First snow of the year and I finally got my Buck

 

Well we got our first snow of the season we were up a little higher looking for Elk so there was a little more snow. It snowed pretty good for a while.

We stopped for lunch, was going to eat outside so we built a fire but decided the wind was way to cold so we ate in the pick-up it was sooo cold.

Never did see an elk or even a track. We ran into some friends who were camped up there also looking for elk they hadn’t seen any thing either.
If we had a few more days with this storm we might have had better luck.

 Started getting late so we headed home.

The next day we did find some deer down lower.

I finally got my Buck,

A real nice 4x4 I was proud. It was still cold I think I had on 20 layers of clothes and coats and was still cold. I got it in the field so we loaded it up and took it to the Hay Barn to take care of it so we could be out of the wind.

 

Our neighbors grandson was here from Washington and he thought that deer was pretty neat. His dad wanted the hide so he could try and tan it. Can’t wait to see how he does it. That is something I have been wanting to try and do.

Well Hunting is all over. I told Andy that next year we need to not have tags in every season all we have been doing is hunting and not getting any thing else done.

Still Hunting, only different country.

Still Hunting, only different country.

Well This season Andy has a bull tag and Katie and I have buck tags.

Early Sunday morning we went out behind the hay field there were 6 nice Bucks so I told Katie to go ahead and get hers, well come to find out I need to get her eyes rechecked by the time she figured out where they were and could get a shot they were already gone. She couldn’t see far off so as we were driving around to the back side of the hayfield I was pointing out things to see if see could see them, well poor thing has my eyes. Don’t know how well she will do this year hunting.


After That Andy and I took the horses out to the point didn’t relly think we would see anything but there has been a few oput there. We did see two does but that didn’t do us any good.

As you can see the country sure is different then it was in the mountains.



Lots of Mormon Tea I will do a post latter at all the medicinal remedies of this plant.

The view off into the canyon.

Lots of pinion trees

I was hoping I could gather some pine nuts but there wasn’t very many to late in the season I guess.

We came upon an old anasazi ruins there are a lot of these out here. Pretty neat to look at.

I love the coloring in some of these rocks

A few pottery shards that were on the ground. You want to leave these on the ground can get in a lot of trouble if you pick these up.

Lots of yucca plants I will also do a post on these a little later on.

Well we didn’t see anything well we did see a few tracks, but we had a real nice ride. Has been a long time since Andy got to ride this country. He rode it all the time when he was a kid. I am hoping to go back soon to ride and take the girls

2nd Season Elk Hunt

The girls have Elk tags for the 2^nd season so they came up for the week end. We had 5 of us in the tent as you can see it was close quarters. It is nice using cots then we can shove all our stuff under the cots before we had cots it was pretty crowded

This stove is small but it can sure put out the heat.

They walked all morning with no luck guess it wore them out they had to come back and take a nap.

Travis, Joleen and me took the horses that afternoon we rode all over the place with no luck. Andy and Katie walked the other side also with no luck. We stopped for a break Joleen took her another nap it’s hard work hunting haha

We stopped for a break Joleen took her another nap it’s hard work hunting haha

The next day Andy Travis Joleen and Katie took the horses. We didn’t have enough horses up there so I stayed in camp and got things ready to go home

They stopped for a break and the camp robbers came to visit first on the gun then they got brave and perched on Travis shoe.

No wonder these girls can’t get an elk all they want to do is sleep. haha

Well nothing this weekend hopefully next weekend we have until the 28^th Bad thing is where we are not very many people are getting anything. I think it is so hot and dry the Elk are still scattered hopefully we will get a little weather so they will bunch up a little by this weekend.

First Season Elk Hunt

First season  Elk Hunt

We went up to Taylor Mesa to hunt Elk as you can see the first morning it snowed just a little we were hoping for a little more makes hunting a little better.

Guess we will let the horses stay in camp the first morning and we will walk.

Taking a

much needed break

Well nothing the first day. Came back to camp and Andy is cooking

Hamburgers for

supper.

It didn’t snow the next night but it sure was cold and frosty the next morning.

Travis got his Bull the second day, he and Andy are getting ready to go get it.

Here they come back with it.

The

The third and fourth day Andy and I rode all day and when you don’t ride as often as you should it kind of hurts the next day.

There are several of these around where they run cows, they measure how much the grass grows without the cows eating the grass down.

Kind of hard to see in this small pic. but there is a large snow shoe hare in the back.

He stood there for a long time I was able to get my camera out of my saddle bag and take a couple pictures it didn't leave till my horse stated moving around

This must be one of the reasons they call this the Rocky mountains.

Taking a water break.

Well there is a cow and a calf just the wrong

species. This calf is fairly young, we were hoping to run into the guy that runs cows up here to tell him where they were he was riding around the other day looking for stragglers’ plus that calf shouldn’t be that young this late in the season.

Great view of the valley.

We rode for a few more hours before going back camp. Then rode again the next day never did see anything.So we went home empty handed. Joleen and Katie have tags for the 2nd season so hopefully they will have better luck then I did.