Virginia does have elk, and the herd is growing. After being wiped out in the state roughly two centuries ago, elk were reintroduced to the coalfields of far southwest Virginia beginning in 2012. The population is concentrated almost entirely in Buchanan County, where a 2022 estimate put the herd at about 300 animals. Finding them means heading to one of the most remote and rugged corners of the commonwealth, where reclaimed surface mines and mixed hardwood forests create the open meadows and forest edges that elk prefer.
How Elk Disappeared and Came Back
Eastern elk once ranged across Virginia and much of the Appalachian region. Unregulated hunting and large-scale habitat loss during European settlement drove them out by the mid-1800s. The subspecies that lived here, sometimes called the eastern elk, went extinct entirely. For more than 150 years Virginia had no wild elk at all.
The effort to bring them back followed the lead of Kentucky, which began restoring elk to its own coalfields in 1997 and eventually built one of the largest herds east of the Mississippi. Virginia’s Department of Wildlife Resources (then called the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries) started its own program in 2012 by translocating elk from Kentucky into Buchanan County. Over several years, batches of elk were released onto reclaimed mine lands and surrounding forested areas. The choice of location was deliberate: Buchanan County sits right along the Kentucky border, and the landscape of former coal mines offered large open grasslands mixed with forest cover, a combination that mimics the meadow-and-woodland mosaic elk thrive in.
Where Exactly the Herds Are
If you want to see elk in Virginia, you are going to Buchanan County. That is the entire story of the herd’s current range. The county sits at the far southwestern tip of the state, bordering both Kentucky and West Virginia. The nearest city of any size is Grundy, the county seat, which has a population of about a thousand people. This is Appalachian coal country, heavily forested and thinly populated, and it is a long drive from most of Virginia’s population centers. From Richmond, expect at least six hours in the car. From Roanoke, roughly three.
Within Buchanan County, the elk concentrate on and around reclaimed surface mines. These former mining sites have been reseeded with grasses and legumes, creating the kind of open grazing areas elk need. The animals move between these clearings and the surrounding hardwood forests, especially along ridgelines and in valleys with water sources. Research tracking GPS-collared female elk in the herd found that their seasonal home ranges averaged roughly 600 to 900 hectares depending on the time of year, with the largest ranges occurring during late gestation when cows range more widely before calving.
The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources has established designated elk viewing areas in Buchanan County to give visitors a reasonable chance of spotting the animals without disturbing them. These viewing sites are concentrated along roads that pass near known grazing areas. The most frequently mentioned spots include areas along Route 83 and Route 631 near the communities of Shortt Gap and Vansant. Signage in the area helps orient visitors, but it is worth checking with the department’s website or local contacts before making the trip, since elk shift their patterns seasonally.
How Big the Herd Is Now
Virginia’s elk population is still small compared to western herds, but it is growing. A study using mark-recapture methods estimated the Buchanan County population at about 250 elk in 2021 and roughly 300 in 2022, with the researchers noting that these numbers put Virginia on track to meet the first major goal of its 2019–2028 elk management plan: establishing a viable, self-sustaining population.1Scholarly Works, Fish and Wildlife Conservation. Estimating Elk Abundance Using the Lincoln-Petersen Method That confidence interval was wide (roughly 155 to 450 for the 2022 estimate), which reflects the genuine difficulty of counting large animals in dense Appalachian terrain. But the upward trend from year to year is the signal that matters for managers.
For context, Kentucky’s elk herd now numbers over 10,000 after roughly 25 years of restoration. Virginia is far earlier in the process, and the landscape available in Buchanan County is smaller than the Kentucky elk zone. Whether Virginia’s herd eventually numbers in the thousands or stabilizes at a lower level will depend on habitat capacity, how far the animals spread, and management decisions about harvest.
What Makes the Habitat Work
The connection between elk and coal mining might seem strange, but it is one of the more interesting parts of the story. Surface mining strips away forest and topsoil, and reclamation laws require mining companies to stabilize and revegetate the land afterward. The result is large, rolling grasslands at high elevations surrounded by forest. For elk, this is close to ideal. They are grazers that need open areas to feed but also use forest for cover, thermal shelter, and calving.
