Visit Ludington

Open May through October

When a bull elk throws his head back and bugles, his call can send shivers down your spine. This haunting sound is heard frequently at Amber Elk Ranch, just minutes from Ludington. Visitors can take a tour of this 130 acre ranch aboard a comfortable wagon towed by a big farm tractor, traveling through fenced-off sections of pasture and pine groves holding pregnant cow elk, yearling elk, and fully-antlered bulls.

Perhaps the most thrilling experience of the tour is when the wagon pauses to feed the elk. Smelling the grain carried in buckets on the wagon, the elk move near, curious and seemingly at ease with the tour guide and passengers. Often, a friendly elk can be enticed to gently nibble from your hand.

Tours leave approximately every hour. While waiting for the next wagon, visitors can enjoy the pot-belly pigs, pygmy goats, donkey, turkeys, and others. The ranch gift shop, the Antler Shed, is a great place to spend time browsing among unusual items for sale ranging from rustic furniture and antler decor to stuffed animals and many antler products. Elk meat and jerky are also available.

Along the log-rail fence hang dried elk antlers, sold for making lamps, knives, ornaments and other products. Each spring, a new elk antler begins to grow at up to an inch per day for several months before it starts to calcify and turn hard. Antlers are humanely removed annually once the elk bull reaches two years of age.

The ranch also welcomes you to their Saturday evening elk meat BBQ, weather permitting, and be sure to try finding your way through the fall corn maze.

Amber Elk Ranch is open daily Memorial Weekend through Labor Day and on fall weekends. For more information, call 843-5355, or visit www.amberelkranch.com.