Elk

Heading to the mountains to

Planning and executing an elk hunt out West is a major undertaking. Planning and initial preparations must begin a year or more in advance.

Drawing an elk tag for the White Mountains of eastern Arizona is no easy task, and hunting the White Mountains is dang near impossible. Our destination was an area that locals call "The Blue", near Alpine, Arizona, very close to the New Mexico border. The hunt in November 2002 was one of the most challenging hunts of my life—one in which we actually feared for our lives.

According to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, approximately 1 million elk freely roam in parts of North America. Right behind those elk herds are hunters — hoards of orange-clad hunters who seek to place an elk in their rifle sights and eventually into the frying pan or onto the grill. Elk, however, have the upper hand (or hoof) and many hunters return home with an unused elk tag in their pockets.

by John Paul Morris

9,500 feet above sea level, short on oxygen, praying to the Lord God Almighty!

“PLEASE, let that bull expire; don’t let him get up!”

Wapiti. Monarch of the Mountains. Cervus Canadensis. Elk. Whatever name you choose, dreaming about an elk bowhunt sends chills and waves of adrenaline throughout a bowhunter's body. And that's just thinking about bowhunting for elk.  

Raging winds swept across the Gallatin Range as we stepped out of spike camp high atop North Mountain.

After finishing a successful New Mexico