An elk hunt turns into an unforgettable wildlife adventure

My grandson drew an out-of-state elk tag for the Palisades hunt, so he visited me a few days prior to the hunt to do some scouting and some picture taking. On Monday, three days prior to the hunt, we went to the Moody Creek area to look for signs of elk crossing some of the roads. It was foggy and muddy, but it did not take long before we found wildlife.

Traveling slowly along the privately owned stubble fields, we started seeing deer right next to the road. In a small herd of mule deer, we also saw a white-tailed doe feeding with seven muleys.

Once we got into the forest and were slip-sliding through huge mud puddles, we started seeing a lot of ruffed grouse. There were several family groups that allowed us to get some great pictures. They would try to hide, or they would fly into a nearby pine tree.

While working our way through the dark water-soaked trees, a great gray owl flew over us. We watched it and spent about half an hour following it through the forest. It reminded me of its name, “Ghost of the Forest.” It tried to harvest a rodent twice, but it failed both times before it finally flew far enough that we could not find it.

By noon the fog had lifted, and we were just finishing our trek through the area when we saw another large owl — a great-horned owl — fly across the road and land on a tree. It was the first great-horned that I have seen in that area.

In the soft soil on the sides of the roads, we could see where elk had crossed. The deer season had opened five days before the elk and hunters had been successful harvesting some deer. We noticed that elk had been moving into the thick timber from some of the sagebrush ridges.

Two days before the opening of the elk season, we decided to drive to Relay Ridge — the boundary between Madison and Teton Counties. We found few elk, but we saw a few small herds of deer. While driving near the tops of the mountains, we ran into a grouse feeding along the road. It was the first blue or dusky grouse my grandson had ever seen.

During the six-day hunt, we saw plenty of elk butts in the thick brush, but only saw antlers twice. We saw plenty of other wildlife but never got a shot because the animals were either on private ground or we did not get open shots in the brush. That did not stop our enjoyment of the experience.

We saw an average of four to five elk, about 20 deer, ruffed grouse, fed squirrels, red-breasted nuthatches, stellar’s jays, brown creepers and great gray owls every day. My highlights of a week spent with my grandson were seeing seven different great gray owls, the dusky grouse and getting pictures of about 10 red squirrels eating and harvesting pine cones.

We will do it again. In the meantime, I am looking forward to the deer rut. With so many female deer running around this year, the bucks will become careless and a little stupid. Hopefully, I will get action pictures of them fighting and chasing the does around and it could be very exciting for the next month or two.

Good luck to all you hunters. Be safe and courteous to everyone you meet, especially in the mountains.