There's a generous parking area with easy access to the Visitors Center. Inside ("Enter through the gift shop") you find two education rooms with taxidermy and tanned pelts; a rat snake named Java, and a cinema. Bathrooms are clean, modern, with warm water! On the trail, look for the many park benches overlooking a central broad green space: Elk prefer it to the forest, where their ears and racks can be poked by branches. In September and October it's rut season, and the mature bucks bugle to assemble their harems, warning other males to stay away. The sound of the bugling is magic: It's the sound of the Ogliocene epoch, 25 million years ago. Deer with upper canines? Highly recommend this experience! In the afternoon, enjoy deer and turkeys wandering on the green. The center is free. For best experience, bring your own folding chairs, sandwiches, and binoculars. read more

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This is a beautiful spot to stop on your elk viewing adventure. It is clean, has nice bathrooms, a gift shop, and wonderful educational displays for all ages. There's trails and lookouts to look for the elk and ample parking. read more

Elk Country Visitors Center - Elk and other PA wildlife display. - Parks Near Me - Benezette, Pennsylvania

What a beautiful area. We didn't get to see the elk but we heard them and a dozen of deer just grazing in the field. Very clean and well kept area. read more

Gorgeous building and grounds. This tourist stop brings a lot of visitors to Benezette, especially during the fall months for bugling season. Staff are friendly and knowledgeable. The inside has lots of cool artifacts and information, as well as a really nicely curated gift shop with apparel, items from local vendors, and other goods. If you're looking for BZ apparel, this is your best bet. My gripe with the visitors center is about the actual elk herds. Everyone says the visitors center feeds the elk to keep them up on the hill so that they can ensure tourists can see them. It makes the viewing of wildlife unnatural to me and focuses on the monetary aspect of the elk herd. Before the elk center, I remember elk walking all around town and near the cabins, but not anymore. Maybe I'm just jaded because I've been coming to Benezette my whole life and I have seen firsthand all of the recent changes in the past 10 or so years. read more

Over priced tourist trap. Wagon ride tickets not available even if you arrive well before 10 a.m.

Beautiful building inside and out and the gift shop has many options including local maple syrup. This is the place to be for viewing elk during rutting (mating) season late September to early October. I came the 3rd week of September on a weekday during COVID about an hour or so before sunset. Plenty parking but it was packed. However, the grounds of the visitor center are expansive so I found I could easily distance myself 6 feet or more from others. Upon exiting the visitor center building I could hear the familiar sound of male elk bugling so walked a short distance in their direction. I didn't have long to wait before 3 males with huge antlers came into view in the huge fields before me along with their harems. There are gravel walking paths at the edge of the fields with signs for us tourists to not go past these paths. An employee gently ensured that was the case as 2 male elk skirmished nearby, close enough for my point and shoot camera to get great photos but not so close I felt in danger. They didnt seem to pay us camera buffs any mind. They had better things to do. I got my pics then left before it got dark. It didn't look as though the parking lot had any lights and I wanted to make sure I found my car and didn't have to fight the crowds to get out. On the way out I saw many more elk both in fields at the visitor center and along the roadside. Well worth stopping here! read more

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My friend and I met here on a Monday to start our epic PA Wilds adventure. Sadly, this is not the place I'd recommend to others. There is little info to be found here. The building itself is beautiful and there are some paths (I wouldn't even call them trails) around the grounds that lead to different elk viewing areas. The problem with most of these areas is that they aren't very close to the open area so you'll need binoculars to see anything well. The other issue I had with the Elk Country Visitor Center is the hours. The gates are only open from 8am - 8pm. Our best elk viewing was just after sunrise and 8am seemed too late to get settled. Best viewing seemed to be around 7am (at least when I was there in September). I actually saw a black bear near one of the trails while I was standing in the elk viewing area. But did not see any elk. We planned on meeting here hoping to get info on elk viewing and where to go, pick up some park maps and info on local attractions. There was little to be found here and the one state park map and elk viewing guide I did find were behind the counter at the gift shop, not easily accessible. The few brochures we did locate were more for places to stay and not helpful for us since we already had accommodations. There is a gift shop on the premises but I only bought some locally made elk jerky (along with an orange knit cap for safety). Two stars might seem generous but there are a two good things about it. One, there are bathrooms. And most importantly, this was one of the very rare spots we were able to get cell phone reception. Other than that, anyone in the Benezette area looking to spot some elk would do better to just drive along 555 early in the morning or just before dark. read more

Elk Country Visitors Center - Parks Near Me - Benezette, Pennsylvania

It's a must stop if your in the area it's free with tons of wildlife info and you can walk or ride the wagon to the elk viewing area. Also clean restrooms and knowledgeable ranger. Great place to get your 10000 steps in for the day. 5Stars must stop read more

