An Outdoorsman’s Journal: Rocky Mountain adventure
Hello friends, My adventure to Idaho and Montana covered 3,910 miles. I spent $880 on gas while pulling an ATV behind my truck with a small trailer in my 12-foot trailer. I busted my second windshield of 2025 and simply put, this trip was a blast. I spent all of it with my 24-year-old daughter Selina, who is doing a summer gig with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
Last week, I wrote about spending four days with Selina and her crew on the job. This week, I am writing about the four days we spent camping in the mountains and looking for elk. I have a tag for both elk and deer this year in Montana, and, with good fortune, plan to hunt and camp this fall with Selina.
Friday, Aug. 1 — High 81, low 46 As some of you may remember, three elk seasons ago I harvested a beautiful 6-by-6 bull with my rifle. The last two seasons, despite the fact that elk were numerous in the days before the late October opener, I did not see a hide or track during my eight-day hunt.
I had made several calls before heading west in July and one paid off; I was told to check out a different hunting zone. The night before Selina and I left for what would have been the Bozeman area, we gave up on it and decided to seek new country. Selina is very good with onX, a mapping system in your phone that shows the lay of the land, water, and vegetation, plus back country roads, and the choice we made was due to her skills. We would drive 280 miles while pulling my ATV from Selina’s home in Missoula to an area neither of us had ever been. Selina and I have an excellent relationship; we never run out of things to talk about and we are both naturalists with major ambition. We both love to hunt and eat red meat as well, so the mood was excellent as we did our drive. Once we hit the forestry road that led to the campground where we hoped to stay, we saw a whitetail doe and a fawn.This was positive news, as there were no whitetail where I have hunted in the past. A little farther down the road, a mule deer doe crossed in front of us. Our campground was at the end of the road and was pure paradise.
No one was using it, it was simple, and, best of all, there were elk tracks in camp. We built a quick camp, used onX, and, as is the norm now, Selina picked our path to explore for elk and deer. What we found over the next couple of hours was as pretty as it could be, green grass everywhere — i.e. elk and deer food — and so much elk sign that it seemed like a cattle pasture. We hiked back to camp just before dark, started a campfire, cooked walleye from Canada, drank Coors beer from the Rockies, and, just to make sure all was good, always carried bear spray. Saturday, Aug. 2 — High 76, low 45 Today would be perfect with a capital P. Our plan was to explore using my Polaris Sportsman 570 ATV and on foot. Selina had picked out a spot about 4 miles from camp and from the start of our hike, the elk signs were numerous. Our feelings were confirmed when we came across three cows and two calves feeding. After they grazed away, we resumed our trek and though we are aware this area may have hunters, we could not believe what we found.
Everywhere there were either tracks, droppings, or elk. We picked out places where we might hunt and came across elk going through a densely wooded valley. Later, about 12 of them cut through a forest. We were hiking to a “park” meadow that Selina thought would have grass and by God, it had grass and elk. It was midday and in about a 40-acre grass area there were over 50 elk grazing and also resting with very little idea that we were there.
When we started to walk back to the ATV, there were more elk, and as soon as we finished our hike, a spike bull passed within 50 yards of us.
When we made it back to camp, it was lunch and a snooze; then we hiked to the spot that we found the night before to watch day become night.
We did not see any elk, but we could smell them, and all I could think about was late October, hopefully a bit of snow on the ground, a major base camp with a “Warning: Bear dog named Red” sign, and let the adventure begin.
We stayed another 36 hours and had a great time. Over the next 48 hours, I would put 1,800 miles behind me in the GMC Hotel with a big flippin’ smile on my face!
It’s all what you make it! Sunset
