Elk Hunt, Mission Accomplished!

After chasing a 6 point bull elk on Saturday morning without success, and passing up a 5 point elk later that afternoon, I went home empty handed.  I had a friend tell me that he had seen a 7 point elk in the same area, but I had only seen the 6 point.  He called me up Sunday night and told me the 7 point was spotted just below our lookout point in Willow Creek, Ephraim Canyon.

My dad and I got up early Monday morning and headed up the mountain.  Only minutes after I arrived I heard rocks rolling below where I was standing.  I looked down and a herd of elk, with a large bull, was just below me.  The light was still dim and the herd quickly moved into the bushes before I could count the number of horns on the bull.  I anxiously followed the elk off the hill to get a better look.  I caught another quick glimpse of the bull as he went into a grove of pine trees, but I still could not tell how big he was.

When the elk entered the pines they were headed downhill so I decided to wait for them to reappear in the clearing below.  I waited for about 3 hours, while listening to them move around in the pines.  I called my dad who was still up on the point and told him to walk through the pines and push the elk into the clearing below.  Meanwhile I hiked to the clearing to hide myself.

After waiting patiently for a time, I heard some noise and a low grunting sound a few hundred yards away in the direction of the pines.  I recognized the grunt because I had heard it several times before.  “Here he comes”, I thought.  I started to get nervous and wondered if I would be able to shoot straight if I had the chance. About 2 minutes later I heard the grunt again and it was now to my left.  “Oh no”, I thought “He went around me and is getting away”.  I quickly headed towards the sound and soon heard running sounds and saw dust above the oak trees.  I quickly kneeled down, with hardly any cover, and waited.  Seconds later 2-3 cows appeared and stopped approximately 100 yards in front of me.  Right behind the cows came the bull.  It stopped too.  Seeing lots of horns, and too nervous to count, I quickly fired one shot.  The elk immediately disappeared into the trees.

I quickly found the location where the elk was standing and looked for a blood trail.  I found the trail, but it only lasted a few yards.  I searched for 2+ hours and couln’t find any more sign of the elk.  Finally my dad and I got on the ATV and began to leave.  We drove a few hundred yards and there he was laying next to some oak trees.  Somehow the elk had circled around through some very thick oak trees and was headed in a direction I had never thought to look.  Our initial rough measurements indicate the bull scores around 376.  Not bad for my first elk.