How to Take an Elk Feeding Tour at Jewell Meadows
Jewell Meadows Wildlife Area has over 1,000 acres of habitat beloved by the elk of Oregon’s Coast Range. The open fields along a scenic rural highway are great places to spot up to 200 grazing elk, especially in winter. From December through February, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife lets the public tag along on elk feeding tours to help with their supplemental winter feeding program. The tours are incredible, but the reservations are harder to get than concert tickets at the Moda Center. Here is everything you need to know about visiting Jewell Meadows Wildlife Area.
Elk wait for the hay wagon to arrive
Know before you go
Parking at Jewell Meadows Wildlife Area headquarters requires an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife parking permit ($10/day). You’ll need to buy it ahead of time.
The headquarters at Jewell Meadows has restrooms and picnic tables.
Leashed dogs are welcome at Jewell Meadows Wildlife Area.
You can see elk at Jewell Meadows without going on a tour. No planning needed, just show up. To do the elk feeding tour, you need a reservation.
Elk visit Jewell Meadows all year. November through March are the best times to see them. Elk feeding tours run from December through February.
Do not approach elk. Stay behind the fences in the viewing areas.
Keep your distance, regardless of the intense cuteness
Parking permits
To park at the headquarters at Jewell Meadows Wildlife Area, you’ll need an ODFW parking permit. No other type of parking pass is accepted (NW Forest passes, etc). Daily passes are $10. Annual passes are $30. Keep in mind that an annual pass covers the calendar year, not 12 months, so buying one in December will only cover you for a few weeks.
If you have a printer, you can buy a pass online and print it. If you don’t, you’ll need to buy one from a retailer ahead of time. I bought mine at Fred Meyers in Portland. The person helping me at the customer service desk had never heard of the permit but found it after some searching in their system. Make sure to have your pass with you when you visit Jewell Meadows. There isn’t a way to buy one on-site.
If you just want to look for elk from the road without stopping at the Jewell Meadows headquarters, you can skip the parking permit. You can often see them from the car in the fields next to Highway 202. When I visited, the best place to see them (besides on the tour) was from the road’s gravel shoulder. If you’re taking an elk feeding tour or spending time at the headquarters, you’ll need a parking permit.
Jewell Meadows Wildlife Area
The headquarters at Jewell Meadows looks onto protected fields
Jewell Meadows Wildlife Area is one the best places to observe wild elk in Oregon. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife maintains pastureland to monitor elk population health and provide supplemental winter feeding. Feeding helps prevent elk-related damage to agricultural areas, which in turn reduces conflict between humans and wildlife. Besides elk, other animals like black-tailed deer, coyotes, raptors, and songbirds visit Jewell Meadows.
Jewell Meadows has four observation areas where you might see elk. The headquarters has public restrooms, picnic tables, and interpretative information about the wildlife. The best way to find the elk is to drive down Highway 202 past the viewpoints until you see them from the road. Since the fields are open, the elk are easy to spot.
Elk are easy to see at a distance at Jewell Meadows
When I visited, the elk were in a field about a quarter mile west of the Jewell Meadows headquarters. Before the feeding tour, I parked on the shoulder to watch them come down from the hills into the meadow. They crossed the road in front of my car. I took pictures from out the window since they were so close. Later in the morning, they had moved farther into the field.
Elk by the road just after sunrise
Elk Feeding Tours at Jewell Meadows
Wild elk receive supplemental feeding during the winter at Jewell Meadows Wildlife Area. You can participate by taking an elk feeding tour from December through February. Tours are free. You just need to buy a parking permit. The catch is that reservations are difficult to get (more on that below). If you manage to get a reservation, the experience is awesome and worth the hassle. You’ll see up to 200 elk closer than you would normally be able to observe them safely in the wild. As someone on my tour said, up close but not personal.
Elk snacking on alfalfa
Elk feeding tours begin at 9 AM. Arrive about 10 minutes early for a quick orientation. You’ll start at the Jewell Meadows headquarters. Look for the large blue house next to Highway 202. From here, you’ll ride on a wagon to the field where the elk are and throw them some alfalfa. Then, you hang out and watch them. The elk will be close to the wagon, about 30 feet away, and easily visible without binoculars.
This wagon brings tour groups to the elk
Tips for elk feeding tours:
Tours last about 1-1.5 hours. You’ll be done by 11 AM.
It will be cold and probably raining. I won the weather lottery by having a sunny day when I took my tour. Even as a best-case scenario, the temperature was still below freezing.
The wagon you’ll be riding is open and uncovered. Bring rain gear and something dry to sit on.
The tours are not physically demanding. You’ll need to climb a few stairs to get into the wagon. If you can walk up the stairs on a front porch, you’ll be fine.
Once you start the tour, you’ll stay in the wagon until you return to the parking lot. It’s not safe to get off early since you’ll be surrounded by elk.
You can get recognizable photos and videos of elk with a phone camera. They will appear small. I took my photos with a 75-300mm lens, which worked great for everything but very close-up details.
The elk started lying down after they ate
Tour Reservations
Now for the ugly part. If you think getting a table at Kann in Portland is hard, wait until you try to take an elk feeding tour at Jewell Meadows. Getting a reservation requires patience, persistence, and a lot of luck. The process will be familiar if you’ve ever tried to win concert tickets by being the 25th caller to a radio station back in the day. Here’s how to do it.
