A perfect cool, dry, windless morning greeted us as three German shorthair pointers bounded out of the dog box trailer and quickly coursed across a grassy field.  The sun was high and bright over Utah; the distant background of towering rock bluffs and buttes was as magnificent as any scenery in North America.  I couldn’t take my eyes off the surreal desert landscape.  It was mostly devoid of foliage like the moon, but uniquely beautiful.  Multi-hue rock mountains changed colors in minutes as the sun rose and light reflected differently upon them.  Incredible, magnificent.

Before I could comment on the morning and picturesque scenery, my hunting partner Joe Arterburn of Cabela’s yelled, “Point,” and I looked up to see all three dogs head-high in grass, locked-up rigid and solid as statues.

I moved quickly beside Joe, as the shorthairs quivered, but held.  We moved in from behind the dogs, and the world blew up, as three chukar partridges launched from the grass.  I picked out a bird, my .28 gauge Fausti over-under barked and the chukar crumbled.  As I turned to another bird, a fourth partridge that had been holding tight after the initial flush, vaulted up, so close I thought it might fly up my pants leg.

I gathered my wits, turned on the fourth chukar, picked it up with the Fausti, and the second tube of the fast-handling, lightweight gun connected with the bird.  Before I could check with my companion Joe, one of the shorthairs was at my feet with the first bird; and a second dog was following with my up-the-pants-leg chukar.

“What a way to start a bird hunt,” I stammered to Joe, as I saw him picking up his second retrieved chukar. And that’s the way the next three hours were spent, as we walked and hunted chukars and pheasants behind outstanding shorthairs on part of 12,000-acres owned and managed by Castle Valley Outdoors (www.castlevalleyoutdoors.com). 

Located in the middle of moonscape nowhere, Castle Valley is an oasis for outdoorsmen, especially, bird hunters.  Closest town is Emery.  The swank lodge and hunting operation is a three-hour drive southeast of Salt Lake City, 150 miles northeast of Las Vegas, and 175 miles west of Grand Junction, Colorado. 

Castle Valley offers a wide variety of outdoor activities, including elk, mule deer, bear and cougar hunting; mountain lake fishing for cutthroat trout; hiking and mountain biking; and sightseeing.  While sightseeing may not sound too entertaining to hard-core hunters and widely traveled outdoorsmen, the area is loaded with large and vivid Native American pictographs and petroglyphs.  The primitive rock wall art is something to behold.

This region of America has few people, abundant wildlife, and scenery as good as it gets.  Oh, did I mention the pheasant, chukar and quail hunting is world class, too?
   
In the Photo: A ringneck flushes over Joe Arterburn in picturesque Castle Valley, Utah.