The Bench
A shelf of black north-facing timber that holds shade, water, and elk long after the open faces have burned dry. The bulls live in the deadfall and don't leave it — you go in after them, quiet and close, or you don't kill one. Steep, thick, and unforgiving, which is exactly why it stays loud with bugles when everywhere else has gone silent.
High Basins
Above the last tree, where the country opens up and the bucks get old. This is glassing ground — you sit, you cut it apart at first and last light, and you wait for a heavy frame to feed out of the krummholz. The deer that live up here have seen a few winters and don't make mistakes. Neither can you.
The Burn
An old fire scar grown back thick — head-high regrowth, knee-busting blowdown, and feed that pulls elk in from miles around. Few tags come out of this draw, so the pressure stays low and the bulls stay dumb. It's hard walking and harder packing, but the country owes you a real one when it gives it up.
