Utah Fishing Reports
The annual Elk Festival at the Hardware Ranch in Northern Utah was held yesterday, December 14th! A beautiful day to be up in the mountains! The ranch has about 200 elk in the meadow right now and it’s a really great outing for a family. Take a ride out in and among the elk and you get almost close enough to touch them! Please keep your hands inside the rails of the wagon at all times…these are wild animals capable of great injury to you!
But yesterday it wasn’t ALL about elk. There were several things going on to entertain young and old alike! Kids could learn about animal tracks! Stamp out a fish outline on paper and paint it up! Make a bird feeder using peanut butter and bird seed! Find out about the Bear River Bird Refuge! And more!
You also have the opportunity to purchase a ticket to go out among the elk on the sleigh being pulled by the draft horses and listen to the guide tell you about the elk!
And you can learn about what bugs are found in the Blacksmith Fork river!
Of course an Elk Festival would not be the same without the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s representation! Right?
Oh, and don’t forget! You can even make yourself a Christmas ornament out of deer and elk br0wes material and for the brave at heart you can even add in a sampling of elk dung just to show your friends that “You Were There”!!!
To have a successful event like this one it takes a lot of coordination and hard work by those behind the scenes! Marni Lee takes charge for this event and of course her husband helps as well. This is truly a team effort and I wish I knew everyone’s name to tell you who is who, but for sure I know Marni and her husband Andy!
Hold on here! That picture is of some Mountain Men with Marni! Where is Andy?
Andy is busy working!
Now what was that with the Mountain Men? Well, there was a small group of the Willow Creek Free Trappers at this event as well! And why would they be there? To break up the action and make things a bit more interesting for the folks who braved the cold and snow to come up to the ranch. I think these Mountain Men have been coming to this event since its inception, some 10 or more years ago! What do they bring to the event?
Guns, Mountain Man attire, Furs, Traps and information! We have a really good selection of various tanned furs for people to study and to feel. Most people have never actually touched the fur of several of the animals and this gives them a great chance to do just that!
The men and women at the table offer all the explanations needed for you to walk away with a good base knowledge about blackpowder rifles, pistols and shotguns, as well as flint and steel fire starting and of course the mountain man era and the fur bearing animals as well.
Not only do you get a fully rounded out lesson on the Mountain Man era in America, but you also have the chance to get to put on some Mountain Man attire and get your picture taken!
Here Sara and Bones are preparing for the day’s activities for the picture taking:
When it was all set up and ready to go, this is what the Willow Creek Free Trappers corner looked like!
Space hogs huh? But we needed it! Everything had to be “just right” in order for folks to come in, learn something about the Mountain Men of days past and then to prepare to get their pictures taken!
You have to pick out just the right Capote, hat and gun:
And then you have to make sure the pose is perfect:
Some of you will take this sort of thing really serious, but we just want to make sure you are enjoying yourself! So, using your own camera, Bones, or one of us, will take your picture!
And you can be yourself!
Or not! We don’t care! It’s your picture!
Here is a picture of part of the Mountain Man crew! The horny one is Edjukateer!
The background is a painting by a volunteer (Kevin Pence, I think) who loves to come to the ranch and make his mark! A beautiful job for sure!
Well, I promised everyone that I would post pictures on this web site and I sure hope I didn’t leave anyone out! I tried to be at each of the picture settings and if I missed you I’m very sorry about that! But here is my collection of pictures and I tried to pick the best 0f the few I took of each group. If you would like me to send you all of the pictures I took of your group, please email me at “bearsbuttzundel@gmail.com” and let me know which picture is yours, there is a number to the left side, below your picture, let me know that number!
Enjoy these pictures! I had a blast cropping them!
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Do you know this guy, are you friends? Nope, but we are now!
Bears Butt
December 15, 2013
Absolutely excellent Mr. Bears Butt, nice write-up and excellent pictures. Good job Willow Creek Free Trappers. The cast and crew will be looking forward to next year at the Hardware Ranch Elk Festival.
Looks like you went all out. No surprise you always do. I love the idea of the photos. Appears everyone had a great time. You guys are AWESOME!
We started doing the photos several years ago using a Polaroid type camera. We even provided the Polaroid picture paper. It got to be too much expense for us and so the DWR provided the picture paper for one year, then a miracle happened and digital cameras came down in price drastically and so…now you have the rest of the story.
The picture taking is what they all want to do, once they know it’s there.
Fun is what it’s all about and we have the most fun of all!
I made up a way for them to remember this web site…”Bear as the animal in the woods, only there are two of them..bears…but only one Butt…BearsButt Dot Com”!