I have a unit 100 type 6 elk tag. Made the 13 hour trip from Missouri to Rawlins yesterday. Drove through some winter weather west of Laramie. Plan on spending the day exploring and hoping to find some elk.
Opening morning broke with no wind and 16 degree temps. It was beautiful weather. My father, who came along for company, and I made our way in the dark to a high mound overlooking a vast area. We started seeing elk scattered throughout the sage all around. Most were a mile or two from our location. The herd we spotted the day before with the nice bull came over a ridge 1/2 mile away. I bailed off when they dropped out of sight and hustled to another small mound to cut the distance in half. The herd fed across that ridge at about 400 yards. I wasn’t comfortable shooting that far so I let them drop down in the next drainage. Once out of sight, I circled around and got set up. They fed to me and I picked out a large cow. They were further than I thought and missed on the first shot, but calmed down and made a good shot at 350 yards.
This is really a neat area to hunt and like any area, when you get off the roads, you see more animals. Even though it looks flat, there is so much contour that the animals are not always in sight. I am thankful to my father for going a long and sharing the memories with me.