Thanks everyone.
I'l be taking lots of pics.

She' says she's excited and nervous.
Quick stop at Sonic for lunch.

Got back late last night. It was a blast. Shayla missed some nice cows on opening morning and yesterday morning. Saturday we woke up to 2-3 inches of snow at camp which got my blood pumping. Hunting in fresh snow is my absolute favorite time to hunt. Shayla wasn't thrilled about the snow lol.

We approached the unit which is a national preservation from the backside and were the first ones in. As we climbed snow got deeper. After I opened the gate I told Shayla get ready there might be elk right away. We slowly climbed through a canyon which had several valleys here and there as the sun was raising. Within 15-20 minutes there were 2 cows standing off the road on the edge of a valley. Shayla had to get her vest on (mandatory) and load the gun. By that time the elk were gone. We tracked them back to the truck and saw they went along the road into a narrow canyon then climbed straight up a steep mountain side. It was too steep for most to climb. Here she is learning a hard lesson of always being prepared.


With our heads hung low but not faded we drove on. We approached another gate & there stood a heard of about 200 elk in an open valley at about 1000 yards away. We drove to get a closer shot but the elk were very skittish. We parked and made our way through the valley the closest we got was 600 yards which was too far for her to shoot comfortably.
Here's part of the heard. Shayla took this pic as I opened the gate.


Continued on down the road and saw the first of many very healthy very heavy grade (top lot possibility) coyotes. One of the rules from the NP was we can only hunt elk.


Here she is exhausted and trying to dry her shoes she put on the second we got back to camp.


Next day we headed the same path. A smaller heard was in the same valley so we approached slowly to close the distance but were stopped by a partially frozen creek which she couldn't cross. You can see the Creek in the distance.


We headed down the road looking for a place to cross the creek and saw another heard of about 50 just as skittish elk. We approached trying to close the distance got within 500 yards before they were climbing.
Took a break

Got back to the truck and a ranger was waiting for us ready to help pack out the elk. He gave us other great places to check where they will be. We tried to find the heard but couldn't catch up.

Next day we approached the very top of the unit made our way down another valley. Shayla needed a break so I told her let's get to the top of the hill. I got to the top before her and noticed 2 massive bulls standing at 400 yards. We watched them for a while. I was so wishing we had an either sex tag. Here's the 2 bulls one is grazing one is bedded. Hard to see in this cell pic.


After lunch we headed to the bottom of the unit it was a long walk so we rested and she napped. As she napped a Turkey was near us but once again I couldn't shoot

Next day we headed up the same way as the first 2 days. Before shooting hours we saw a heard of 15 I parked ther truck waiting for time and watched the elk climb away. We drove around the corner because they were on the tree line and saw a heard of 8 huge bulls which took off towards the other heard. We parked around the corner trying to head them off but couldn't catch up.

We went to another spot another ranger told us about and since they were starting a prescribed burn at the top the elk should be there. We made the trek but there wasn't any fresh sign.

We tried a few other places as well but a bald eagle coyotes hawks.

Back at camp Shayla said she wanted to approach from the backside again. We woke up to another inch of snow at camp. We went up and by 0600 we had already seen about 100 elk all over, mainly bulls. We waited for a bit drove through the valley I told her I would turn at the top of a hill but decided to go one more canyon over. There was about 75 elk waiting for us at about 100-150 yards away. We had to wait 5 minutes befor shooting hours. The heard was slowly going back up 2 cows were hanging back waiting for Shayla. Here comes a logger flying down the road spooking the 2 cows. We chased them, Shayla couldn't get lined up in time with a perfect broadside shot at 125 yards before the cow continued up. We go further in there the cow was waiting for us at 175 yards. She got lined up but the cow turned backside. We tracked it for an hour and half in fresh cut timber before we couldn't find the tracks anymore.

We tried a few other spots but only saw a bald eagle numerous coyotes a few hawks the rest of the day. Even though she ate tag soup we had a blast. 6 days of daddy daughter time. Both of us being pushed hard. Lots of great memories laughter were made.

We decided to go through the main entrance on our way out and were greeted with over 500 elk in the "ha ha zone" the closed to hunting area of the NP. Here's most of one heard of 3 that were in the ha ha zone. Pic taken with my phone and binoculars.

Great narrative and pics of your hunt,Adam.
Looks like you and Your daughter had a great time together.

Thanks for the Story, Adam. You two did good !

Thanks Boco and YamaCat.
I think we did good. She impressed me. That's just not me as her dad saying that too. I was genuinely impressed by her.

So are we, good time had by all.......jk

Thanks

Great pictures and even better picture's that what life's all about . I'm glad to see you didn't let a little adversity get you down !
The two of you will get them next time !
Allan

Awesome pictures and hunt.

Thanks Allan. It sure it is what life is about. Absolutely. I am putting in for this unit from now on. I will need to practice shooting over 600 yards. The elk have been hunted hard by this point so they were beyond skittish. It would be a great archery hunt too because it is early enough that they won't be nearly as skittish.

glad to hear you had a good time

she learned a lot even if she didn't get an elk


some training before next time , always be ready game happens seconds out of the truck some times

game often doesn't stick around long

my son got so mad at me when I set up 5 targets at varying distances and he had to walk slow like he was stalking and I would call out a number of one of the targets I would give him at first maybe 10 seconds to get the shot and hit , less and less time till it was 5-6 seconds , these were not far targets 25-70 yards and that is all the further we get a lot of shots here and they are gone quick and he was hunting a shotgun zone 75 yards on a 20 ga slug is about it.
he got mad when I would call no shot when he took too long.
it has to be safe but you have to push them and really yourself also to get better

when he got his first at 12 the deer that ran too him through some juniper bushes popped out of the juniper looked at him froze for a second, pow she was down and he understood.

last time we were at the range he actually asked for me to run this drill with him he realized several years later how much it does help.

in Appleseed we would run transition drills 300 yard shot on steel how fast can you go from standing unloaded to shot on target from prone 15-16 seconds is what we were finding we worked on it more and got it down to about 8 seconds. if you get 30 it feels like all the time in the world , you don't have to break the shot if it is not moving but training to get setup in that amount of time.

if you can practice in the desert where you are , a steel plate on a post and walk with a pair of shooting sticks and a gun get her making 150-250 yards shots in short setup time like take a knee deploy sticks and ready to shoot you don't even have to shoot every time , but getting used to getting set up on a shot and making it for confirmation it might take all after noon to shoot one 20 round box but it is good conditioning.

the only fail in hunting is failing to learn

Getting an elk is just the icing on the cake but by the looks of it you had plenty of cake as is

That is really nice and thanks for sharing that with us.

Read every word! Excellent Story! A True Adventure!

Thanks everyone. You're right scuba we had plenty of cake.

Gcp, yes she did learn a lot. She was pushed hard, even to breaking point but she got her composure and kept going. We both pushed hard even with the fibro kicking my butt. We hiked maybe 20 miles total in 5 days. An average hunt for me pre fibro was 15-20 miles a day. It was hard getting her trained up to this point. I told her she'll be working on speeding up target acquisition and shooting from shoulder with the 22 since I have thousands of rounds for it. She is comfortable shooting in a couple positions and using shooting sticks. I think the sticks hindered her this hunt. That sounds like great drills you did I might use them.

330 it was an adventure. Add to that having to go to town twice for gas and internet since I'm buying a house.

sound like a great time with your daughter ,she will never forget , time spend with dad

making memories she will tell her kids some day
WTG!

Thanks everyone.