Research on the Virginia herd’s habitat use found that the quality of available forage and the structure of the landscape both influence where elk settle and how they move. Female elk in the herd showed seasonal shifts in home range size that tracked with their reproductive cycle. During calving, cows used somewhat smaller areas, likely staying close to cover and high-quality forage near their calves. During late gestation, their ranges expanded significantly, covering on average about 876 hectares, compared to roughly 586 hectares during mid-gestation.2Nature. Drivers of habitat quality for a reintroduced elk herd These patterns suggest the elk are responding to changes in food availability and energy demands across the year, not just wandering randomly.
The mix of reclaimed grassland and intact forest also matters for predator avoidance. Virginia’s southwest mountains do have black bears and coyotes, both of which can prey on elk calves. Adult elk have little to fear from either predator, but calf survival in the first few weeks of life is a critical driver of herd growth. Access to dense forest cover for hiding calves and open grassland for feeding is exactly the landscape recipe that supports successful reproduction.
Best Times to See Elk
Elk are most visible during two windows of the day: early morning and late evening. They tend to feed in open areas during low-light hours and retreat into forest during the middle of the day. If you are making the trip to Buchanan County, plan to be at a viewing area around dawn or in the last hour or two before sunset.
Seasonally, fall is the most dramatic time to visit. The autumn rut, usually running from mid-September through October, is when bull elk are most active and vocal. Bulls bugle to challenge rivals and attract cows, and they are far less cautious than at other times of year. You are more likely to see large bulls in the open during the rut, and you might hear bugling from a considerable distance. It is one of the most striking wildlife experiences available in the eastern United States.
Winter can also be productive for viewing, especially on reclaimed mine sites where elk congregate to feed on whatever green forage remains. Snow makes the animals easier to spot against the landscape. Spring and summer are quieter. Cows with new calves tend to be secretive, and bulls retreat into forested areas to regrow antlers. You can still find elk in warmer months, but it takes more patience and sometimes a spotting scope.
Living Alongside Elk
Reintroducing a large herbivore into a landscape where people live and farm is never without friction. Elk are big animals, with bulls weighing 700 pounds or more, and they eat a lot. A single elk can consume 20 pounds or more of vegetation per day. When a herd of several hundred animals settles near agricultural fields, crop damage is inevitable.
In Buchanan County, the most common complaints involve elk feeding on hay fields, gardens, and other crops. The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources has worked with landowners to mitigate damage, using a combination of fencing, deterrents, and in some cases direct compensation. These conflicts are familiar from every eastern elk restoration, and managing them is part of the long-term plan. Kentucky dealt with the same issues at a much larger scale as its herd grew, and Virginia has tried to learn from that experience.
Vehicle collisions are another concern. Elk are big enough to total a car and seriously injure or kill occupants. In Buchanan County’s winding mountain roads, visibility is often limited. Drivers in the area, especially at dawn and dusk, need to be alert for elk on or near roadways. The state has posted elk crossing signs in known problem areas, but the animals do not read signs.
Will Virginia Open an Elk Hunt?
This is one of the most commonly asked questions about the program, and as of now the answer is not yet. Virginia’s elk management plan laid out a phased approach, with the initial goal of establishing a viable population before considering any regulated harvest. The 2022 population estimate of around 300 animals suggests the herd is approaching viability, but it is still well below the levels that typically justify a hunting season in other states.1Scholarly Works, Fish and Wildlife Conservation. Estimating Elk Abundance Using the Lincoln-Petersen Method
Kentucky opened its first elk hunt in 2001, just four years into its restoration, partly because the herd was growing rapidly and crop damage was mounting. Virginia’s herd is growing more slowly in a smaller area, so the timeline will be different. When a hunt does eventually happen, it will almost certainly be a limited-draw system with very few permits, similar to how Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and other eastern states manage their elk hunts. Tags for eastern elk hunts are among the hardest to draw in North American big game hunting. Kentucky currently offers only a few hundred permits per year despite having a herd of over 10,000.
For now, Virginia’s elk are strictly a wildlife-watching attraction. The economic argument for elk tourism is actually part of the management calculus. Buchanan County has struggled economically as coal employment has declined, and elk viewing brings visitors and dollars to a region that could use both. Other elk restoration sites in the East have seen meaningful tourism revenue. Cataloochee Valley in North Carolina’s Great Smoky Mountains, home to a separate elk herd, draws tens of thousands of viewers each fall.
