As the hunt grew closer I had not sighted in my gun until the day before we went out and shot it for the first time in a year. Luckily my gun was dead on. We were confident where my gun was at and headed up the mountain. We found the campsite we wanted and set up camp, then we went scouting for the first time. We saw some cows and that was about it, so we made our way back to camp to meet my dad and uncle who drove nine hours from Arizona to be a part of this hunt. We helped them set their tent up and got ready to go out for the evening scouting trip and showed them where they needed to drop us off and pick us up for opening morning. The night before season it was a sleepless night for me, I was excited and could not wait to see what the morning would bring.  

The next morning they dropped us off and we started our venture through the woods in the brisk morning air. As we got closer to the canyon rim, just before daylight, we were immediately greeted with bugles and cow calls. As the light crept across the canyon we saw very few elk but could hear them calling. As we worked our way down the canyon rim toward the pick up point, we started seeing more and more elk. Mid-morning, we found a good point with great views and began to glass the thick oak brush covered hillside. We sat there for three hours glassing every clearing in the oaks and aspen patch in sight and everywhere we looked there were elk. 

We finally found a huge herd across the canyon, about a mile away on the opposite rim, with at least a hundred head of elk. We could see several bulls in the group and one that we figured was a good bull and possibly a shooter. We watched this herd all morning and as we kept moving down the rim of the canyon, kept an eye on them until mid afternoon. We finally made our way back to the pick up point at about 4:30 in the afternoon and never crossed a shooter. As we met up with my dad and uncle they had been watching a bull across a drainage that we needed to get a closer look at so we took off across the drainage but were never able to find the bull before it got dark on us. As we made our way back to camp we came up with a game plan to go to the other side of the canyon and see if we could drop in on the big herd we had found that morning. 

The next morning Dustin and I took off and found a good trail to get into where we thought we needed to be. As we slipped through the aspens in the dark we could hear a few bugles and cows calls, just after daylight it was absolute chaos. There were several bulls bugling and cows calling everywhere, we were surrounded and we had walked right into the middle of the herd. We sat pinned down for about a half hour as we watched half the herd walk by us at 50 yards. We could hear the bulls bugling but could never see them. Once we were in the clear we began to make our way down the canyon to the first bench where we believed the elk had gone. 

For a good two hours we were within 200 yards of the herd but it was so thick and steep we could never get a good visual, just see bodies walking through the oaks and aspens. At this point Dustin and I split up trying to find a better vantage point. He ended up having a good visual on a bull at 200 yards and I was 150 yards away on another point with only cows in sight. When we finally linked up and got back to his spot the elk had crossed the canyon where we could see the bull on the other hillside at 1000 yards. 

When I got the binos on him I knew immediately that he was a shooter. I looked at Dustin and told him that’s the bull I wanted to kill. As we sat and watched him side hill across the canyon we both agreed something was funny on his right side but couldn’t tell what. Dustin said he knew where the elk were headed and what we needed to do to get in position to cut them off. 

We gathered our things and got out of there as quickly as we could because it was about 10:30 in the morning and we had a lot of ground to cover in a short amount of time. We got back to camp around 2:30. We grabbed a quick lunch and filled up the side-by-side with gas and our gear and headed back out. As we got to the point where Dustin thought the elk were I put my pack frame on instead of my hunting pack and jokingly said to my dad, “I’m that confident we were going to kill a bull.” 

As we headed off into the thick timber once again, within a half hour we finally got to the vantage point we wanted to get to and within five minutes picked up the herd of elk from that morning. There were elk spread out everywhere on the bench of oaks. As we glassed we finally saw the bull that we were looking for. He was about 1500 yards down the hill from us and within 15 minutes and a lot of sliding down the hill, we were able to get within about 300 yards of the herd. 

That’s where it began to get harder, trying to pick and choose our way down through the thick oaks to hopefully get a shot on the bull. As we got closer and closer we kept encountering elk within 50 yards. It seemed like an eternity sneaking within a hundred yards of the bugling bull. It was extremely loud walking in the fallen oak leaves and was unusually hot for this time of the year, making it that much harder to get in shooting position. 

We had been caught a few times but never busted the elk out. We hadn’t heard them for a few minutes when finally we heard a cow call that sounded very familiar so we worked our way in that direction and as Dustin peeked over the hill, he stopped and cow called, then he turned to me and said, “Double-beam bull.” 

I stepped up and put my gun on my shooting sticks, they were about 50-70 yards in front of us and as they turned and trotted away, the bull was about to go into the thick oaks again, I pulled the trigger and he dropped out of sight as elk scattered in every direction. Dustin yelled, “He’s down!”

 I was in disbelief as we walked up on this incredible bull. That is when I realized I had killed a bull-of-a-lifetime. I had never seen anything like it in my life nor had Dustin. We were both at a loss for words. It took a long time, standing there staring at this bull, to realize what we had done. 

It was about 5:00 p.m. at this point and we had to get to work as it would be dark shortly, so we took pictures and started to cape him out. By the time we finished and had him quartered and ready to pack out it was just after dark. 

As we made our way out toward the side by side, about a mile away as the crow flies from where he was laying, it turned out to be tougher than we thought. There was no moon and it was pitch black, all we had was a headlamp and a small flashlight to lead the way. We could not see where we were going and couldn’t pick a good path out. We did a lot of backtracking and circles because the oaks were so thick we could not make our way through. 

As the night went on with pretty much the same luck, we finally made it within a half mile of the side by side with one last hill to climb at about 11:00. As we got to the top of the hill we were relieved knowing it was all downhill from there. We finally made it to the bottom of the draw to a water tank where the main trail was to the road, and where now only a quarter mile from the side by side, out of the brush and on a good trail. As we made our way out I could smell the smoke from the fire where my dad and uncle had been waiting patiently since I had contacted them at 4:30 that I had a big bull down. 

It was 12:30 in the morning when we finally made it to the side by side. At this point we were exhausted, so we decided to go back the next morning for the rest of the elk. The next morning turned out a lot better, it was much easier to pack him out when we could see where we were going and it only took about an hour to get him back to the road.