Land Between the Lakes - Elk & Bison Prairie

When we made reservations at this campground at Prizer Point on Hurricane Creek in Cadiz, Kentucky, we were only vaguely aware that it sits on a bay of what we thought was Kentucky Lake, and we anticipated opportunities to paddle.  As it turned out, we are staying on Barkley Lake, not far from Land Between the Lakes.  Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area is a federally designated recreation area in Kentucky and Tennessee between Lake Barkley (formed by the damming of the Cumberland River), to the East, and Kentucky Lake (formed by the damming of the Tennessee River), to the West. It was designated as a national recreation area in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy.  Originally managed by the Tennessee Valley Authority after it constructed the two dams, it was later transferred to the administration of the United States Forest Service.  The two lakes are maintained at the same level and are connected by a canal that does not require locks.  Both lakes, and the canal, see significant recreational boat and commercial barge traffic.

The area between the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers was historically referred to as "Between the Rivers."  The Cherokee people originally inhabited it, but, as a result of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and a dubious treaty signed by some Cherokee with the U.S. Government, the Natives were forcibly ejected from this area and forced to move on foot to reservations -- primarily in Oklahoma.  Many died on this forced march, known as the "Trail of Tears," whose route is a National Historic Trail.  After the Cherokees' removal, European settlers moved in.  When the TVA constructed the two dams in the 1930's, approximately 800 families were forcibly evicted from the land between the rivers through TVA's exercise of the power of eminent domain.  This produced great bitterness on the part of local people of the area toward the Federal government.  However, one positive result of TVA's actions was the creation of a 170,000 acre recreation area and wildlife preserve.

One notable section of the park is the Elk & Bison Prairie, a 700-acre enclosure that has been restored to pre-settlement habitat. 

Herds of Bison and Elk have been reintroduced and may be viewed from vehicles via a 3.5-mile driving loop.  After visiting the Land Between the Lakes Visitor Center --

-- we decided to drive through the Prairie.  Our information officer was not encouraging, suggesting that the best times to see the wildlife are just after dawn and just before sunset -- but we decided to give it a try anyway.

The roads offers several informational stops, and we dutifully got out of the Jeep to read the explanatory signs.  At this stop, we could see a small expanse of grass prairie:

The Elk & Bison Prairie recreates this region as it existed prior to and during the 1700's, when vast herds of bison and elk blanketed the landscape, creating broad paths in the land as they migrated. When Native Americans used this land as hunting grounds, they periodically set fires to the land in order to encourage new growth of prairie grass and inhibit the growth of woodlands, knowing that large game animals would be drawn to the new grass.  This helped create a land in which grasses could thrive while the encroaching forest was kept at bay.  Early European travelers, not understanding this process, did not understand what they saw here, and described the region as the “barrens” because the land was mostly “barren” of trees.

Because of Europeans' ignorance of the interconnectedness of flora and fauna, settlement changed this delicate balance. As native peoples were forcibly relocated, Bison and elk were nearly hunted out of existence. Absence of fire and grazing allowed oak and hickory trees to take over, crowding out the prairie grasses.  For the next 150 years, a woodland landscape dominated the region.  Finally, in the mid-1970s, biologists at Land Between The Lakes noticed small patches of native prairie grasses inside what is now the Elk & Bison Prairie. They set carefully orchestrated prescribed burns over a period of years, as a result of which the prairie grasses flourished. It was then decided to enclose the prairie and add elk, bison, and additional warm-season native grasses as a demonstration area of what once existed in this region.

Getting back in the Jeep, we drove on, and very soon spotted a lone male Bison grazing on the grassy hillside some distance from us -- too far to get a good photo.  We snapped one anyway, fearful that this would be the extent of our Bison spotting for today:

We drove on, congratulating ourselves on our "lonely Bison" photo.  We drove around a curve and spotted these male turkeys in the distance -- again, too far away to photograph effectively:

A little further along, to our surprise, we happened upon the Bison herd as it moved across a creek and up a green hill toward another grazing field:

Watching Bison on the move is always an awesome sight.  Check out this video of the bison herd moving on - with baby bison in tow!

We thought we had hit the Bison lottery.  It was too bad we hadn't seen elk, but at least we had spotted the mighty buffalo!  No sooner did we say this to ourselves, than we happened upon the elk herd, grazing quietly in a field near the end of the loop road:

One or two of the elk were close enough for us to photograph clearly:

Most, however, were hanging out in the shade of a line of trees and were hard to observe closely:

Still, there was some interesting activity, including an episode of "Who is the meanest buck in the herd?" among the young males.  We even saw two of them standing, pawing at each other and butting their still-small antlers.

So that was it.  Pretty good results, we thought.

Then Kathy suggested that we do another drive around the loop to see if we could spot the Bison herd again.  That sounded like a good idea, so we re-circled the enclosure, this time knowing just about where we would spot the animals.

By the time we got about halfway around the loop drive, the Bison had moved quite a ways, and several sizeable males were grouped on either side of the road, right where we could get up close and personal.  Kathy snapped this shot of a few of them --

-- and shots of one or two Bison taking dirt baths in wallows:

On David's side, we got very close to one big male who gave us the critical eye as we passed -- VERY SLOWLY:

After spending a while watching the Bison, we felt we should move on, to allow other drivers to enjoy this encounter.  We looked with sadness in the rear view mirror at our new hoofy friends:

As we left, we remembered that fateful adage displayed on another cinematic adventure safari drive:

OBJECTS IN THE MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR.