Familiarity with Sawtooth Nat. Forest?

1893 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by blacklabsmatter, Sep 7, 2016

blacklabsmatter

Discussion Starter · Sep 6, 2016

Hey and good morning folks. My first post as a new UT resident, so your patience is appreciated if this topic has been discussed to death already.

I've got a Box Elder deer tag and have spent some time with my BLM map and Google Earth looking for public access into Sawtooth. I went up to Clear Creek campground three times to scout and maybe bag a grouse, and it's beautiful land with some decent deer sign in the areas I was poking around.

My question is that since this area is pretty easy to get to from Tremonton and I-84, does it turn into a zoo up here come opening day? As folks with more local knowledge, would you consider looking for other areas of public access into the Sawtooth for example, and have you any ideas where these might be?

I'm up to put in the work and hike and I'm not after anyone's honey hole. It's the wife and kids that expect me to go to work each day and not drive the perimeter of the forest peeking up canyons for access. I'd ask for help with that situation but that's something not unique to Box Elder county I'm guessing :grin:

Thanks for the read and happy hunting!

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hunting777

· #2 · Sep 6, 2016

Welcome to the forum! Where are you now living? It will amaze you on how many people that you are going to see out there. From what I have seen in the past its trailer to trailer the night before. One thing I highly recommend is to hunt the "Peek a boos". These are little groups of trees out in the open that you think that nothing would be in there. We have jumped several deer from those. Also make sure you check into the walk n accesses. Good luck and welcome to Utah.

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nocturnalenemy

· #3 · Sep 6, 2016

Having never been in the unit, my advice is general to deer hunting in Utah.

Yes it will be crowded. If you can hunt mid week you'll see a lot fewer people.

The DWR has a pretty good map resource found here: http://dwrapps.utah.gov/ram/start2 You can display private, ,tribal, BLM and FS property boundaries. That should help you identify additional areas to hunt. If you can find areas that are away from roads, even just a mile, or even just up a really steep hill near a road, you'll be in areas with less hunters.

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MWScott72

· #4 · Sep 6, 2016

Yes...the Sawtooth NF (Raft River Mtns) will be very crowded. That said, there are lots of deer, so if you're not a picky person, getting a deer is very possible with some work. Crowds won't be so bad after the opening weekend thru the following Thurs, so if you can hunt Tues thru Thurs.(knowing opening weekend is hard to not hunt), you'd see ALOT less pressure.

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blacklabsmatter

Discussion Starter · #5 · Sep 7, 2016

Thanks!

Thanks all for the feedback. It's hard to gauge crowds in advance when I've seen zero folks up there when scouting.

I will check out the DNR map link for sure. Thanks for the welcome to UT also. It's been a blast scouting so far, although what we call mountains in Arkansas you folks would likely bust a gut laughing at

Has anyone ever found access into the Sawtooth from the southern side of things, I show on my map this is the Grouse Creek area, and is it kind of more of the same as far as the crowds?

Thanks again!

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