Dad's Elk Hunt

This year my dad drew an elk tag in area 22 in Nevada. This is one of the best areas in the state for hunting elk. My dad spent a few weekends over the past few months out scouting and preparing for his hunt. I was able to go with him the first time he went out to scout. We were able to call in some big bulls as the rut had just recently started. It was a cool experience. The hunt started this past Friday so we drove up Wednesday afternoon and started scouting. We saw some good bulls every time we went out and felt like we had a good plan for opening morning. When Friday morning came around we woke up at 3:30 AM and got out to the spot we had been seeing some good bulls. When we got out to the trail head there were a couple other hunters headed towards the same general area and one of them was with a guiding service. We were a little worried that they would mess up our hunt, but we stuck to our plan. We started our hike up the mountain and eventually got ahead of the other hunters. At first light we spotted some elk up the mountain a lot higher than we had planned on going. We decided to pursue these elk. We saw a few decent bulls as we headed up the mountain, but not the one we wanted. We kept climbing and climbing. My dad was wearing down but he kept pushing. We ended up hiking over 3 miles all up hill. When we got on the bulls we had spotted early in the morning we saw that there was a great bull and a couple smaller bulls. We made our way towards the bulls and found a great spot about 280 yards out. We watched the bulls feed out of some thick brush and into the open. My dad got set and drilled the big one on his first shot and dropped him. We were stoked! After he shot elk started coming out all over the mountain. I had taken my video camera and got it all on film. It was awesome! Now the work began. Thankfully John Zarate was with us, he is a taxidermist and made skinning and quartering the bull look easy. We packed the quarters into the bottom and hung them on a tree. Then we strapped the head and cape to my back and I got to pack it over 3 miles back to the razor. I am still recovering. We found out that night that Humberto Baeza from Mesquite was camped just above us and he had his horses with him. We went and talked to Humberto and he was happy to take his horses up the mountain to pack the meat out. Thank You Humberto!!! Those horses saved us a lot of work. This was one of the best hunts we have been able to go on. The only thing we would have done different is have Cody there for the whole thing. He wasn't able to come up until Friday night, so he missed the kill, but was able to come help get the meat out. My dad did a great job. I wasn't sure he was going to make it up that mountain, but he kept pushing and was able to take a great bull. We had the full hunting experience!