#white mountain elk hunting arizona

[sihunters]

Website: https://www.sihunters.com/

Address: Anthem, AZ, USA

SI Hunters is made up of a group of guys and gals that come together to enjoy the outdoors. What started out as a hobby, has become our passion and we're delighted to share it with you. We’re proud to produce videos so we can bring you along with us.

Spring Turkey and Elk hunting are some of our passions.

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sihunters

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[caseguys01]

Four necessities of elk prong shed looking

Each spring many open air fan head into the mountains searching for bull elk tusk sheds. Greatest guardians select up 2 or 3 each season subsequent to going through hours looking over the lush region and mountains for sheds. I've lived in the jap white piles of arizona on the grounds that the mid 1990's and have been looking tusk sheds each spring. I regularly pick up 30-50 sheds a season and normal one roughly every 2 half hours. Here are a few clues on how you can blast your chances of finding bull elk horn sheds. 

Outerwear  mountain climate can be inclimate and exchange with very little know. You might need to set up your self ahead of time through brandishing the appropriate outerwear. Most importantly, you should be donning a positively reasonable pair of shoes. The landscape is steep and the balance is loosened. Climbing shoes basically will not do the assignment. Climbing boots are better, but your top notch bet is a decent calfskin gore-tex hunting boot. I choose danner boots, they're agreeable and strong. Next is a normal pair of denim blue denims. You're continually going through brush, butt sliding, bowing and from time to time slipping and falling. Nylon pants get destroyed pretty quick. For a zenith layer, a wick dry tee-shirt along with a specialized nylon or wool apex will works of art well overall. You really wanted to remain warm, but license the perspiration to be corrupted away.

It's likewise an excellent plan to wear a splendid shading on top fundamentally on the off chance that you're shed hunting with an assistant, you need a decent way of seeing each not quite the same as a distance. Camo is regularly not a breathtaking idea. A generally excellent baseball style cap is additionally pivotal to keep up with the sun oriented from your eyes. I put on a drawn out charge cap from my significant other's fly fishing manual endeavor. This is especially because of the reality you'll presently don't be wearing sun conceals, sun conceals color the regular encompassing and you may not see the horns laying on the floor aside from they are old fashioned white chalks. Shades also make it difficult to utilize optics effectively.

Gadget there are three pivotal contraptions which you should pass on with you generally while you're shed hunting. The essential is a heavenly pair of optics. I exploit a few 12x50's that can be bought for around $one hundred and fifty. You besides may have to purchase the over the shoulder lashes for the bino's ($15). Those will keep up with the glasses carefully shrouded and hold them from beating on rocks and hanging up in the brush. Resulting is a sidearm, whenever permitted to your realm. You will travel into prime mountain lion US. I pass on a. 45 titanium gun and it has put away my reality twice through discharging alert shots above charging lions.

I have in no way, shape or form killed one. (maybe a fate story?) I practically will now not move profound into the mountains without a sidearm and will now not grant looking accomplices to accomplish this both. At last you'll need a 2000-3000 cu. In. Rucksack with lashes a decent way of cutting and unclip the prongs onto the returned of the p. C.. In a perfect world, additionally a bladder repository with a bite tube for hydration.

Remember, the elements continually are pressed a long way from you and depending on the size of the prong, the button can likewise factor up or down... Make an effort not to permit the elements delve into your butt, or bang contrary to your head. I will convey (3-four) horns coming, then, at that point, one in each hand if I track down a genuine nectar opening. Your percent should comprise of: more prominent intense shell, in the event of inclimate climate, radios, if going with more than one individual (fundamental), headlamp, matches, map, gps (non-mandatory) first asset bundle, programming gadget like a leatherman, sunscreen, toilet paper, more liter of water and your lunch. In certain spaces, like the blue no man's land, I pass on a light-weight mountaineering bridle, more than one carabiners, rappel gadget and a hundred' length of static rappelling rope for buying myself out of muddled conditions. Studies the four basics 

You besides may might need to convey a gps and imprint the locale of your auto before you cross jogging into a distant spot. As you propose your elk horn shed hunting experience you should think about 4 basic things: wellbeing, get admission to, circumstances and territory. Any a hit shed looking through experience will require each of the four of those contraptions to be available. If best one basic component is missing, you might have practically zero favorable luck finding sheds and no doubt be skunked. Everything we're doing is expanding the likelihood of finding an elk horn shed in a given region.

