Possible Elk Trip to Utah or Idaho

So my boss walked into my office a couple days ago and said he is sending me on a work training in Salt Lake City in Utah October 1-3. I asked him if it doesn't cost the company extra money can I play with the return date of the trip and take some vacation days to hunt elk? He told me he doesn't mind.

I am an Eastern hunter and I've kinda put a pin in hunting elk for the next couple years to save up some money, but the free plane ticket seems too much of a good opportunity to miss. I am thinking about either hunting OTC in Utah (specifically looking at North Slope, Summit/West Daggett or South Slope Bonanza/Vernal, Yellowstone in Utah for a tent camp October hunt. I wouldn't mind a cow or spike or any bull tag. I'm not really looking for horns just a good hunt with a chance at bringing home some meat. Does anybody out there have any suggestions about how I should think about breaking those Units down or really any advice I can get about hunting in Utah would be great.

My other thought was to hunt Idaho because Salt Lake City is pretty close to the border, so I am looking for suggestions/ advice there as well.

I really appreciate anything you guys can throw at me!

The OTC elk hunts in Utah are tough, to say the least. The North slope area is rugged and a long ways in on the trail heads. It gets a lot of pressure. The farther east of hiway 150 you get, the better, generally. The South slope area has more elk by a fair amount, but also has more hunters accordingly and isn't as rough of a hunt, generally (these are the two Any Bull areas you mentioned). It can take a few years to learn them, especially the North slope, but once you figure out where the elk are, you can do pretty good. The hike in is at the very minimum a mile, and most go in much farther. So if you are solo hunting be prepared accordingly, especially physically. I would probably do the south slope.

The spike hunts take place on the Limited Entry units, and is probably the toughest (lowest success rate) in the state, though some would argue the point a bit. But you will see a lot of elk, just really tough to nail down the spikes. They will be running with the cows, or just on the fringes of the cow herds. There are some cow hunts you can draw with a bit of luck that don't take any points. There may also be some cow tags avaliable you can get during the any bull hunt, you'll have to check on that as it changes yearly. October cow hunts can also be tough. You may want to look a bit harder at Idaho, but I know next to nothing about elk in that state so can't help you there.

Hope you get to hunt elk, in either state, and have a ball doing so! Best of luck to you!

Idaho is your best bet and has a lot of OTC hunts.

Killed a couple bulls on the North Slope several years ago and I'm pretty sure it was more luck than sense. It is REALLY crowded. The elk are there if you can find them.

Idaho......
Matt

If the price of a ticket is what is spurring you to do this, make sure you are prepared for the price of renting a 4x4, getting gear there, getting gear and meat back.

Most folks drive to hunt elk because the cost of getting the gear and meat there and back is much more expensive than the cost of gas. Either way, good luck! A mediocre day in the elk woods is a damn fine day...

Another option is to see if the boss would pay you the equivalent of the plane ticket and then you drive. Just a thought.

Since you indicated that the business part of your trip is over on 10/3, one thing to consider about Idaho is that most of the any weapon hunts, other than in zones that are predominantly wilderness, don’t open until October 10 or later.

edbentle said:

So my boss walked into my office a couple days ago and said he is sending me on a work training in Salt Lake City in Utah October 1-3. I asked him if it doesn't cost the company extra money can I play with the return date of the trip and take some vacation days to hunt elk? He told me he doesn't mind.

I am an Eastern hunter and I've kinda put a pin in hunting elk for the next couple years to save up some money, but the free plane ticket seems too much of a good opportunity to miss. I am thinking about either hunting OTC in Utah (specifically looking at North Slope, Summit/West Daggett or South Slope Bonanza/Vernal, Yellowstone in Utah for a tent camp October hunt. I wouldn't mind a cow or spike or any bull tag. I'm not really looking for horns just a good hunt with a chance at bringing home some meat. Does anybody out there have any suggestions about how I should think about breaking those Units down or really any advice I can get about hunting in Utah would be great.

My other thought was to hunt Idaho because Salt Lake City is pretty close to the border, so I am looking for suggestions/ advice there as well.

I really appreciate anything you guys can throw at me!

Click to expand...

Hi Ed,
I'm an eastern hunter too, NC to be exact. I hunted Utah last year though. What most have told you already is correct. Utah has OTC tags you can purchase as you already know. You have 2 options being a non resident. The Any bull tag or any spike tag. They both offer some advantages. If you purchase the spike tag you have an opportunity to hunt in the premium Elk units that it normally takes many points to hunt that hold some giant Elk. Unfortunately you can't take one of the big boys but with your spike tag you can either take a spike or a cow so not such a bad deal.

The other option is the "Any bull" "any weapon" units. In these units, some 22 of them I believe you can take literally any bull including spike bull. Also there are sections of a number of these units that are designated anterless control areas. For example more than 1/2 of the south slope is a anterless control area. If you purchase the "anybull" tag it makes you elegible to also purchase a Anterless control (cow/calf) tag for under a 100 dollars. Giving you more than double the opportunity ideally anyway. Between the antlerless control tag and any bull tag you can take either or, or both a cow and bull. You are not limited to any specific unit of the 22 but probably best to pick a unit fairly close to Salt lake city.
Tags go on sale July16 and are limited to 15000 first come first served. Price is 393 for the Elk permit plus $65 for a Hunting License for a total of $458. This link can explain some of this better than myself and may lead you to other useful links: https://www.backcountrychronicles.com/utah-otc-elk-permits/