The wildlife refuge was rather quiet this late in the season. We had heard that it was possible to drive through the reserve to view the bison and elk housed there, but this was not the case. There was a section of road, about 1/4 of a mile long I'd say, that actually did pass through the refuge on which the wildlife could have been encountered had it been in that area. Apparently, tram tours that take one through the refuge are available, but when we visited this part of the facility was closed. I couldn't find any information about when the tours ran or what the cost was.
We did see 50 or more bison, many of which were close to the road leading to the refuge. At one point I approached one of the fences in order to get some better pictures of the buffalo. Even with my husband (clown that he is) mooing and cat-calling to the massive creatures, they totally ignored the fact that there were humans around. We were able to watch them for a good long time at close range.
The elk, averaging 50 head in the herd, are said to be shy and very hard to spot. The refuge has 2,560 acres so we were not sure that we would be able to get a look at them when we learned that we could not drive through the reserve. However, we stopped at the observation tower to see what we could see. Immediately, while still on the ground, we spotted about 25 individuals approximately 3/4 of a mile away. They were moving south, and as we watched, it was quite obvious that they were watching us as much as we were watching them.
Later in the day we stopped back by the observation tower to see if the elk were still in the area. Though they could be seen in the distance, we realized how fortunate we had been to stop earlier in the day when we did, as now they were not much more than blots on the horizon.
The refuge is maintained by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. Conditions as natural as possible are provided for the elk and bison within the enclosed area of the park.
From journal Buffalo and Elk on the Prairie