Security I acknowledge as obvious with that elk horns are agonizing before they tumble off. There's no clinical confirmation that i'm mindful going to help my insight, however in any case I immovably trust this to be a verifiable truth. The degree of hurt can be exceptional for each bull elk, from a minor toothache to a filled with puss teeth. The degree of throb may likewise differ with age. Thus, require a moment and remember the manner in which you by and by experience while you're sick with a toothache, say maybe a root trench. Ordinarily, you wanted to unwind as a ton as could be expected, stay heat and secure, very little friendly touch, have water and food nearby method of, possibly rest somewhat more prominent than conventional. In particular, you truely don't have any desire to be upset. You simply need to get this over with and continue ahead with your reality.

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[techcrunchappcom]

New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/after-wolves-rebound-across-us-west-future-up-to-voters-national-news/

After wolves rebound across US West, future up to voters | National News

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) — The saucer-sized footprints in the mud around the bloody, disemboweled bison carcass were unmistakable: wolves.

A pack of 35 named after a nearby promontory, Junction Butte, now were snoozing on a snow-dusted hillside above the carcass. Tourists dressed against the weather watched the pack through spotting scopes from about a mile away.

“Wolves are my main thing. There’s something about their eyes — it’s mystifying,” said Ann Moore, who came from Ohio to fulfill a life-long wish to glimpse the animals.

Such encounters have become daily occurrences in Yellowstone after gray wolves rebounded in parts of the American West with remarkable speed following their reintroduction 25 years ago.

It started with a few dozen wolves brought in crates from Canada to Yellowstone and central Idaho. Others wandered down into northwest Montana. Thriving on big game herds, the population boomed to more than 300 packs comprising some 2,000 wolves, occupying territory that touches six states and stretches from the edge of the Great Plains to the forests of the Pacific Northwest.

Now the 2020 election offers an opportunity to jumpstart the wolf’s expansion southward into the heart of the Rocky Mountains. A Colorado ballot initiative would reintroduce wolves on the state’s Western Slope. It comes after the Trump administration on Thursday lifted protections for wolves across most of the U.S., including Colorado, putting their future in the hands of state wildlife agencies.

The Colorado effort, if successful, could fill a significant gap in the species’ historical range, creating a bridge between the Northern Rockies gray wolves and a small Mexican gray wolf population in Arizona and New Mexico.

“Colorado is the mother lode, the final piece,” said Mike Phillips, who led the Yellowstone reintroduction project and now serves in the Montana Senate.

WOLF FEARS IN COLORADO

Yet the prospect of wolves is riling Colorado livestock producers, who see the predators as a threat their forbears vanquished once from the high elevation forests where cattle graze public lands. Hunters worry they’ll decimate herds of elk and deer.

It’s a replay of animosity that broke out a quarter-century ago when federal wildlife officials released the first wolves into Yellowstone. The species had been annihilated across most of the contiguous U.S. in the early 1900s by government-sponsored poisoning, trapping and bounty hunting.

Initiative opponents have seized on sightings of a handful of wolves in recent years in northwestern Colorado as evidence the predator already has arrived and reintroduction isn’t necessary.

“We can live with a few wolves. It’s the massive amount that scares me,” said Janie VanWinkle, a rancher in Mesa County near Grand Junction, Colorado.

VanWinkle’s great grandparents shot wolves up until the early 1940s, she said, when the last wolves in Colorado were killed. The family runs cattle on two promontories with names from that era — Wolf Hill and Dead Horse Point, where VanWinkle said her great grandfather’s horse was killed by wolves while he was fixing a fence.

