One of my favorite places to go in Saint Louis is Lone Elk Park. Gary and I visited there last weekend. It’s the perfect place to go in quarantine: a wildlife park you drive through with the windows rolled up. No exposure to any humans.
I was concerned that everyone else would have the same idea. Not quite.
- Number of cars driving through the park: normal
- Number of people hiking through the park: insanely excessive
- Number of animals we saw first time through: zero
I saw at least twenty people hiking through this park, fishing, eating, drinking beer, lounging idly right next to signs that say LEAVE YOUR CAR AT YOUR OWN RISK / DO NOT APPROACH THE ELK.
I have never seen so many people, and so of course I have never seen so few animals. The second time through I saw one deer far away by the lake, Gary spotted some buffalos with their backs to us as far away as they could get, and then the entire herd of elk decided to hoof it to the middle of the lake where they pointedly glared and said, “You people are contagious. Keep away from us with your bat disease.”
Poor animals. Four months of shutdown, during which I am sure they were certain humans had been eradicated, then suddenly all the humans came back, got out of their cars, and took over the park more aggressively than ever before. No wonder they were avoiding us.
2 responses to “Lone Elk Park: Coronavirus Edition”
We have a drive-through wildlife park located about twenty miles west of here. It’s lovely on a drizzly day when you want to do something without getting too wet. When things were first closing down in March, it was jam-packed with families looking to do something with their kids. Cars were backed up from the entrance onto the freeway. I have no idea if people are staying in their cars. We know adolescents believe they are invincible, but maybe most of humanity feels that way?
Now a couple of drive-in theaters are newly opened or open soon. That will be the next big amusement for the socially distant.
Arlene – The community I live in thinks they’re invincible. Numbers went up over 700% in the last week. Smarter people, people at work, have been going camping for “entertainment.” I haven’t heard of anyone renting an RV, but that seems like a good plan. Pack the family in the motorized metal box, park far away from everyone in the RV park, walk in a creek, then next morning back in the box.