Boy is it looking dry at my hunting area! I have never seen it so dry and brittle looking.First animal i saw when we crossed over into national forest was.... A bear. I swear, seeing all these bears is NOT a good sign for me as i have bad luck running into meat eaters.

We did see a great deal of elk, aprox 150 head up towards the dark timber.

A little rodent that was either a marmot or a woodchuck. He has a bushy looking tail and i thought marmots had a rat tail look? He was super fat though and my dog had his head hanging out the window with a serious " i'd love to eat you" expression on his face.

Turkeys also were all over the place and even a raccoon!

We saw every darn animal you could see.... EXCEPT! for a deer and guess what. I have a deer tag.

I may have to go up into the dark timber/aspen groves this year to find a buck. That or locate some water holes down below.

But man, i seriously have never seen my area so dry before. I don't even think i will make any campfires unless it rains, thats how scary dry it is.

Oh, on the way out, a BIG bull with antlers long enough to scratch his rear end ran across the road.

2 pref points for bull elk and so maybe next year i can pop one of those bulls.

I sure wish you would have taken your camera with you. I really like seeing pictures of that part of the country and its wildlife. There are a lot of animals there that we don't have here.

Sounds like a fun day MD. And unless you get rain, sounds like hunting near water would be a good bet. Those elk have to drink too, so I'm sure there is a spring or two up high.

Sounds exciting to see that much game. And it never fails, when you want a camera the most, you left it at home...

Woodchuck do have a slight bush to their tail as I remember them. As for a marmot, I thought they were one and the same. Maybe a slight sub species as I have heard both names used. We have woodchuck (a.k.a. groundhog) in Wisconsin but unless they are on your property, they are protected from hunting as I understand it. I knew an old man that used to tell me they were good to eat.

Hopefully you will get some good showers before the season starts. But as the old saying goes, a bad day of hunting is better than a good day at work.

no worries guys, i got the smaller elk herd on video camera.

I figured i'd save pictures for Sept 10th when the leaves start changing.

Cayugad,

If you get a chance to eat groundhog, i believe you would like it too. Or should I say a young one 2years and under, you get into the big ones and they are super tough and greasy. They have a flavor of there own but, is very good in stew......

Jon, those deer are up high normally the hot August& September hot weather.head up to the aspens and above. if there are range cattle look for the man made watering holes. i bow hunted Colorado and Utah for many years and they were always up high until pushed down by weather, unless there was absolutely no water up there for them.7000 ft to timberline..deer love aspen, i have seen them get on there hind legs and stand to get to the young aspen leaves..if you find a good watering hole with a lot of deer coming into it,find out what direction there coming to it from and set up 300 - 500 yds from the water on the trail..the big boys won't hit the actual water source until after dark. took my biggest archery muley using this tatic. good luck Ray