One of the best visitor centers I've been to. Lots of trails and viewing areas. Very educational with many exhibits. You can easily spend a hour or two just in the building. Comfortable seating areas inside for those handicapped. read more

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This visitors center is awesome! We went around 5-530 and saw tons of elk! There are short walking paths to different viewing areas and the area is just so nice and well kept! Inside they have a few rooms of displays with animals, teeth and fur. It was great for kids and adults too! There is a small gift shop and you can buy elk jerky and elk sticks. I think it was because of the time of year but they had food trucks, coffee trucks and horse drawn carriages for a closer view of the elk. I highly recommend! It is definitely worth the drive to go visit for a few hours! read more

Very nicely done. The views are incredible. The building is very nice. Come sit by the fireplace on a cold day! The exhibits are educational and the staff are knowledgeable as well. Some of the interactive exhibits were slow to load but informative. The little gift shop is very cute. We didn't see any live elk here however they were in a campground right down the road. Super cool to see them just chilling around like nothing phases them. read more

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Wow! An absolutely beautiful new Elk visitors center. Pennsylvania really put a lot into this one. This place is giant, and great for families. They have a large museum with lots of touch screens as well as digital cameras that you can control from inside the building, and zoom out into the fields to look for elk. There is also a gift shop for all your Elk Country memorabilia, and numerous hiking trails, and observation areas. This is a great place to stop in, and check out all the PA Wilds have to offer...oh, and the best part.. it's free. Very Cool! read more

My husband and I travelled to Benezette because we heard we could see elk there. We did see elk at the Visitor's center/ Elk County Alliance. They have some 'trails' and viewing stations. The staff was friendly enough. They've landscaped the property with plants elk like to eat, so we saw the beasts show up and graze. The best view was near the graveyard, where you aren't supposed to stop your car, or get out on the road, so our view was not as spectacular as we'd hoped. But, I heard we were there are the wrong time of day, as the Elk "bed down" mid-morning, and are much livelier in the evening. We went on 10/16 which also happened to be peak color season for the turning leaves, too. This place struck me a really touristy, though. We were there around dawn on a Thursday, and the place was overrun by retirees, who were really, really friendly, and might have been part of some swingers convention. I didn't ask -- I was a little terrified. Inside the building, they feature a kitchy gift shop, and a bunch of rooms filled with creepy taxidermy. Really creepy taxidermy. You might want to bring some ear plugs; they play a recording of elk bugles on a loop and they turn it up to 11. I think they run some educational programs and a hayride tour, but we didn't stay long because the taxidermy, retirees and horribly loud elk soundtrack was a little off putting. We didn't hate it though, we made an effort to find a few things to purchase in the gift shop because we appreciated what we saw there. read more

I stopped in on a Friday evening, Sept. 30th, basically prime time. The Bulls were shrieking, and their were 4-5 bulls and 50-60 calves out in the field to watch. The Bulls Keats taunting each other, and trying to impress each other's calves. Pretty cool to see. The coolest part was watching two Bulls go at it head to head in a full out fight! The fight was awesome even though it only lasted a few minutes. The fight made my last minute side trip worth while. The inside,of,the visitors center was very nice and obviously fairly new. It had lots of educational interactive displays and would be great for kids. The gift shop was a little weak, but most might find it pretty nice. I don't know how common or unusual it was to see the Bulls shrieking and fighting, but I got the impression it was unusual to see it. I will definitely stop back again when I am in the area. read more

The staff there are very passionate about their jobs and the animals, i would recommend going around this time of year to see rut activty. Tje wagon rodes are great and very cheap. Nick the intern was great at explaining to us about elk amd making us all laugh in the process read more

Omgosh this place is unbelievable ,amazing,breathe taking ,peaceful place ,love love love it ALL !!!! Do u have 2020 calendars yet ??? If so how ???? & Do umail them out to people ???? read more

My friend and I visited the Elk County Visitors Center last week to try to obtain tickets for one of the wagon rides to see the elk. We arrived quite early in the morning and secured our place in line prior to the opening of the visitors center. Upon entering the center and waiting again, we amongst many others who were behind us in line were told that the wagons were sold out for the day. Apparently, there is no limit to the number of tickets you can buy, and one woman walked away with 20 tickets. The Elk County Visitors Center should limit the number of tickets someone can buy to make it fair to everyone else. Other than this, the visitors center is very nice with friendly staff, and seeing the elk in the area is amazing. read more

Very nice visitor center. Worth a stop in the area. The area is really remote and unconnected. Had to post this review once I got back to cell phone service. Keep in mind, Elk are most likely to be visible in early morning or dusk. read more