“I try to relate that to millennials: That would be like someone stealing your car,” she said. “He had to walk home 10, 15 miles in the dark, carrying his saddle, knowing there’s wolves out there. So of course they killed wolves on sight.”

Mesa County’s population has increased more than five-fold since wolves last roamed there, to more than 150,000, and VanWinkle sees little room for the animals among farms in the Colorado River valley and the growing crowds of backcountry recreationists on the Uncompahgre Plateau.

Colorado’s population is approaching 6 million — almost twice as much as Idaho, Montana and Wyoming combined — and is expected to surpass 8 million by 2040.

“Things have changed,” VanWinkle said.

The pack that showed up in northwest Colorado last year is believed to have come from the Northern Rockies through Wyoming, where wolves can be killed at will outside the Yellowstone region.

Even with protections under the Endangered Species Act, thousands of wolves were shot over the past two decades for preying on livestock and, more recently, by hunters.

YELLOWSTONE RECOVERY

But rancor that long defined wolf restoration in the region has faded somewhat since protections were lifted in recent years. Opponents were given the chance to legally hunt wolves, while advocates learned state wildlife officials weren’t bent on eliminating the animals from the landscape as some had feared.

“I’ve got a simple message: It’s not that bad,” said Yellowstone wolf biologist Doug Smith, who with Phillips brought the first wolves into the park in 1995 and has followed their impacts on the landscape perhaps as closely as anyone.

“I got yelled at, at public meetings,” he said. “I got phone calls: ‘They are going to kill all the elk and deer!’ Where are we 25 years in? We still have elk and deer.”

On a cold October morning, after examining remains of the bison eaten by the Junction Butte pack near a park road, Smith asked a co-worker to have the carcass dragged deeper into brush so it wouldn’t attract wolves and other scavengers that could be hit by a vehicle.

Later, as the sun struggled to break through cloud banks, he hiked up a trail in the park’s Lamar River valley to where the first wolves from Canada were released.

The animals initially were kept in a large outdoor pen to adjust to their new surroundings. The pen’s now in disrepair, sections of chain-link fence crushed by fallen trees. But Smith was able to show where wolf pups had once tried to dig their way out , and another spot outside the enclosure where some freed adult wolves had tried to dig back in.

All around were young stands of aspen trees. The area had been overgrazed by elk during the years when wolves and most grizzly bears and cougars were absent — direct evidence, Smith said, of the profound ecological impact from the predators’ return.

EUROPE DEBATES WOLF RETURN

Yellowstone’s experience with wolves has spurred debate among European scientists over whether a gradual comeback of wolves on the continent could also revitalize landscapes there, and be welcomed or at least tolerated by local people, said Frans Schepers, with Rewilding Europe, which works to restore ecosystems in multiple countries. There have been no European wolf reintroductions to date, but land-use changes coupled with fewer hunting and poisoning campaigns have allowed populations to begin rebounding naturally in several countries.

Since 2015, wolf packs that traveled over the Baltics have established three or four packs in the Netherlands and packs in neighboring Germany and Belgium. Government programs provide money for Dutch farmers to erect fences to deter wolves.

In the British Isles, where the last wolves were exterminated in the 1700s, a wilderness reserve in Scotland is seeking permission to bring wolves to about 78 square miles (200 square kilometers) of fenced enclosure to help control a runway deer population and draw tourists.

Alladale Wilderness Reserve owner Paul Lister views Yellowstone, where wolves controlled elk numbers, as a model.

“All the native predators are gone,” Lister said of the Scottish reserve.

THE BALLOT BATTLE

In Colorado, hunting outfitter Dean Billington foresees economic disaster if the 2020 wolf initiative passes. His Kremmling-based Bull Basin Guides & Outfitters is ideally situated for one of the state’s largest trophy elk herds, the White River elk herd. He estimates his firm alone spends more than $250,000 a year for hunting leases on ranches.

