Things get busy at the Buffalo National River in the fall. Leaves change, fish bite and bull elk sound their symphony of bugling music at sunrise and sunset.
It's a mystical experience to be in Boxley Valley at that misty first-light to see and here these heavy-antlered elk rear back their heads and sound off with a loud bugle. Kind of a squealing, whistling, grunting call made by these big males that can tingle the spine.
October is a prime month to see elk roaming in meadows close to the highway where visitors can see them and hear their unforgettable calls. Autumn is mating season in the world of elk. Bulls bugle to advertise their fitness to female cow elk, says the National Park Service website.
Another show might be called a bull fight. Bull elk butt heads in a heavy-weight, antler-t0-antler fight for the prize of being boss bull and to attract cow elk.
A drive along Arkansas 21 through Boxley and Arkansas 43 near Ponca puts visitors in elk country. The short window between first light and sunrise is magic hour for elk watching, but they stay out in the open after sunrise.
Not an early riser? Sunset is an equally good time for elk watching, said Brad Savage at the Ponca Elk Education Center on the main drag in Ponca. Arkansas Game and Fish Commission runs the center.
"How long they stay out in the open depends on the weather, " Savage said. "It's usually until 10 or 11, or sometimes all day."
At midday, elk retreat back into the forest to rest and feed on fall greenery.
Arkansas has about 550 Rocky Mountain elk that are mostly along the Buffalo River. The elk herd people see in Boxley Valley numbers about 100 animals, Savage said.
There's an elk hunting season in Arkansas, but Boxley Valley isn't in the elk-hunting zone. That starts miles downstream on state and federal land of the middle and lower sections of the Buffalo.
Chances are excellent for seeing elk at dawn and dusk. How close is another story. They may be a fair distance away on the far side of the fields near the river or closer to the highway.
We'll never forget our elk-watching adventure in 2017 when elk roamed close as 30 yards in fields and forests close to the Ponca low-water bridge. A half-dozen of us got the elk show of a lifetime.
On another visit, we saw a huge bull standing by itself right beside the highway. It crossed the asphalt trotted into someone's front yard. Then there've been times when elk kept their distance.
Lots of people spend the early morning watching and photographing elk. Afterward, they pay a visit to the Ponca Elk Education Center. Savage said some 16,000 people visit the center each year to learn more about elk and attend its programs.
Elk were hunted to extinction in Arkansas during settlement times. These were eastern elk, as opposed to Rocky Mountain Elk that roam the Buffalo River region today. An effort to reestablish elk in the state took place in the 1980s and was a success.
There's no guarantee that visitors will see elk, but chances are good to experience the head-butting, foot stomping, bull snorting and bugling show that elk put on at the Buffalo River each fall.
Flip Putthoff can be reached at fputthoff@nwadg.com