Opening Morning

This is how things looked opening morning, Saturday, October 20th, 2007. The weather was great, mid 50’s, and the last AccuWeather forecast I had seen predicted similar weather for the rest of the week with the first chance of precipitation the following weekend. This picture is from Snake River Ranch. We rose at 3:30AM in order to make it to the north check-in area by the 5:30 deadline. Slater Creek is at the bottom of the valley. Notice the road running along the bottom of the hill on the right side. Our truck is parked in the aspens just off the road and out of the picture by few feet. The mountain in the background, to the northwest, is Baker’s Peak. Our camp was about 5 miles southwest of Baker’s Peak and 15 miles almost due west from where the picture was taken.

The row of aspen trees in the center of the picture mark a drainage about 20 feet deep with steep sides. Past the aspens and below Baker’s Peak you can see a grassy area, more aspen lining the banks of Slater Creek, and the ridge on the far side. At the top of the ridge there are flat areas where cattle were grazing. Before sun up we were sitting on the edge of the hill 100 yards past the near aspens, waiting for elk to come up through the sage and head for the mountains behind us (off to the right of the picture).