“They’re land wealthy and day-to-day poor,” Billington said of ranch owners. “This income keeps the western ranching guys afloat.”

The initiative calls for initially introducing 10 wolves annually by Dec. 31, 2023, with a goal of 250 wolves within a decade.

“You’re putting wolves in my backyard,” Billington said of supporters of the reintroduction initiative. “They say they’ll compensate for lost cattle and sheep, but how would it feel for these people in Denver if their dog in the back yard was mauled to death by the wolf and someone throws a few bucks at you to make you feel better?”

Rob Edward with the Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund, the group behind the initiative, sees reintroduction as a national rather than state issue since it involves public lands that account for 70% of western Colorado.

“Colorado’s public lands are diminished without wolves,” he said.

The Yellowstone experience is key to his group’s arguments: Reintroduction restores balance to the ecosystem, improves wildlife habitat and will benefit hunters by thinning out weaker prey.

Standing in the decaying pen where Yellowstone’s wolves got their start, Smith said that if the Colorado reintroduction initiative passes, success ultimately rests more on human tolerance than the animals’ proven biological resiliency.

“Don’t recover wolves unless there’s areas where you can leave them alone,” he said.

———

Anderson reported from Denver and Larson from Washington, D.C..

———

On Twitter follow Brown: @MatthewBrownAP; Anderson: @jandersonAP, and Larson: @larsonchristina

———

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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[animaltree]

Mexican Wolf

Mexican Wolf

The Mexican Wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) is the rarest, most genetically distinct subspecies of the Grey Wolf in North America.

Until recent times, the Mexican Wolf ranged the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts from central Mexico to western Texas, southern New Mexico and central Arizona.

By the turn of the century, the reduction of natural prey like deer and elk caused many Mexican Wolves to begin attacking domestic livestock, which led to intensive efforts by government agencies and individuals to eradicate the Mexican Wolf. Mexican wolves prefer to live in mountain forests, grasslands, and shrublands.

MEXICAN WOLF CHARACTERISTICS

The Mexican Wolf is also one of the smallest subspecies of North American grey wolves, reaching an overall length no greater than 135 centimetres whose maximum height is about 80 centimetres. The Mexican Wolf weight ranges from 27–45 kilograms. Mexican Wolves are the most endangered. Commonly referred to as ‘El lobo’, the Mexican wolf is grey with light brown fur on its back.

The Mexican Wolves have long legs and a sleek body which enables them to run very fast. The modeled grey appearance of the Mexican Wolf is excellent as a camouflage in the forested areas. The Mexican Wolf has a superior sense of smell. By traveling in packs, the Mexican Wolf ensures its safety and a higher chance of catching prey.

MEXICAN WOLF REPRODUCTION

Only the alpha pair in each pack breed each year. This occurs between January (at low latitudes) and April (at higher latitudes). A litter of 6 to 7 pups is born after a gestation period of about 63 days. The pups, which are born blind, are reared in a den composed of a natural hole or burrow. All members of the pack care for the pups, who are fed regurgitated meat after hunts.

Pups are weaned at about the fifth week and approach adult size by early winter. By autumn, pups are capable of traveling with the adults and the pack hunts as a unit throughout its territory. Mexican Wolf pups remain with the pack until they reach sexual maturity at about 2 years, after which they may leave to search for a mate and establish new territories, or remain in their pack as helpers. The approximate life span of the Mexican Wolf is 16 years in captivity, rather less in the wild.

MEXICAN WOLF DIET

Mexican wolves prey on white-tailed deer, mule deer and elk, however, they are also known to eat smaller mammals such as rabbits, ground squirrels and mice.

MEXICAN WOLF BEHAVIOUR

Wolves are very social animals. They live in packs, which are complex social structures that include the breeding adult pair (the alpha male and female) and their offspring. A hierarchy of dominant and subordinate animals within the pack help it to work as a unit. (For more information see Wolf Behaviour).

