Last spring I wrote this post and this post about our love of antler hunting every spring when the deer and elk start to shed their antlers. Although it is still a little early in the season, we’ve been having some major cabin fever so decided to head out for an antler hunting adventure this last week. We’ve also been selling so many antler buttons in our Etsy shop we need to restock our supply!

We headed to the river bottom where I harvested my deer this last hunting season since we knew there were several south facing slopes. On the south slopes the snow is melted so lots of deer like to graze there and hopefully shed their antlers. The drive in paralleled the Clearwater River and we saw a beautiful white swan as well as a variety of ducks and geese.

We packed a lunch in our packs for a picnic on top of the mountain and headed out. We saw several deer out grazing on grass in the warm afternoon sun and saw lots of deer sign like scat, deer beds and game trails. The mountain we were hiking faced the Clearwater River so we had lovely views all throughout our hike.

Although the air was cooler on top of the mountain with a light breeze, the sun was shining and kept us warm. There was a lot of elk sign on top of the mountain and we could even smell the musky scent of elk, one of my all time favorite nature smells. Our little nugget loved playing with the pine cones, pine needles, sticks and dirt.

We hiked for several hours but didn’t find any antlers, we figure it is still a little early in the season so plan to visit this area again in another few weeks. We did find a screwdriver, a variety of animal bones and the find of the day was two osprey feathers.

Have you been on any nature adventures this week?

This post shared on: Friday’s Nature Table

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