A couple of weeks ago we attended our first ever Elk Festival in Jasper. In its 14th year, the Elk Festival celebrates the reintroduction of Elk into the Buffalo River Wilderness.
Now, I confess that I'm a big fan of small town festivals, but we had a great time.
During the day, we visited all of the 80 (I'm guessing) or so vendors that were there. The booths covered a variety of different crafts: jewelry, framing, pottery, flags, jellies and jams, hand-made turkey calls, etc -- along with many of the organizations that are helping maintain the area around the Buffalo River including the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Friends of the Buffalo River. We bought two wooden cutting boards (which I love) and Michelle bought a cute little hair stick thing that helps her keep her long hair off her shoulders when it's hot. We also plan to get a little custom framing done from the framing guy. There were also a lot of activities for the kids too.
The highlight of the event (for me) was the Dutch oven cookoff. For a couple of dollar donation, we got a bowl and wandered around to all of the booths tasting a sampling of their Dutch oven cooking. I had no idea so many things could be made in a Dutch oven -- roasted pork and some cajun fare was excellent, but the big surprises for me were the breads, cheese cakes and other baked goods. Yum!
After dinner we settled in for some live music. I think the band name was Double Barrel but am not certain on that. Regardless, it was a great show. As the day became night, the fireworks began and the band played some patriotic songs in the background.
After the fireworks, we listened to a couple more songs before taking our extremely tired selves home for the evening.
The Elk Festival is officially on our "must attend" list for years to come -- and if you get a chance, I'd encourage you to do the same.
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