Elk Hunting

Last Winter I put in for an Elk hunt here in Utah. It was for a limited entry area called the Paunsaugunt. The area is from Panguitch, Utah along highway 89 south to the Arizona border, east to the town of tropic and then south of Tropic along the Paria river down to the Arizona border again. This area includes Bryce Canyon National Park(you can't hunt in the park.) The way Utah does their hunt system is that each year you can put in for one of these "special" hunts. If you do not draw out for the hunt then you get a point, with a maximum of 16 points. The more points you have the better of a chance you have to draw out for the hunt.

Somehow, with zero points and a little bit of luck I drew out for the hunt. So last weekend my neighbor, Chad and I went down to Tropic reservoir after Dallins Birthday party. We stayed Thursday night through Saturday night trying to find elk. The only elk that we say was on Friday night, the day before the hunt started. Being pretty discouraged, Sunday we packed up right before it started to rain and headed for home.

This past Thusday night I headed down again to try and bag the big monster. I arrived at Ruby's Inn, right outside of Bryce Canyon and stayed the night in the back of the pickup. It was a little chilly that night, only 36 degrees but I toughed it out. At 5:30 am I suited up and hopped on the 4 wheeler and headed out behind Ruby's Inn. The weekend before, Chad and I had met the owner of the hotel and he said we could hunt on his property. I parked my 4 wheeler on the south side of the knoll and hiked over to the private ground. I could hear the elk mewing and bugling but couldn't see them because it was too dark. At about 6:15am I finally saw a line of black moving across the field to head back into the mountains for the day and started to make my way to the west to try and get a good shot. As I followed the fence line I ran into another group of hunters waiting for the same herd of elk. They also had permission from the land owner to hunt on his property. So now there is a dilema. Who is going to get the elk??????

We decided that since they were on the west side and I was on the east side of the property that we would stay there and whoever gets the elk is the lucky one. I made my way back to the east and up a dry canal to get as close as I could. I crawled up out of the canal and saw the elk right in front of me. I laid down on the ground and fired one shot. The elk took off immediately and ran about 50 yards and then fell, DEAD! One shot 324 yards out!!!

When I walked up to the elk I didnt realize how big the elk was going to be, I was amazed. Suddenly I realized I had a dead elk on my hands and I needed to clean and had no idea how. First call was to my neighbor Chad and he walked me through it. I did an OK job for my first time. I tied the head of the elk to my 4 wheeler and drove up onto the trailer and I was done. Luckily there was a natural spring close by with a hose piped into it and I washed up and was headed home.

When I left on Thursday Jack said, "Good Luck catching an elk Dad." When I called Kim and told her she said Jack was excited. When I got home we hung the elk, skinned it and got it ready to take to the butcher. It was alot more work than I thought it would be but I can't remember having this much fun in a long time. I think I may have found a brand new hobby.