Around 11:00 we were awoken by the sound of a bugling elk. We initially thought it had come from behind us, back near the wallow we had passed, and we started to move in that direction. We hadn't gone far when we heard it again, then again...and we could now definitely tell that it was coming from the opposite ridge we'd been watching. We moved back to our nap location and started to glass the hillside. Before long, we started to pick up movement of tan spots coming over the opposite side near the highest point in the center/left of the above photo. Before long there were dozens of elk spreading out on the hillside in front of us. Some came down a couple hundred yards, while some stayed near the top. In all we counted around 40 elk, with at least one big herd bull, a number of smaller bulls, and the rest spikes and cows. They were loud, with a lot of bugling over the next hour as the herd slowly worked its way across the face from our left to right. Sam believed the herd we were following ran into a herd over the ridge and they all came back together, with bulls screaming their heads off trying to keep their cows separated. They all moved back near the top of the ridge by early afternoon and then disappeared into a narrow patch of thick timber.
