I didn't do a part 1 by the way but this is really part 2.

Recap of part 1. Went on a cow elk hunt over the Thanksgiving holiday. I am a an elementary teacher so I do not get many opportunities to go on out of state hunts. I have hunted elk in the past and I dream about doing it more. Any way I researched a little and came up with a cow/calf season that runs through Dec. 21. I figure I Thanksgiving break will give me the longest time to try and hunt.

A simple plan. Load up the Subaru and go for it. Sleep in the "Sub," hunt hard and make some memories.

Well my wife who is quite wise thinks that is a dumb plan and suggests I ask my dad and son to go along and stay in a motel. It will be a great opportunity to spend some time, a three generation adventure. I caved and did her plan.

As soon as school dismissed on the Wed of before Thanksgiving I boogie home gather some last minute items and meet my dad and son. We are off, destination Worland, Wy.

We arrive around 9pm and soon my son was over the boring drive. The pool at the hotel was open for one more hour!

First morning we spot elk! Now I have never been here before. I studied maps and looked on Google earth and so I did not know exactly what I was getting into. they had received about a foot of snow the previous day and a half so the walking was tough. My dad and I decided to find an easier way to get to the elk and to make a long story short, by the time we messed around trying to find an"easier" way the elk were gone. I knew that one often only gets one chance and this may have been it. My son thought we were dumb for not going after them right away, I hate it when they are right.

This is where the elk were. just above the patch of trees.

Saw some more elk that day way up on a ridge we could not access, but they appeared to be moving down in our general direction so we hung out in that area the rest of the day. The weather was nice and we made the most of our opportunities. I glassed while my dad and son make snowmen.They were good sports and kept things entertaining.


No more sightings the rest of the day. Since it was Thanksgiving day everything was closed so ate M&M's, chips and Jerky, almost like the pilgrims.

We hunted the same area the next morning but did not see any elk so we went to see some new country. We went to an area out in the middle of the rolling sagebrush called "Castle Gardens" The "Castles" are a rock formation surrounded by the sagebrush. It was a fun way to spend the day. Saw chukar, sage grouse, antelope and lots of rabbits.



No elk spotted day 2. Day three we did some more exploring, and visited with other hunters. Kind of got some ideas of how the elk hunting was done. This was the elk's winter range, they were around, many people drove around hoping to get lucky, and more hunters keeping the elk stirred up was better. Not necessarily my idea of elk hunting, but who am I to judge, and if it works more power to them.

No more elk were seen the rest of the trip saw some beautiful country, spent some great time with my dad and son, learned some new county to hunt and those elk that I saw the very first morning are burned into my memory. I told myself I would not go back I had spent too much money on hotels and food this trip I will cut my losses.

Welllll, the season closes Sunday and I still have those elk burned in my memory. If I leave now I could be to Ten Sleep by 10pm. Sleep in the Subaru, hunt, see some beautiful country, and kill an elk. It's a simple plan. My wife isn't home yet and the "Sub" is filling up with hunting stuff.

Well, if the Sub leaves home with you in it, be safe, have fun, and best of luck getting one of those elk!

Slim,
Hunting alone is fine. Go for it. Be careful. Winter is real and unforgiving. Elk are big.
However: There are no "losses" on hunts with your Dad and your son. None. Thus it is impossible to "cut" them. I have never had a hunt with my dad and my son. Lost my dad at 15 in 1972. My son is now 14. I wish that my son could have met my dad, learned from him. Been adored by him. All I have are the stories of my dad taking me hunting as a little boy to share with my son. Because it all I have, it is enough. We will all get together one day at the final sounding of the Ram's horn. Looking forward to it.
Best regards,

Well I never finished last years story. My son said, "Come to our Christmas Party at my school." He was in second grade and these things are important. I did not go back, but oh well it just made me anticipate this December even more.

I am going tomorrow for a late season cow hunt with a fellow teacher who has never hunted elk before. Snowing now, should be excellent conditions.

Best of luck on the second attempt. We look forward to photos of your success!

quote:

Originally posted by slim buttes:
Well I never finished last years story. My son said, "Come to our Christmas Party at my school." He was in second grade and these things are important. I did not go back, but oh well it just made me anticipate this December even more.

I am going tomorrow for a late season cow hunt with a fellow teacher who has never hunted elk before. Snowing now, should be excellent conditions.

If your tag is for unit 49, don't waste time over between TenSleep and Worland. Stay right in TenSleep at the motel or RV Park in a cabin and go a few miles east of TenSleep on the main highway and take Hwy 436 (Rome Hill Road) south so you can hunt the BLM on the west side of the road. There are lots of elk in that area between there and on west to the two ranches owned by Mr. Samuels and the Red Reflet. I've hunted out there most every year since 1994 and know that whole county out there like the back of my hand. Over where you were last year is mostly antelope country with very few deer other than over toward Worland along the ag lands. There aren't enough elk over there even during the winter to waste your time there.

