SentientHunter
Well-Known Member
On Monday, my wife and I drove up the mountain to scout Dixie National Forest in the Panguitch Zone. I towed our sheep camp trailer with the truck and she drove our Roxor (diesel mini-jeep). Although it had been a very busy weekend up on the mountain, when we got to the spot where we wanted to camp there was no one else there. While most people want to camp in the shade, we actually prefer to be out in the open so that our two solar panels charge our batteries and we don't have to run our generator to power our lights, heat and water pump.
This was a very windy couple of days, but otherwise pretty nice weather. Morning temperatures were in the mid 30s while the afternoons got up into the high 70s to low 80s. We have several areas where we like to hunt and planned to scout and hike as much as we could. The terrain here varies from wide open meadows to aspen and pine forests, to miles of lava rock. We were camped at 9600 feet and most of the areas where we hunt are at about that elevation.
On Tuesday morning we found a nice herd of elk and saw about 15 cows and calves. There may have been bulls back in the trees but we did not see them. On Wednesday morning, my hunting buddy came up from town and we scouted another area. We saw at least 8 very nice bucks and also found another herd of elk with at least 25 animals that we could see. He had to return to town after scouting. In the afternoon we found a herd of 10 buck antelope all bunched up together under a tree in the shade. That was the first time I saw deer, elk, and antelope all in the same day. I am optimistic for this season.
There are still a lot of wildflowers in bloom.
Where we camped.
Another view of where we were camped.
A "cinder cone" of volcanic rock.
My hunting buddy crossing a lava field during the bow hunt a few years ago.
This was a very windy couple of days, but otherwise pretty nice weather. Morning temperatures were in the mid 30s while the afternoons got up into the high 70s to low 80s. We have several areas where we like to hunt and planned to scout and hike as much as we could. The terrain here varies from wide open meadows to aspen and pine forests, to miles of lava rock. We were camped at 9600 feet and most of the areas where we hunt are at about that elevation.
On Tuesday morning we found a nice herd of elk and saw about 15 cows and calves. There may have been bulls back in the trees but we did not see them. On Wednesday morning, my hunting buddy came up from town and we scouted another area. We saw at least 8 very nice bucks and also found another herd of elk with at least 25 animals that we could see. He had to return to town after scouting. In the afternoon we found a herd of 10 buck antelope all bunched up together under a tree in the shade. That was the first time I saw deer, elk, and antelope all in the same day. I am optimistic for this season.
There are still a lot of wildflowers in bloom.
Where we camped.
Another view of where we were camped.
A "cinder cone" of volcanic rock.
My hunting buddy crossing a lava field during the bow hunt a few years ago.
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