Elk Hunting in Utah

[JakeUSMC]

A friend of mine from our time in the Marine Corps has invited me up to the Ogden area of Utah for an archery elk hunt. He said I can buy a non-res archery tag and hunt the extended season through December. I also confirmed this with Utah Wildlife and resources. The dilemma is our work schedules really don't mesh too well and it is a significant cost on my end. He works M-F and I work W-Sat with Sunday Monday and Tuesday off, but I can take an extra day or 2 off and he can take 1. Is it worth it for me to drive from Phoenix to Ogden and shell out the money for gas and tags/license in order to hunt 2 or maybe 3 days? Thoughts? Opinions?

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

I say no on those dates, if it was early I would say maybe. If you have the cash why not though?

[Flatlander]

That depends. With a good amount of snow that hunt can be really productive. Without, well that's a real expensive site seeing trip.

[Roosevelt Mark]

Nope

[JakeUSMC]

Going to wait till next year. More planning and less stress. Thanks gents.

[HyNoon]

It's 800 miles one way, that is pretty time consuming right there.

[mattys281]

I say go for it. You'll make more money, probably a couple million in your lifetime. Maybe several million, depending on what you do. Those dollars you spend on that trip won't mean crap in the great scheme of things when compared to the memories of time spent adventuring with a good friend, and the lower the odds of success the greater the magnitude of the adventure.

 

Some of my favorite hunting memories are of hunts just like that. My older brother, who just retired from the corp this year, was stationed at Edwards in Cali several years ago. He'd been over seas for several years leading up to that point, so I made it a point to go see him while he was state side & he'd come out to Az to visit us too. Him and I went on a backpacking trip into the Ventana Wilderness area along the coast of cali chasing rumors of public land wild pigs one spring. Miserable hike in, we got snowed on and froze, never even laid eyes on anything that resembled a pig. But it was gorgeous country hills covered with waist high grass and dotted with oak trees 70 feet tall and some of them seemed like they must be up to 6 foot diameter at the base. We saw a bunch of blacktail deer (first time for me), and it was a great road trip with one of my best friends. Still some of my favorite pictures to look at.

 

Last year I skipped the AZ draw and bailed on a Nebraska whitetail hunt to go and hunt the October OTC elk hunt in Colorado with another good friend. He's a former boss/mentor. We'd been talking about doing it for years & finally just said to heck with it, bought the tags & went. We only had 4 days and never laid eyes on a bull elk, but I had a pine marten dang near run me over on the first night and a coyote skirt the treeline around a meadow I was sitting and come up to about 6 feet away from me before she saw me sitting under that tree and hit the brakes. Saw a bunch of mule deer and some cow elk. Good company, good conversation, beautiful country. Great trip!

[Delw]

Ive done these quick trips when I was younger. seemed like a good thing to do at the time, after its all done and said and you think back its a waste of time for the simple reason you dont get to enjoy anything its all rush rush rush.

 

save some time up and do a week at a min later on. there more enjoy able even if you dont tag. did 4 trips to colorado with my dad and a close friend. we never hunted/set foot in these wilderness areas before that alone took a few days to figure out what the heck we were doing as we went up blind. but we had a freaking blast and remember them to this day.

 

if you think about it even going up to the north rim and hunting for 2-3 days is not enough time and thats when you know the area like the back of your hand.

 

if it was me and you wanted to get away, I would grab a rifle head up to the north rim and shoot some yotes and look for deer and sheds. before I travels all the way to utah for a elk hunt.

[Sneaker]

The biggest factor for me is those OTC hunts are super tough in places that offer them in Utah with very very low success rates on mature bulls.