Plan on additional travel time and be sure to check the WYDOT website for road closures. We're at the tail end of a pretty good winter storm. Good luck on the hunt!

I have just returned from a wonderful elk hunt. As a teacher, so my opportunities to participate in out of state big game hunts is limited. Due to a basketball tournament our school participates in we had an extra long xmas break.

After last years experience I learned a lot, I knew I would and that's what I love about hunting learning new country and meeting other hunters. Cow elk hunters are good folk.

Well here's this year's version. So a buddy of mine who is a hunting fool tells me of an are that his son shot a late season cow elk and that there were many more elk coming into the area. This was at the same time of year that I wanted to go last year. The weather was perfect, two day blizzard then a sunny warm up. So this year when the license go on sale on the internet I bought a cow tag. I then called a fellow teacher and friend, and asked if he was interested. He bought a license and the plan was beginning. My friend and I happen to volunteer to be on the calendar committee last year and thought it was a good idea for everyone to enjoy the above mentioned annually huge BB tournament. My friend also happens to be about 6'4", ex college athlete, ranchers son, and all around good guy.

So new area with more elk and someone younger and tougher (packer) than I, it is going to be a good hunt.

So I get out my camper, I heard about this type of pop-up camper here on AR year ago by the way.



Lhook7 you mentioned the weather this is the camper the next day.



After looking at the weather forecast and the radar we knew that as we head west and north the weather gets better. The web sight said there were a great deal of closed roads but radar and the forecast said, "GO!" We went. No traffic! Thank You, WYDOT.

I studied maps and looked at Google Earth images to get an idea of what the area was like, but you how it is, until you are actually there you really don't know. We arrived at the Nat. For. camp site at about 11:00 pm Tues. the 15th. We set up the camper and had a celebratory beer, or two, and crashed.


Woke up the next morning to write my name in the snow watching as the tops of mountains light up with the morning sun, beautiful place. I get back in the camper, grab my binos, and tell by friend I am going to spot an elk. I go outside lean on the pickup and within a couple minutes I spot an elk way up in a lightly snowy grassy bowl in the sun, and sure enough about 10 others materialized as I continued to scrutinize scene. I did mention they were way up there right.



The elk were in the bowl in the upper right hand corner of the photo, obscured by clouds in this photo. A-frame camper dead center.

There was not as much snow this year so the elk where content to hang up high. They wanted to come down but they didn't have too. If you look closely in the picture below to the far right, there are a elk, see them?



One of the lessons I learned last year is, if you see elk go get them, easy elk are rare. My friend and I spotted elk lying down about dead center of this photo in the wide open grass. My friend who I described earlier looks at me with a big smile and says, "Well, we better start climbing." I agreed, but inside I really didn't want to. My friend had never elk hunted before so he was motivated-- and naive.

The above photo shows were all the action takes place so I will be referring to it. Those of you who know, know that the picture never captures the true thigh burning, lung busting, heart bursting steepness of the mountain.

I will continue. There is spine that runs to the top center of the photo that start from the right hand side just below where the elk are in the picture, you found them right? You can see a rock outcropping about a third of the way up the spine from the right, we made it that far. As we climbed I could not quite keep up with my friend, he managed to stay about 100 yards ahead of me, oh well, I may have been behind him but I was going to make it.

Well I am little below the rocks and my friend is at the rocks. I am hunkered over hoping I don't puke, and having a feeling it will be getting closer to sundown when we get to those elk. I look down into the trees below me, I kept looking for elk lower, a man has to dream, and sure enough I saw something in the shady timber that looked kind of like an elk laying down. I pick up my binos and sure enough a spike elk, I could see about six others laying down with him and that was enough for me. Now I needed to get my friends attention so he would stop climbing. I just stopped and waited for him to turn and I started franticly waving for him to come down to my position. Knowing how hard it was to climb up I wanted him to understand I meant business.

The elk were located a little above where the patch of trees in the middle of the photo disappear behind that lower ridge basically in the middle of the pic.

I drop out of sight of the elk and wait for my friend make it to my position. When he arrived he eased over a little rise and got a visual, there was great rejoicing. From our position we could drop down about 75 yards and that put a little ridge between the elk and us. Once we got to that ridge it would be a close shot. The wind was perfect and we calmly made our way to the little ridge. We dumped our packs, my friend got his bipod ready, we made a plan for him to belly crawl up to a rock, pick out a cow elk and shoot. I would shoot second. Well some unseen elk see us start mewing and our presents is known by some of the elk but there is indecision on the elk's part. My friend finally shoots and I pop up and start to look for a legal elk.