Reservations for elk feeding tours open at 8 AM on December 1st. As soon as they open, call 503-755-2264. You will almost certainly get the busy signal. Keep calling until you get through. It will probably take many attempts. Tours run from Thursday through Tuesday. In the 2024-2025 season, all the weekend and school holiday reservations were full by noon on Dec 1st. Tuesdays and Thursdays are the last days to fill up. When I took my tour on Dec 10th, 2024, there were still some reservations on Tuesdays and Thursdays in February 2025, the end of the season.
For a sense of what you’re in for, here’s how I got my reservation. I started calling at 8:20 AM, which, in hindsight, is later than I should have started. I kept calling every 15 - 30 minutes, which wasn’t often enough. I got the busy signal nine times and got through to voicemail on the tenth try at 12:30 PM. The recorded message told me that all weekends and school holidays were full for the year, but some weekdays were still available. I left a message requesting a weekday reservation. I got a call back the next day, but unfortunately, I didn’t hear the phone ring despite having it glued to me. I called back nine more times every 3-5 minutes before getting through, at which point I was able to make a reservation for a weekday the following week.
Elk feeding tour
Yes, this system is bad. No one likes it. ODFW did look into getting an online reservation system, but it was cost-prohibitive. The 1990s technology will be with us for the foreseeable future. Please be kind to the ranger when you get through. This process is hard for them, too.
How to plan for next year:
Mark your calendar now for Dec 1st.
When the day arrives, start calling 503-755-2264 at 8 AM.
Keep calling every few minutes until you get through.
If the reservations are full, get on the waiting list.
Elk of Jewell Meadows
Oregon has two types of elk: Roosevelt elk and Rocky Mountain elk. The ones you see west of the Cascade Mountains, including at Jewell Meadows, are Roosevelt elk. They are the larger and darker colored of Oregon’s elk species. Females weigh around 550-650 pounds. Males are usually 750-800 pounds but can get up to 1,200 pounds.
Roosevelt elk
Winter is the best time to look for Roosevelt elk at Jewell Meadows. They tend to stick around all day. Colder weather means they’re more likely to be in plain sight in the middle of the fields rather than seeking shade in the tree cover. At other times of the year, the hour after dawn and the hour before dusk are the best times to look for them.
Roosevelt elk mate in August and September. You’re likely to hear male elk bugling and see them fight during this time. Calves are born in June. During the winter, the group of elk (called a gang) tends to be pretty congenial since the mating season is over. Bulls don’t shed their antlers until March and April, so you’ll see some impressive ones on a winter visit.
Gang of elk
Things to do near Jewell
Lee Wooden County Park
Only five minutes down the road from Jewell Meadows, Lee Wooden Park has the coolest waterfall you’ve never heard of in Oregon. The flat and easy trail to the falls is short, a quarter mile at most. You’ll pass some impressive old-growth trees as you walk alongside Fishhawk Creek. At the end of the trail, 100-foot Fishhawk Creek Falls cascades in a latticework of streams before making a final small plunge over a lower tier. The only downside is that the creek keeps you pretty far from the falls. In summer, I think you could wade across it. In winter, the water is too deep and too cold.
Parking is free. No restrooms or other amenities.
Fishhawk Creek Falls
Other stops nearby
Camp 18 is an interesting roadside oddity on Highway 26 just west of the turn toward Jewell Meadows. Part restaurant and part logging museum, you can see derelict logging equipment before eating a lumberjack breakfast. Think pancakes, eggs, and bacon.
Saddle Mountain has hiking trails leading to panoramic Coast Range views. In spring, it’s a great place to see wildflowers. A 5-mile hike will bring you to the summit.
Once you return from Jewell Meadows to Highway 26, it’s only about 30 minutes to reach either Cannon Beach or Seaside on the Oregon Coast. Even in the winter, you’ll have a few hours of daylight left to enjoy the beach after seeing the elk.
Other elk hot spots in Oregon
Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area, Reedsport
Elk at the Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area
Roosevelt elk are frequent visitors to the Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area in Reedsport, Oregon. If you drive to the coast on Highway 38, you’ll pass it on the way into Reedsport. Several viewpoints near the road look onto grassy fields where elk often graze. I’ve been here a couple of times. At midday, there were some birds in the marsh but no elk. In the late afternoon, dozens of elk were in the fields. Like at Jewell Meadows, they were out in the open and easy to spot. Some were grazing right next to the road, unbothered by the passing cars.
It’s free to visit the Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area. The restrooms are near the parking lot. Look for a covered gazebo to stay dry while watching the elk on rainy days.
Gearhart
Elk walk bold as brass through the town of Gearhart
I see Roosevelt elk once in a while at the Oregon Coast, but nowhere so often as in Gearhart. Elk love hanging out in this town so much they’ve become a local controversy. Some people love them. Some think they’re a nuisance. In any case, they’re often here, and they’re not shy. Look for them next to the quiet residential streets, walking through front yards, and pretty much anywhere else.
Directions to Jewell Meadows
Address: 79878 OR-202, Seaside, OR 97138
Take Highway 26 to OR-103 N. A sign will point the way to Jewell Meadows Wildlife Area. Heading west from Portland, it’s a left turn. Heading east from the coast, it’s a right. Follow OR-103 N for 9 miles. When the road ends at a T-intersection, take a left onto Highway 202. Continue for 1.4 miles. The Jewell Meadows Wildlife Area headquarters will be on your left.
The drive from Portland takes about 75 minutes.
Park here for elk feeding tours
Explore nearby
Learn about where to see wildlife on the Oregon Coast.
