This was my thirtieth year hunting this country. One reason is that you can usually find a buck or two there but the other reason is it is beautiful country with unique features. This is a shot of the campground taken from a nearby ridge. The dominant feature in this area is the sandstone outcroppings. There are Indian paintings in several locations here including the outcropping behind the campground.
The rock art has deteriorated badly since I first saw it. The sandstone sheds layers of rock so little of the art is left and what is left is badly faded.
There are a lot of weird rock shapes too. The first is not so weird. I sheltered one rainy night many years ago in the "window". I was mostly dry except for a crack in the ceiling that leaked all night.
Rock shapes.
This one isn't sandstone but it looks like a little bear.
Another interesting cultural artifact is Lamar's cabin. This cabin was actually built on top of a high ridge three or four miles from where it is now. It was built in WWII as an aircraft lookout at a time when it was feared that the Japanese would attack the nearby oil fields with aircraft. After the war Lamar Johnston bought it and moved it to where it sits today. He piped water in from a spring and used it as a bunkhouse while working cattle. We get our drinking water there. The old cowboys called the hill behind the cabin "forkhorn hill" because they said you could always get a forkhorn there.
We had a little rain our second trip and got some good sunrise and sunset pics. Sunrise in Lion Canyon.
A couple of sunset shots.
Oh yeah we did hunt a little too. I got my first buck just to the right of the grassy peak in this picture on our second trip.
That was my meat buck so I was looking for something bigger to fill my second tag. We saw three forkhorns in this canyon last Wednesday. I passed on all three.
Then we didn't see another buck through Saturday morning. We hadn't been hunting much in the evening. Saturday evening I decided we had better get serious so we went down to sit on a little finger on the side of "forkhorn hill". This little buck wandered around the point across the canyon from us. He wasn't much bigger than the first but unfilled deer tags make thin soup.
We hung him Saturday night and went back to bone him out Sunday morning. When we finished we sat down to have a snack before we headed out and Ginnette spotted deer across the canyon. There was a much bigger forkhorn following two does up the hill. Ginnette still had a tag and it was only about a 100 yard shot but we let him walk. I didn't think I would be able to get two out. We were about seven miles from the truck. I have done it before but I was younger then! We had a great time and look forward to next year.