MEXICAN WOLF CONSERVATION

Humans and habitat destruction are the only major threats to wolves. In March 1997, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior authorized the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to begin reintroducing Mexican Wolves into the Blue Range area of Arizona. The overall objective of this program was to re-establish 100 Mexican Wolves in the Apache and Gila National Forests of Arizona and New Mexico by 2005. This has not been successful and the Mexican Wolf remains a critically endangered species with only 15 or less living in the wild today.

you may also like to read : Egyptain wolf

[backcountryquotes]

United States Forest Service, National Forest Vacations, 1973

Page 6: Even in Arizona’s high and dry desert country, spectacular National Forest lakes near Phoenix and Tucson have boomed boating and swimming into big business. Sailboats, speedboats, and excursion craft travel the waters of many other popular lakes on National forests, like Lake Chelan in Washington, an inland fiord tucked in between vertical cliffs. Some smaller lakes and parts of large lakes are reserved for motorless fishing boats only. The placid waters of swampland back country attract many visitors.

Page 16: Joining the East and West together are several historic “cross-country” trails now being studied for restoration and marking — the Lewis and Clark Trail, the Oregon Trail, the Santa Fe Trail, and a proposed new one, the North Country Trail. The first is the 4,600-mile route taken by the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-06 which explored the northwestern U.S. It leads from the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers near St. Louis across the Great Plains and the Rocky and Cascade mountains to the mouth of the Columbia River near Portland, Oregon. After following the Missouri River for nearly 2,500 miles into central Montana, the trail passes through several National Forests, including one named after Lewis and Clark. The route passes over lofty forested mountains and traces swift rivers. Less well-known but equally inviting are thousands of other trials that crisscross scenic back country of the National Forests throughout the United States.

Page 18: Almost 200,000 miles of forest development roads serve the 187 million acre National Forest System. These arterials are commonly designated as primary roads or forest highways and secondary roads. The latter branch off from the principal high-speed traffic arterials to tap resource management areas in the back country. Forest highways traverse the more scenic sections of National Forests and are designed and built by the Bureau of Public Roads. They meet commonly recognized standards that protect and enhance natural beauty.

Page 35: Six Rivers National Forest (966,000 acres). Eureka, Calif. Highways: US 101, 299; California 36, 96. Attractions: Giant coast redwood and fir forests stretching 135 miles south from the Oregon line. Klamath, Smith, Eel, and Mad Rivers. Mild, cool climate yearlong in redwoods; rugged back country. Trout fishing, spring and summer; steelhead and salmon fishing fall and winter in 6 rivers; deer and bear hunting; riding trails; scenic drives. Facilities: 28 camp and picnic sites, 2 picnic only. Resorts, hotels, cabins. Nearby towns, Arcata, Crescent City, Eureka, Fortuna, Klamath, Orick, and Orleans.

Page 38: Boise National forest (2,639,000 acres). Boise, Idaho. Highways: US 20, 30, 95; Idaho 15, 16, 17, 21, 52, 68. Attractions: Rugged back country including portions of Sawtooth Primitive Area. Abandoned mines and ghost towns. Scenes of early Indian camps and massacres. Virgin stands of ponderosa pine. …..

…….

Clearwater National Forest (1,678,000 acres). Orofino, Idaho. Highways: Idaho, 9, 11. Attractions: Famous Lolo Trail, Selway-Bitteroot Wilderness. Spring log drive on the Middle Fork and North Fork, Clearwater River; large stands of virgin white pine. Large timber operations. Trout and salmon fishing in back country. Hunting for elk, deer, bear. Lolo Pass Visitor Station. Scenic drives; North Fork and Lewis & Clark Highway. …..

…….

Kaniksu National Forest (1,622,000 acres — partly in Montana and Washington). Sandpoint, Idaho. Highways: US 95, 195, 10A, 2; Washington 6. Attractions: Rugged back country, Selkirk Mountain Range. Massive Pend Oreille Lake (Loop Drive, 107 miles); Priest Lake. Fully spell House, Clark Fork River; Roosevelt Ancient Grove of Cedars; Chimney Rock; …..

