Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting What is a bench? (in reference to finding elk)

can someone post a few pictures of what a bench would look like out in the mountains? I see it referred to a lot when reading up on looking for elk but I haven't been able to figure it out. Even my climbing/hiking buddies haven't been able to answer this one for me.

Same thing as a shelf if you are from the East

It's just an area up on the side of a mountain where it's more less flat.

Flat area on the side of the mountain that follows the contour of the mountain at the same elevation. IE: you can walk it, ride it, etc and not go uphill nor downhill. Deer, elk, humans, all will follow benches as they allow an efficient, energy saving, means of getting from point A to point B. As long as you are learning about hunting benches, pay close attention to "saddles" too!

A near level area surrounded by steeper terrain. Typically favored bedding/resting areas. I have better luck on elk approaching them from above. Coming from below they spot me first.

Other western words which you should familiarize your self with are: saddle, draw, gulch, coulee, butte, mesa, and arroyo.

Bells in the shoe laces till past the croud.

Bells in the shoe laces till past the croud.

Crap oops.

I learned a new use for the word "Park" while hunting in Colorado.

If hunting west of Boulder, add 'Subaru' to your vocabulary.....

Here is a natural 'bench' in a steep 'drainage', it can't be seen unless you are on it and has a 'seep' below.

It's about a half acre and the biggest 'bench' in the whole 'cut'.

Not to be confused with a 'dish' or 'bowl'.

The last picture shows the steepness of the drainage and the bench is straight across and a bit lower on the opposite side.

That elk was on the side of a 'bluff' under a 'saddle' in the 'scrub oak' glassed from the 'bench'...

Kent

Photo 1. This is an area where elk hang out. The photo point had a small 6x6 standing in it a few hours before. This is an area where motorized travel is not allowed, and would be difficult even if it were. The red arrows indicate benches that are good places to find bedded elk. Note that these timber-covered areas are north-facing slopes. The yellow arrow points to a saddle. The blue indicates a ridge point where one might find a solitary bedded bull. The open meadow areas are called �parks� in some areas. North of this photo point there are more timber covered benches and ridgetops where one would also look for elk after daylight.



Photo 2. From the same elk�s perspective shows two saddles with elk paths leading through them. The large bench indicated by the red arrow is a well-used bedding area. Early in the season, when the locale has not yet been pressured too much, one might find bedded elk in the timber patch in the foreground. Approaching bedding areas from above gives the hunter an advantage, as mentioned, for a couple reasons: 1) elk tend to bed where they can see downhill where they expect danger, and 2) thermals, once the day warms, will tend to flow upslope, carrying a hunter�s scent upward to bedded elk. Particularly in the mountain west, thermals form pretty reliably on most days, and upwind-downwind is often downslope-upslope.

I think I understand a saddle to be the lower area between 2 mountains, peaks or hills, is that correct?

Yep. Even a shallow dip on a ridgeline.

eastern vocabulary will differ somewhat from western.
some terms like park or coulee arent used there for example.
not all eastern mountains have benches either. some go straight to the top without any level spots at all. some however have pronounced benches or level areas at several locations between the bottom and the ridgeline. they usually
run paralel to the ridgeline. other eastern terms would be
(point) meaning where the mountain would change direction. you would go around the point to get on the opposite side for example another would be (hollow) meaning an indentation or change of contour on the mountainside.

I grew up in Florida, I can tell you about the swamp and I can tell you about the ocean, but mountains...not so much as I've only been learning for about 2 years now.

Ridge, dish, cut, bluff, chute, bench, plateau, saddle, slide, bowl, cliff, trough, escarpment, finger, flats, meadow, face, wash, dip, canyon, ditch, stairstep, burn...

Don't walk on the ridge or you'll be skylined. Sidehill under the bluff on the trail, checking the benches stairstepped below the escarpment for bedded elk. When you come to the turn you'll find a slide below the saddle with a cut making a chute with a finger on each side of the wash. Glass the flats with the meadow and the plateau with the trough cutting a ditch through it. On the opposite face there is a dish and bowl beneath it with an old burn.

If all else fails cross the plateau to the canyon... if you kill one there... take a knife, fork, months supply of toilet paper...

you'll have to eat it and chit it down there.

Kent

WTF is a 'escarpment'? A place to hang scaly fishies?

by the way, you forgot 'rim'.....