A spike goes through a shooting lane in the trees, then another small bull, careful now. There are about 30 elk in this group at is turns out and they are starting to move higher into the trees and disappearing. A straggler calf comes out of the bottom and I wonder if it is one my friend shot as it was a straggler, it hits an opening and I shoot. It dropped right there, high lungs and must have been close enough to the spine to put her right down. My friend and I walk over to see had transpired.



We shot from a position approximately just above the little group of trees in the sun the right side of the draw in this pic, a little over a 100 yard shot. Did I mention the pics don't do the steepness justice.

My friend of course reaches the elk before I do and he is struck by how large elk are. He shot a full fledged cow elk, mine a nice tasty calf, still plenty big.



And as you know the real "fun" has just begun. That will have to wait for a while though, must unpack from the hunt and such.

Congratulations!

Good job and I know right where you were camped and it was a long way from unit 49 where I thought you were going when I posted that advice. I was right past that Campground back in October when we did some sightseeing up there after we dropped off an antelope at our Cody taxidermist. There was a ton of deer going up there and a nice bull moose laying right along the creek. I see you also stole my A Liner! I had one very similar to that one from 1998 until I finally sold it in December of 2012 and bought a "like new" used 19' Fleetwood Wilderness trailer. The A Liners are great for shorter trips, but now I stay out there for 2 or 3 months in the Fall and finally decided to get a bigger trailer for more comfort on those long trips.

well done

Excellent! Are you hooked now? If not, you will be after you eat a few of those steaks.

Congratulations on your hunt. Now you have the elk addiction.

How did your camper handle the cold temperatures?

quote:

Originally posted by Cougarz:
Congratulations on your hunt. Now you have the elk addiction.

How did your camper handle the cold temperatures?

Those A Liners are built with 1" insulation throughout the unit and are easy to keep warm enough to stay comfortable, especially if you can get out of the wind. That was the main reason I bought mine because the only time I use one is for hunting in the Fall and early Winter.

The camper worked wonderful. It is the perfect size for two adults. I have a Honda generator so life is good. It was single digits at night and wind storm one evening. When they have wind warnings in Wyo, it is blowing.

Here's home sweet home. The microwave is full of Oreos.



I can sit in my sleeping bag and run the stove, bottom right, and eat canned chili and drink beverages of my choosing.

We think we are going to use a wall tent next year.

I need to get some time to chronicle the pack out. Soon.

Nice story,.. Congradulations

As we all know after the shot is when he work begins and the memories are made.

The gutting of the elk was uneventful. My friend was just amazed at how much larger elk are than the wt and mule deer he was used to dealing with.

It was starting to get dark, we had the animals cooling, and I suggested we head back to the camp for the night and get busy the next day. There was no argument form my buddy and we trudged back to the vehicle and back to camp.

The next morning was cold, windy, and cold and windy, gusts to 60mph and stinging snow. We ran into some other hunters as we were getting ready to go for the big retrieve, they had just missed out on elk because their guns froze up and they had to watch as the herd slowly moved off as they tried to get their guns to function. Did I mention cold and windy? We explained our situation to these other hunters and they just shook their heads and proceeded to explain how steep the area was and they usually got horses in this situation. We did not have horses.

You can see in this pic the snow blowing on the ridges of the mountains, well it all funneled to us. It's hard to capture wind in pics. Trust me exposed skin = frost bite.



We decided to run into town to get a sled. We did but it was too late to retrieve this day.

The wind howled all night, but in he morning it quieted down. The weather was tuning in our favor, it was go time.





So we climb. must get to the dark timber. You can see a little ridge to the right of center in this photo, that is the ridge we peeked over and shot from.

We reach the elk, yeah! They are in those trees absolutely frozen solid.



That's ok though we have a lot of daylight, the weather is perfect, and I have a good person to extract elk from the mountains. Those legs on those elk must go, they get caught on everything.



Down the mountain we go.


Resting a great deal.



I like to say we are almost there, but not quite, but just ahead it gets real steep going down to the creek. We just kept leap frogging the two elk until we were done.



While we were dragging the elk across the grassy slope we looked up and we had an audience. They really wanted to come down and feed. We were going as fast as we could. It was fun to here them calling and back and forth to each other. I never tire of seeing elk.



Dragging elk out of the mountains is strenuous and only with the passage of time can one smile and want to do it again.

That's about it, can't wait until next year.

Hope you enjoyed it.

quote:

Originally posted by slim buttes:

Hope you enjoyed it.

Yes, very much!

You guys were smart to shoot them in such a manner that you could drag them downhill. Uphill is no fun....

Great write-up!