Page 51: Teton National Forest (1,701,000 acres). Jackson, Wyo. Highways: US 89, 187, 26, 287; Wyoming 22. 1. Attractions: Unspoiled scenic back country famous for big-game herds. Gros Ventre Slide; Gros Ventre, Teton, and Wind River Ranges; Continental Divide. Teton Wilderness; famous Jackson Hole country. …..

[topbreakingnews]

AZ Elk Society raises $30K at annual banquet - White Mountain Independent

New Post has been published on https://www.topbreaking.news/society/az-elk-society-raises-30k-at-annual-banquet-white-mountain-independent.html

AZ Elk Society raises $30K at annual banquet - White Mountain Independent

White Mountain Independent

AZ Elk Society raises $30K at annual banquet White Mountain Independent The White Mountain Chapter of the Arizona Elk Society works to raise funds for elk habitat and promote conservation and continuing the hunting heritage. The nonprofit organization was founded in Phoenix in 2001 and has since raised more than $5 million …

Read more…

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[buildercar]

New Post has been published on http://www.buildercar.com/roaming-with-buffalo-in-a-2017-audi-a4-allroad/

Roaming with Buffalo in a 2017 Audi A4 Allroad

It’s a good day to get lost out here,” Steve Dobrett says, his voice calm and comforting as it crackles over the radio. During his 24 years as the manager of New Mexico’s Ladder Ranch, he’s explored every inch of this 156,000-plus acre property. As he guides us to one of his favorite spots at the ranch’s north end, his white Chevrolet Silverado bounces over rocks that we edge around in our Gotland Green 2017 Audi A4 Allroad. The wagon’s ground clearance is good, but it’s no truck. Gray rain clouds hang low, and thick fog obscures the rutted two-track, so we take it slow as we scan the horizon for bison.

“Do you hear the music playing?” Dobrett jokes as we climb up and over a ridge and see some 200 bison huddled together, their damp, dark-brown fur matted and dripping. Dobrett comes to a stop but waves us on, telling us we can drive into the heart of the herd if we go slowly and keep quiet. The Allroad’s 252-horsepower, turbocharged inline-four faintly hums as the stout Michelin Defender LTX light-truck tires we strapped on for this trip delicately crush bushes and brush. When grunting bison fill each of the Allroad’s windows and mirrors, we turn off the engine, get out of the Audi, and lean against the driver’s door, listening to the deep, powerful breaths of the broadchested bovines.

Media mogul Ted Turner had the right idea buying this property in the early ’90s, wanting somewhere to kick back, hunt quail, and concentrate on his ongoing conservation efforts. Ladder Ranch sits just outside the small town of Truth or Consequences, which changed its name from Hot Springs in 1950 when the NBC Radio quiz show “Truth or Consequences” offered an annual party to any town that renamed itself after the program. The ranch rests in the foothills of the mountainous Black Range, with elevation spanning from 4,500 to 10,000 feet, and it shelters four tributaries of the Rio Grande river — the Animas, Seco, Palomas, and Cuchillo — which help support breathtaking biodiversity.

The Allroad feels surefooted on this red gravel trail. Its body stays composed as its suspension soaks up the washboard earth.

Turner’s then-wife Jane Fonda decorated the property’s adorable, two-story ranch house (Turner still visits often, and the house can be rented as part of a Ted Turner Expeditions experience), while he focused on creating a privately owned preservation for New Mexico’s flora and fauna. Throughout Ladder Ranch’s 245 square miles, you can see elk, deer, antelope, mountain lions, bears, buffalo, turkeys, and wolves wandering through cottonwoods and pines and across desert grasslands. There are even petroglyphs carved into rocks by ancient indigenous peoples. The rich habitat around Ladder Ranch allows at-risk species, such as leopard frogs and cutthroat trout, to survive and also helps healthy species thrive.

