- 38,859
- 260
After reading the thermals thread I realized I never put together a visual of the hardest lesson I ever learned while in Arizona hunting elk. As I mentioned in that thread I knew about thermals but playing them is a huge pain in the ass. I figured as long as I kept the wind in my face I would have most of the game beat. Thermals are way more of a pain to play because they require you to have a solid understanding of the terrain, places the sun hits first, a good guess of around what time they switch and it's all educated guesswork. It's not like you can really tell like you can with wind. So I figured I'd play the wind and have the game 90% beat. After around 8 days of not seeing elk in prime elk country that wreaked or recent elk I realized I was missing a piece of the puzzle. Elk are like whitetails in most of their habits except for one. Food, water, bedding, preference to travel the path of least resistance, and preferring to bed just over the crest of points are all like whitetail. Where they really differ is elk don't hang around if something is off. If they get even a whiff of you they will be gone long before you even get there. Often times deer will hunker down and hide and watch you walk by as long as you don't stop or get too close. Not elk, they will slip out and be gone when you are still a quarter or half-mile away. So I quickly realized I needed to play the thermals, almost instantly I started getting on elk.
In the below picture I would start out from the truck well before daylight and make the 2.5 mile walk up to the top and stop at what I called my staging area. The wind was in my face and the cool night thermals were still falling downhill. I would wait in this staging area until about an hour after sunrise which provided time for the thermals to switch and become consistent uphill on that southern slope.
I had to be in position well before daylight as any attempt to walk that path at first light or later would result in the thermals carrying the scent right to the elk. If I attempted that they would be off the mesa and down in the canyon to the north before I even made it halfway up to the top. And when I got there would be no elk to be seen, just stinky beds. The thermals on the north side of the mountain would not switch to an upward direction until the sun was well in the sky and warmed the bottom of the canyon.
If a person showed up before daylight without enough time to make the 2.5 mile hike and reach the staging area before sunrise they would have to take the orange route to cheat the thermals by keeping another canyon between them and the elk. That's probably about another 1.5 mile walk and an extra incline to walk. So as you can see it pays to get there early. And by early I mean 4:45 am.
After sunrise the thermals would stabalize and become consistent. I would then start a slow zigzag pattern over the area walking slow and always glassing up ahead. this kept the wind in my face and the thermals from my side. the ground ahead was always clean from me being winded or thermaled.
If an elk let out a bugle it was go time. The game was to figure out which direction they were going and try to intersect them, hopefully getting there and being ready before they got there. You always hear that you can't get out in front of elk. Yeah right I said, I can get around and cut them off. Well, I tried a couple of times until I realized they walk faster than I could run through the terrain. I saw two bulls about 200 yards in front of me passing left to right. I figured I would dip back about 50 yards and run like hell for 400-500 yards to try and get around in front of them. After the run I made my hook maneuver only to see the elk right in front of me again.
In the below picture I would start out from the truck well before daylight and make the 2.5 mile walk up to the top and stop at what I called my staging area. The wind was in my face and the cool night thermals were still falling downhill. I would wait in this staging area until about an hour after sunrise which provided time for the thermals to switch and become consistent uphill on that southern slope.
I had to be in position well before daylight as any attempt to walk that path at first light or later would result in the thermals carrying the scent right to the elk. If I attempted that they would be off the mesa and down in the canyon to the north before I even made it halfway up to the top. And when I got there would be no elk to be seen, just stinky beds. The thermals on the north side of the mountain would not switch to an upward direction until the sun was well in the sky and warmed the bottom of the canyon.
If a person showed up before daylight without enough time to make the 2.5 mile hike and reach the staging area before sunrise they would have to take the orange route to cheat the thermals by keeping another canyon between them and the elk. That's probably about another 1.5 mile walk and an extra incline to walk. So as you can see it pays to get there early. And by early I mean 4:45 am.
After sunrise the thermals would stabalize and become consistent. I would then start a slow zigzag pattern over the area walking slow and always glassing up ahead. this kept the wind in my face and the thermals from my side. the ground ahead was always clean from me being winded or thermaled.
If an elk let out a bugle it was go time. The game was to figure out which direction they were going and try to intersect them, hopefully getting there and being ready before they got there. You always hear that you can't get out in front of elk. Yeah right I said, I can get around and cut them off. Well, I tried a couple of times until I realized they walk faster than I could run through the terrain. I saw two bulls about 200 yards in front of me passing left to right. I figured I would dip back about 50 yards and run like hell for 400-500 yards to try and get around in front of them. After the run I made my hook maneuver only to see the elk right in front of me again.
