Sports — Outdoor Recreation — Sponsored by ZAGG
Jittery Horse in the Book Cliffs by David Tanner —Resident Submission
Some of Utah’s most rugged country for hunting is in the Book Cliffs in eastern Utah. There are some really neat Indian relics out there, as well as some of the biggest mule deer and elk too. Nowadays, you need a special permit to hunt the Book Cliffs, but back in the 80’s when I was hunting, those permits weren’t around. Still, not many went after those prize deer and elk because of how difficult the terrain was. The first year I went out there, I went with my good buddy, Seth Boyer, who later became a professional guide. We had a couple of horses with all our gear packed on their backs so we could go on foot. This is ideally the best way to hunt out there. But, they were new horses, and one of them was pretty jumpy. Being a bit late to get started, we decided to take a short cut to the hunting spot we’d picked out. We were on top of a ridge, and decided we’d work our way down some of the cliffs to the bottom where our designated spot was before dark. As we started down a particularly steep area, something shifted underfoot of the jumpy mare. All of a sudden, she just took off on a dead run down that super steep slope kicking. All of our camp gear, all of our pots & pans, flew off everywhere. She kept kicking and running all the way
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down to the bottom of the cliff. When we finally caught her, we had camping gear scattered about a quarter of a mile. Needless to say, we got to our camping spot late after rounding everything back up. We didn’t save any time at all, obviously. We didn’t get any nice big bucks that year either, (although we did the following year). Later, my buddy went back out there and got some nice big elk though. He dressed them out on the cliffs, then packed the meat out on a horse. Whether you can get a tag or not, the Book Cliffs wilderness area is one of Utah’s most popular backcountry destinations. From backpacking to river rafting to guided horsepacking trips, this is an area of Utah adventurers won’t want to miss. The Outlaw Trail, used by Butch Cassidy’s gang, runs the entire 80-mile length of Desolation Canyon, which is one of the most impressive river gorges in the country.
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