Turner brought in Dobrett — a respected biologist researching quail — from the outset to build up the property’s quail population as well as nurture habitats for other sensitive species. Dobrett started by removing 250 miles of perimeter fence so Turner could bring buffalo onto the property. Now, a quarter century later, Dobrett oversees a team of employees and a herd of more than 1,000 bison. “I never had any experience with bison when I came here,” he says. “Twenty-four years of handling buffalo has taught me a lot about that species. It’s been an all-around education to the facets of ranching and managing wildlife on the property.”

It’s hard to believe places like this exist. Staring out on the open expanses of land at Ladder Ranch is overwhelming, almost as overwhelming as standing in a herd of a couple hundred bison

Through the bison’s measured inhalations, we hear one sharp, snappy snort and turn to see a giant female with her tail pointed straight up. Dobrett says she probably thinks the Audi is a “critter” because of its peering, eye-like LED headlights and tells us to move slowly as we get back into the Allroad. We shift the wagon’s seven-speed automatic transmission into drive and begin to herd the bison, but it’s not long before they buck and run toward the hills where we can’t follow.

Ladder Ranch is lovely but also daunting, with the majority of its rugged terrain pretty much inaccessible to anything without hooves or paws. “There are about 500 miles of ‘road’ on the ranch,” Dobrett says. “We try to get out and clean them once a year if we can. Some of the roads, we don’t, and they’re not very passable.” It’s a 20-mile straight shot to Turner’s ranch house where we’re shacking up, but we’ll need most of the day to get there, winding our way up and down tight mountain passes, tiptoeing through deep creeks, and doing our best not to beach the Audi on a boulder. The Allroad’s plastic-covered belly can handle scratches from small stones and tall grass, but it’s best to avoid the big stuff.

The rain slows to a stop, and we set off south with Dobrett leading the way. The car’s adaptive dampers are set in off-road mode, and the Allroad feels surefooted on this red gravel trail. Its body stays composed as its suspension soaks up the washboard earth, and its rear end breaks loose and slides as we power out of slippery corners. Dobrett heads up a particularly steep stretch of road, and after the crest his taillights disappear in the fog. We charge after him but stomp on the brakes near the top, stopping to turn on hill-descent control, which holds the Allroad at a set speed. The ABS gnaws at the brake rotors as the car saunters down the slope at a steady 6 mph. We land in a stark, narrow offshoot of Cuchillo Creek, where the dried-up bed is a craggy mess of sharp stones and bulging landmasses laced in loose gravel. Worse yet, heavy mist has once again settled on top of us, so visibility is nil. We switch on the Allroad’s front and rear fog lights before crawling forward, getting out every few hundred feet to lift and heave particularly gnarly stones; the heated steering wheel, part of the $500 cold-weather package, is now much appreciated.

The Allroad shimmies as the tires claw at the glassy, muddy route, which thankfully turns to gravel when we eventually reach the top.

Slivers of sunlight leak through the overcast sky as we slowly make progress. We’re happy to have satellite radio playing through the wagon’s Bang & Olufsen audio system, the music helping to keep the mood light as we navigate the ranch’s remote and wild terrain. As the creek jogs left, the bed turns to soft, smooth sand that the Allroad plows across. “That should be the worst of it,” an apologetic Dobrett says. We begin to climb again, and as we snake up narrow passes, horses and stallions start to appear in the mist, steam shooting from their splayed nostrils. The clouds clear, and we see snowcapped mountains jutting up from the skyline, and in the foreground a huge herd of giant elk prances up the face of a verdant slope.

We stop on the spine of a tall hill, pull up Google Maps on the Allroad’s navigation system and confirm what we already know: We’re in the middle of nowhere. We stare out across the boundless landscape, appreciating the opposing color palette that seems like it shouldn’t blend together as well as it does. As we walk, we scoop up black, pearly white, and pink dirt sandwiched together like Neapolitan ice cream — an amazing soil variety the likes of which we’ve never seen before. We get back in and press on, but it’s not long before we stop again near the edge of Animas Creek, where Dobrett points toward a humongous tree with a thick trunk. “I like that tree,” he says looking up at its lanky branches, spinning and twisting out in every direction like long, white ribbons. “It’s mystical. It’s a mystery how these trees got here. It’s the only canyon in this drainage that has these Arizona sycamores. They’re more common west of Continental Divide, but for some reason we have them here. And they’re ancient trees.”

