The Elk Hunt

With the hopes that it wouldn't snow, I traveled to Silverton Colorado with my dad in October. My dad and I had six elk tags for the very first rifle season. We pulled our camp trailer down to a nice wooded area about five miles before you get into town. The camp sight was about a quarter mile off of the highway. There were trees all around the camping spot; the only break in the trees was where the road came through.

We set up our camp trailer the day before season started. We had set our alarm for four o'clock the next morning, and we went to bed early.

I woke up the next morning due to the rays of sunlight coming through the windows of the camp trailer. This could not have been right! There was no way it could be light at four o'clock it the morning. I got up and looked at the clock that was to the counter next to my dad on the opposite side of the camp trailer. The clock read seven-thirty.

I woke up my dad and told him that it was already light outside. He jumped out of bed and said we had to go. I went outside and started up the truck while my dad was getting dressed. When I opened the door to the trailer I noticed clear blue skies and a light frost that covered the ground. I jumped in the driver's seat of the 1990 white GMC Sierra, pushed in the clutch, and turned the key. The truck hesitated for about ten seconds and then started. I turned on the defroster and the windshield wipers so we wouldn?t have to scrape the frost.

We jumped in the truck and drove up to the highway. We were on the highway about thirty seconds before we turned off to the place we wanted to go. The place was called "The Brooklands." The road was dirt with spots of snow and ice. After we started driving up the steep road, I noticed that we h...

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...bably faster than us.

I reached a clearing and looked up to see two enormous four point bulls looking down at me. I put my gun up to my shoulder and naturally put the crosshairs on the larger elk. I pulled the trigger, and the elk dropped right where it stood. The other elk took off running up the steep mud and snow cover canyon wall, followed by a small two point bull that I forgot was there.

As we were climbing up the hill, I looked around to notice how green the lightly damp grass was, how beautiful the tall trees were, and how fast those snow clouds were moving above us. We got one elk on this adventure, so we decided we would pack up our stuff and head back home. As the white GMC reached the summit of Red Mountain Pass, I looked back to Silverton to see nothing but snow falling from the nearly black clouds in the sky, and I thought to myself--let it snow.