How Virginia’s Herd Compares to Other Eastern Herds
Virginia is one of several eastern states that have restored elk in recent decades, and its herd is among the youngest and smallest. Kentucky’s program is the big success story, with its herd now self-sustaining and large enough to support annual hunting. Tennessee began reintroductions in 2000 in the Cumberland Mountains, and that herd has also grown steadily. Pennsylvania’s elk herd, centered around Benezette in the north-central part of the state, is the oldest eastern restoration and dates back to early 1900s releases; it now numbers around a thousand animals and supports a small annual hunt. North Carolina’s herd in the Great Smoky Mountains was established with an experimental release in 2001 and has grown to roughly 200 animals.
Virginia’s herd sits in the middle of this eastern network geographically and at the younger end in terms of establishment. One advantage Virginia has is proximity to Kentucky’s large population. Elk from Kentucky have been known to wander across the border on their own, supplementing the Virginia herd with natural immigration. This genetic and demographic connection to a much larger population is a meaningful buffer against the risks that threaten small, isolated herds, such as inbreeding and vulnerability to disease outbreaks.
What Elk Need That the Mountains Provide
Elk are generalist herbivores with a diet that shifts across the seasons. In spring and summer, they graze heavily on grasses, sedges, and forbs in open meadows. As fall progresses and green forage dies back, they increasingly browse on woody plants, bark, and whatever remains green. Winter is the bottleneck for elk in Appalachian landscapes. Unlike the open grasslands of the West, where elk can paw through snow to reach buried forage, Appalachian winters bring a mix of snow, ice, and dense forest that can limit access to food.
The reclaimed mine lands in Buchanan County help solve this problem to a degree, because the reseeded grasses on these sites often retain some green growth longer into fall than surrounding forest understory. Research on elk diet in nearby Cumberland Mountain habitat in Tennessee found that elk relied heavily on these kinds of open, managed grasslands for forage throughout the year.3BioOne Complete. Seasonal Forage Availability and Diet for Reintroduced Elk in the Cumberland Mountains, Tennessee The parallel with Virginia’s coalfield habitat is direct: both regions offer elk large open areas created by human land disturbance, surrounded by forest, in mountain terrain.
Water is rarely a limiting factor. Buchanan County is laced with streams and creeks draining the surrounding mountains, and annual precipitation in the region typically exceeds 40 inches. Elk need daily access to water, especially lactating cows in summer, and the Appalachian landscape provides it reliably. The bigger long-term question for habitat is whether the reclaimed mine grasslands will persist. Without active management like periodic mowing or burning, these areas will eventually succeed back to forest. Keeping them open for elk will require ongoing effort, and whether funding and political will sustain that work over decades is an open question.
Practical Tips for Planning a Visit
If you are headed to Buchanan County to look for elk, a few practical considerations will improve your chances and your experience.
- Bring optics: A pair of binoculars is essential, and a spotting scope mounted on a window or tripod is even better. Elk may be feeding hundreds of yards away on a distant hillside, and you will want magnification to appreciate what you are seeing.
- Stay in your vehicle: Elk are large, potentially dangerous animals, especially bulls during the rut. Your car makes an excellent blind. Elk habituated to vehicles in viewing areas will tolerate a parked car at a reasonable distance but often spook if a person approaches on foot.
- Keep your distance: Virginia law prohibits harassing wildlife, and approaching elk too closely qualifies. A general rule is to stay at least 100 yards away, and farther is better.
- Plan for limited services: Buchanan County is rural. Gas stations, restaurants, and lodging options are sparse. Fill your tank before you arrive, bring food and water, and consider booking accommodations in Grundy or a nearby town in advance, especially during fall when viewing interest peaks.
- Check conditions: Mountain weather in southwest Virginia can change quickly, and some viewing areas are accessed via gravel roads that may be rough or impassable in bad weather. Check road conditions and forecasts before you go.
The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources maintains updated information about elk viewing locations and seasonal activity on its website. Local outfitters and guides have also begun offering elk viewing tours, which can be a good option if you are unfamiliar with the area and want someone who knows where the animals have been spending time recently.