Tule Elk State Natural Reserve

5 stars for the amazing Elk.
Everything about the reintroduction of the program from just two elk in 1870 is amazing. At one time the Elk were roaming the state in the hundreds of thousands. Half a million at it’s peak.
1 star for the maintenance of this State Park.
While I realize our state has seen better days, and the Tule Elk Reserve was put on the lowest rung of the State’s to-​do list, would it hurt to pick up a few pieces of trash?!
My last visit was about a year ago. The place looks like it used to be a State Reserve; the bones were there. But the dilapidated benches, abundance of trash, and abandoned dogs running around left it something to be desired.
Tule Elk were no where to be seen. I mean, would you blame them?
It’s ironic that so many cattlemen are upset about the Tule Elk re-​population, yet it was a cattleman in the 1870s who made the effort to bring them back.

I was lucky enough to catch a rerun of California’s Gold that show cased this awesome reserve! Unfortunately, I failed to look up the hours on the internet before passing thru the area. The reserve is only open 8am-​5pm Friday, Saturday and Sunday due to budget cuts. It was a short 15 minute drive off of I-​5 and we passed by crop fields, the California Aquaduct and oil fields along the way! I will definitely stop back here on my way back to Sacramento!

Rating is from the human perspective versus the elks’. The be-​racked stags we saw lying in the field near the visitor’s center seemed to like the place okay. But with the high fence closing them in, it’s hard to know if these elk would hang around this god-​forsaken hot-​ass place if given any choice in the matter.
In addition to reducing services (this place is apparently only open to the public Friday through Sunday), once you get there, you find out they expect you to pay $ 8 to park. In a run-​down mess that wouldn’t make a decent highway rest area!
Yes, a sign at the I-​5 off ramp would be nice. Or better yet, maybe a mention of the gouging you’re in for on the «park’s» website?

Thanks to our government’s policy of raising taxes while reducing services, this place is closed most of the time. It would be nice if they posted that information back by the freeway, rather than making one take a six mile round trip to find it out.

A good place to catch a glimpse of the tule elk. I’ve been here twice, but the visitor center was never open. I did have a nice chat with a ranger at the reserve, and on one visit the elk were fairly close to the enclosure, so I didn’t need to search for them.