My conversion to trail cameras

My buddy Jake and I went camping this weekend. It was my last alpine adventure before my wife and I move to flat, corn-covered, elk-less Nebraska in a few days. We hiked up and down canyons, stayed up till 3 AM telling stories around the campfire, and caught several trout on our fly rods, - all in our favorite little elk-hunting hole in Utah. He was lucky enough to draw a tag to hunt a big bull elk this year, so we spent most of our time looking for one. I've hunted elk for years, but this year I found something that will change the way I hunt from now on.

This is it. It's a camera that you leave in the woods, tied to a tree, which takes pictures of animals as they walk by its motion-sensor trigger. Jake put two of them up near a water hole and a salt lick a couple of weeks ago, so this weekend we hiked in and checked the pictures.

This bull came in for some salt the morning after he put his camera in the tree. If you look close you can see another bull behind him.


A little buck deer stopped by a few days later. He's a 2x4, though the picture doesn't show his back left fork.


In one picture we counted 12 different cows and calves.


Trail cameras are also equipped with a flash so animals coming in after dark, like this little buck, can't escape the gaze of its ever-ready lens.


Here are a few good bulls posing for the cameras.


This bull (below) is probably the biggest from this week's catch. For those who know about scoring elk, what do you think he scores? Write me a comment and let me know.