Autopsy of a Self-Guided, Public Land Elk Hunt…a first-timer’s perspective.

The author with his father, center, and their friend and elk-hunting mentor, Dan.

My first foray into elk hunting has come to an end, having arrived home at 5:30am Saturday morning.  Given only a week to explore the Medicine Bow National Forest in south-central Wyoming, I feel I was able to get the most I could out of the opportunity and I’m left with one simple reflection.  I’m hooked.

I’m hooked on the adventure of chasing an animal the size of a horse through the most rugged terrain I’ve ever experienced while hunting.  Hooked on the adrenaline felt at hearing the screaming bugle of a bull elk shake the forest from less than 20 yards away.  Hooked at how quickly the mountains can turn the highest of highs to the deepest low.  In a word…hooked.

I’ve been planning, on some level, this hunt for years.  Ever since my grandfather first mentioned an interest in heading west to chase elk (he never made it), my father and I have talked about a trip of our own.  Determined not to let “someday” end the same way it did for my grandfather, I undertook the responsibility of planning our first elk adventure.

Site selection, applications, equipment (including a few purchases), personal training and practice, packing, hunting techniques, lessons learned, and everything it took to make the trip a success will be discussed in the next few posts.  Stay tuned.

The author’s father glasses for elk along the Sandstone Creek basin.