Rocky Mountain high

As a kid I read of hunting in the North American wilderness. They were stories of packhorse strings heading deep into the Rocky Mountains in pursuit of moose, elk and deer, of living in canvas-wall tents beside a mountain stream with the smell of fresh trout being grilled in a skillet over a crackling fire of pine boughs. Of grizzly bears and the sound of wolves howling on distant ridges.

FOR a kid with a single-shot Lithgow .22, hunting rabbits in the dry sheep paddocks of northern NSW, it was just a dream. And it stayed that way for years.

In 2019 Taylah and I quit our jobs and set off on an epic journey around Africa, Australia, North America and New Zealand. Our hard-earned savings had to get us through 18 months of backpacking and I knew that if I dropped $15,000 on a guided elk hunt I’d be back on the job site much sooner than I wanted. And potentially single again.

I didn’t like either outcome so I looked for a budget-conscious elk hunt to tie into our North American road trip. Four states — Idaho,