Driving In...

      One of my biggest concerns with this hunt was the drive in.  Among the few scant videos I'd found on YouTube of what to expect, I stumbled across a video (1) that showed a fair amount of snow on opening day.  That video, posted below, made me realize the types of conditions that I could end up facing.

      I decided that such a video, while boring to some, could prove beneficial and useful to many hunters who have never been into the Ashley National Forest/High Uintas Wilderness Area.  The roads  vary in condition depending on what area of the forest or wilderness you are in.  However, if you know what expect with regards to the elements, it can help ensure that you are over-prepared, rather than under.  In my opinion, the roads into and throughout the Ashley National Forest were very well established and maintained.  Even in the areas where I encountered dense snow and ice, I was able to negotiate the turns, climbs, and down-hills without ever going into 4WD.  At the lower elevations, specifically the Pole Creek area (2), I even encountered two-wheel drive vehicles (family sedans, 2WD jeeps) that had made it to the meadow without any problems.  This brings me to my last point concerning driving into the High Uintas: The elements, and the roads affected by them, change drastically with elevation.  If you're using an app for your smartphone such as Theodolite (which I highly recommend), you may notice that, although you may have only traveled 3/4 of a mile, you have climbed from dense aspens and sparse snow into plateaus of dense Fir, Ponderosas and ice.  So, although the road may be built equally well as those at lower elevations, the elements are, in the end, the final determinate as to how well you will travel them.

      Below is the video I made and posted on YouTube of my drive-in the day before the 2013 rifle elk hunt.  I sped up the footage, which varies from 200x-400x, in order to condense a 4-hour trip into about 8 minutes.  I hope this video, and the future posts on this Blog will prove to be helpful and informative.  Good luck...

(1) http://youtu.be/u8VLniz5N9w

(2) http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5097865.pdf

 

Initiation

      On October 5th, 2013 I was introduced to elk hunting the south slope of the High Uintas.  I'd spent months planning, mapping, and preparing for this trip.  I had, not surprisingly, failed to gather very much information on the specifics of this unit.  No one I know had ever hunted the south, or north slopes.  The people on numerous web forums who said they had hunted them omitted any specifics about locations or expectations.  Their sole purpose, it seemed, was to tell the reader how difficult the elk were to find, while simultaneously alluding to the suggestion that the elk were everywhere.  I found this oxymoronical approach to be perplexing.  To compound my confusion even more, a statement in a Utah Department of Wildlife Resources news item published on 28 September, 2012, DWR biologist Anis Aoude made the claim that, "...some of the largest elk herds are found on...the South Slope/Yellowstone unit." (1)  If this unit was so laden with elk, then why was there so little information on it?  Why couldn't I find a single person who had hunted it?  Did this mean it was the best kept secret in Utah, or potentially the biggest bust?

      My intent is to explore these questions, and provide additional insight on the entire High Uintas Wilderness area on this Blog.  Some of what I will present will be based off of personal experiences, and some of it will be based off of documented and cited research.  In addition to helping readers understand the area itself, I will also document reviews on certain types of equipment, strategies, and other opinionated ideas related to chasing game in the High Uintas.

(1) http://wildlife.utah.gov/wildlife-news/42-utah-wildlife-news/926-plenty-of-bull-elk-in-utah.html