Here's a snippet from the most recent article I wrote. The main part is about Frank Ferguson's 227" buck, taken in 2007 on the late eastside hunt. -TONY
****
ABOUT THE KAIBAB
The Pah Ute Indians called the North Kaibab Plateau the "mountain lying down."
Bordered on the south by the Grand Canyon and near desert on the other sides, the plateau rises like a tree-covered sky island from a sea of sand and rocks. To the east lies Houserock Valley, and to the west sits the somewhat barren Arizona Strip country.
Elevations on the Kaibab vary from 3,000 feet to more than 9,000 on V.T. Ridge, the highest point. Ponderosa pines, aspen, spruce and fir grow at the higher elevations. Pinion pines, junipers and cedars dominate the lower ridges and canyons, which run off the plateau like the spokes of a wheel. In between, the transitional zones offer plenty of oaks and mixture of all the above.
Since the huge crash of the deer herd in the 1920s and 1930s, the Kaibab has often experienced widely fluctuating deer numbers. Despite the problems, though, the Kaibab has maintained its reputation as Arizona?s big buck factory. The major records books list many typical and non-typical deer from past decades, and almost every year a few more get added.
Old-timers who had hunted there the 1940s and 50s commonly recounted tales of hundreds of deer migrating in single file down from Big Saddle and Sowats Point on the west or into Potato Canyon to the east after a big snowfall. They fondly referred to those times as the REAL glory years of the Kaibab.
The deer stay at the high elevations during the summer and early fall months, but when the snow flies and temperature drops, thus freezing the deer? favorite foods at the higher elevations, they head down to the lower ranges. By late November or early December, most of them have moved into the canyons and brushy pockets formed by the cedar-covered ridges that lead down to the flats.
For more than a decade now, a drought in the West has caused declines to the mule deer populations in several states, including Arizona, but the deer on the North Kaibab Plateau have done comparatively well. One reason has been the heavy snows that have kept the habitat at the higher elevations in decent shape.
One concern of the Arizona Game and Fish Department has been the area in and around the site of the Bridger-Knoll forest fire that occurred several years ago. Consisting of mostly juniper-pinyon vegetation, the area that burned is within the prime wintering grounds for the deer that migrate westward. Even though it's recovering nicely now, the game department has been micro-managing it with various junior hunts for antlerless deer. The purpose is simple: keep the numbers down until the habitat fully recovers.
As part of its Wildlife 2006 strategic plan, the department's top priority is managing the Kaibab deer herd with a main goal of quality. More specifically, the aim is having fewer hunters, higher success rates for the early season and better-than-average chances to kill a wall-hanger buck. An increase in the buck-to-doe ratio toward the objective set by the strategic plan is one of the management keys the agency is using.
In 2007, the combined total for permits for the Oct. and Nov. seasons on the west side was 825. The two seasons for the east side totaled 225 permits. The success rates in 12AEast were 44 percent for the early season and 84 percent for the late hunt. In 12AWest, they were 55 and 72 percent respectively.
Highway 67, which goes from Jacob Lake to the north rim of the Grand Canyon, provides access to many logging roads at the higher elevations. It also passes through the area where the Warm fire burned nearly 40,000 acres of the deer?s summer range in 2006.
On the east side, the road (FS445) from State Highway 89 to the Houserock Ranch area skirts alongside some of the better low-country habitat, and the Eastside Game Trail (FS220) goes northwest from the Houserock Road into prime hunting country. All the ridges in this area can be productive during the late hunt if there's snow high up.
On the west side, the road (FS422) to Big Springs, which originates near Fredonia, is also accessible from Jacob Lake via FS461 and FS462. From there, a literal maze of lesser roads can be found.