A days ride; In desert elk country

[Lefty]

The desert keeps drawing me in.
Saturday morning my wife opened the back patio door to let the dogs back in."Its too cold" " do you know the camera is on?"
"How often Do we get a sunrise like this?" Was my comment
Well I guess looking out the back door captured the pic better than I did. We dont get snow than houre frost often.


My dog and I decided to do a marathon ATV ride

We saw a few sage grouse and covered 110 miles of desert roads and trails, my back-side is sore.
I had stopped at a guzzler and was looking at fresh elk track. This was the second guzzler where a fence post for a trail cam had been mounted. Was it for sage grouse research? I want that gig when I retire. Rounding a riff of lava rock were 8 elk staring at me, then feeding, eventually trotting over the riff.

Some time later I drove into one area, thinking.. this looks just like where I use to hunt in the desert , before the fires.
The two track I was on is a legal two track trail that showed very little use with grass , sage and Cacti growing from the track. The last sign of use was from the rancher checking watering troughs last fall that track ended 3/4 mile back.
I stopped the ATV and saw 2 elk go over a lava dome just 100 yards out. I pulled off my helmet and grabbed my binos just in time to see three more elk. Sort of made my day. A mile up the trail 2 more elk cut in front of me. The next high spot I stopped as 50 head moved over a hill. Further out there were three more groups of elk standing scattered on the lava domes 1000 yards out.

Hours later I motored around a corner. I stopped quick. Is that really an elk? I knew it was an elk; Less than 100 yards and the elk hadnt heard the ATV? I glassed and watched for a while. It was apparent it was a bull sporting short thick knobs on his head.
Physically the bulls body looked huge with a tiny head on his body.
Where did he drop his horns? The wind was right. I circled around and began "shed hunting", glassing and walking out of sight of the bull. Off in the distance on a grassy flat I could see 9 more elk bedded.
I started thinking I could put the wind right, sneak around and glass the grass flat for horns.
Thirty minutes later while glassing around , checking the elk on the grassy flat I was sort of startled,.. a pair of ears( and eyes) staring right at me,..Well way more than a pair,... 16 pair, Agh,.. just 80 yards away all bedded in the sage They seemed content with me, I backed up and left not wanting to bump that many elk,..
Maybe next weekend.


Great mountain views,.. to the north , west and NE Lost river Arco, Beaverhead, Lemhi, Bannock, Deep, Creek, Centennial, Lost River, North Junipers Sawtooths, to the South
Pocatello Pourtneuf Bannock Deep Creek ranges.

IMG_6365 (Small).JPG (93.86 KiB) Viewed 1627 times

[Elkduds]

Thanks for the trip review, good stuff Lefty. It took me a long time to get over feeling like time in the desert was a waste of time I could have spent in the mountains. Then I found slot canyons, hoodoos, desert bighorn sheep, rock art, snakes sunning on rocks...but I never saw elk in a desert.

[Lefty]

Thanks for the trip review, good stuff Lefty. It took me a long time to get over feeling like time in the desert was a waste of time I could have spent in the mountains. Then I found slot canyons, hoodoos, desert bighorn sheep, rock art, snakes sunning on rocks...but I never saw elk in a desert.

I had a choice yesterday ATVing the desert with my wife( she decided not to go) or snow machining in the mts.
For me this time of year the desert is great.
Ive posted this pic twice already but it was hard to leave these guys behind, I dogged theses guys during the season I was pinned down buy the herd when I watched ech of them and a few more small bulls get out of their beds.
And I posted the sad story of counting my chickens-before-they-hatched on the little guy in the pic blowing a 21 yard shot
Encounters like the one in the pic is what kept me in love with the desert