Last year’s Pachyderm Parade (philliefan99)

At 8 p.m. this evening, a herd of elephants will trudge across Capitol Hill. No, it’s not some last-ditch hoopla from last weekends Conservative Political Action Conference, though it would certainly be more interesting than the snooze-fest we encountered in Oxon Hill, Md.

Nope, it’s just the annual display of the mascots of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which makes its annual takeover of the Verizon Center from Thursday to Sunday. (This year’s show is subtitled “Dragons,” which sounds sort of cool, but not as much as the new season of Game of Thrones.)

The Pachyderm Parade sets off from Garfield Park and heads up Washington Avenue SW. The route then crosses the National Mall on Third Street, where spectators can watch the elephants march past the U.S. Capitol, escorted by the some of the circus’ acrobatic daredevils and horribly scary clowns. From there, the parade will continue up Third Street NW until it hooks a left on G Street NW and finishes up at the Verizon Center.

And while the centerpiece of the parade will be the line of elephants walking past the Capitol, they will also pass by other symbols of government, such as the Department of Labor, the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse, the FBI’s Washington field office, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office. But, yeah, there’s no symbolism here. Elephants are big and majestic, while a donkey show would just look silly.

One landmark the parade won’t pass, however, is the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which last month installed its “weeping elephant” statue outside its office at 1536 16th Street NW to highlight the methods with which Ringling Bros. treats its elephants. However, David Perle, a PETA spokesman, says that the organization does plan to demonstrate outside the Verizon Center on Thursday when the circus begins.

Via PETA

View 2013 DC Elephant Walk Route in a larger map