw two. ... Yeah, we don't realize how good we got it."

Kaitlin Manry, a Daily World writer, can be reached at 532-4000 ext. 130, or by e-mail at kmanry@thedailyworld.com.
 

LAKE QUINAULT - Members of the Lake Quinault Community Action Forum and the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife will be teaming up April 9 and 10 for the inaugural Quinault Rain Forest Roosevelt Elk Festival, an event designed to promote tourism and the natural beauty and resources of the area.

"The Lake Quinault Lodge is helping to host the event," says Kellie Daniels, president of the Community Action Forum. "We'll be having several speakers in the evening, from throughout the state, lecturing on big game habitat, conservation, and management. We'll also have tours, and our new museum will be open. We're just doing what we can to provide some tourism opportunities for all of the local hotels, businesses, and dining establishments."

The two-day festival will include breakfast Saturday morning at the Lake Quinault Lodge, three guided interpretive Roosevelt elk tours in the Quinault Rain Forest and a buffet banquet dinner and dessert at the Lake Quinault Lodge Saturday evening.

Guided interpretive hiking tours, museum tours, naturalist and photography trips, vendor booths, raffle drawings, door prizes, giveaways, special programs for kids, as well as visitor information about the Lake Quinault area and the Quinault Rain Forest will be part of the festival's weekend program.

"We're going to have the main pavilion at Lake Quinault Lodge set up with folks who provide services to the area," Daniels says. "Fishing guides and outfitters, for example. Our goal is not only for people to enjoy the lake, the elk and the festival, but learn about the services the area has to offer, so they can come back at other times of the year and participate in other activities."

Several speakers will also lecture throughout the weekend on big game habitat, conservation, management, history and education. Festival activities begin on Saturday morning and conclude Sunday at noon. The festival is designed for all ages and abilities.

The participant fees are set at $30 for adults and $15 for children 8-17. Participants receive a commemorative Elk Festival button designed by Quinault-area artist Heidi Bennett, which serves as a "pass" to enter the weekend's activities. The festival fee can be paid at any Quinault-area lodging provider, or Saturday morning before the breakfast buffet at the Lake Quinault Lodge.

"We're just really going to market our area and talk about opportunities for people to enjoy our Quinault Rain Forest," Daniels says. "We have a tremendous amount of interest in the festival already, and our goal is to have every room in every resort booked at Lake Quinault that weekend."

David Wilkins, a Daily World writer, can be reached at 532-4000, ext. 123, or by e-mail at dwilkins@thedailyworld.com