Back in the Audi we cross the first of about two dozen creeks that grow wider and deeper as we get closer to the ranch house. We enter each creek slowly, making sure the Audi won’t bottom out, then go flat out toward the far bank. The rushing water overwhelms the Allroad’s flared wheel wells, flies up, and lands on the windshield, causing the rain-sensing wipers to turn on. Fortunately the wagon has no issues fording the little rivers. “I know you’ve heard me say it before, but that should be the worst of it,” Dobrett says just as we come to an appropriately named pass called Greasy Hill. Not a minute after Dobrett jinxed us, we hit a slick patch of road that sends the Allroad into a four-wheel slide, and the passenger-side tires land in a deep rut on the edge of the trail. The wagon is fine, but we have to back down the hill to level ground and take another shot at the ascent. The Allroad shimmies as the tires claw at the glassy, muddy route, which thankfully turns to gravel when we eventually reach the top. Just below us is the white ranch house.

The Audi Allroad isn’t a rugged, do-it-all, off-road machine, but it doesn’t mind having some fun with a little light rock crawling. Who cares about a few scrapes on the underbelly of an all-wheel-drive wagon?

“I was concerned that we were going to tear up the car or get stuck where we’d blow a tire or bust something, but as it turns out, it performed just fine, especially in the rocks and mud,” Dobrett says as we drink coffee next to a hissing fireplace. “It just doesn’t have enough clearance.” Maybe not to make it across Ladder Ranch completely unscathed, sure, but the Allroad has plenty of clearance and absolutely enough talent to be considered a light off-road vehicle. Ladder Ranch turned out to be more treacherous than originally expected, but the Allroad handled it just fine, and its underbody has a few scars to prove it. The ranch’s chef, Tatsu Miyazaki, cooks us an unexpectedly luxurious meal that starts with salad and soup made from locally sourced, seasonable vegetables, moves to a perfectly cooked, prime cut of bison that comes from the same place that processes Turner’s herd, and ends with a delicious mousse sitting atop a frothing mixture of water and dry ice.

When we ask Dobrett what he’s going to do now after such a long tenure at Ladder Ranch, he says, “I’ll stay connected to this ranch as long as Ted wants me. I think it’s an example to others how a ranch can be managed, balancing commerce and conservation.” After a handshake, he tips his cowboy hat as a goodbye. We can barely keep our eyes open as we slink back toward the fire and collapse onto one of the house’s bison-fur rugs, rubbing our bare feet along the soft center. We smile as we drift to sleep, recalling the hauntingly beautiful sound of 200 bison taking deep, heavy breaths.

About Ladder Ranch Ladder Ranch is part of the larger Ted Turner Expeditions luxury travel experiences, featuring eco-conscious adventures individually tailored to guests interested in anything from mountain biking to bison photography to simply exploring the ranch’s 156,000 acres of unspoiled wilderness. A three-night expedition for two people with accommodations at Ted’s house starts at $9,000. Visit theladderranch.com.

2017 Audi A4 Allroad Specifications

ON SALE Now PRICE $44,950/$52,625 (base/as tested) ENGINE 2.0L turbo DOHC 16-valve I-4/252 hp @ 5,000-6,000 rpm, 273 lb-ft @1,600-4,500 rpm TRANSMISSION  7-speed automatic LAYOUT 4-door, 5-passenger, front-engine, AWD wagon EPA MILEAGE 23/28 mpg (city/hwy) L x W x H 187.0 x 72.5 x 58.8 in WHEELBASE  110.9 in WEIGHT 3,825 lb 0-60 MPH  5.9 sec (est) TOP SPEED  130 mph

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