Flying vs driving

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casjoker

casjoker

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Heading to Utah, Uinta Mountains in early September for an archery elk hunt. I have been researching flying and it seems to be a bit of a pain. Weight and size limits, extra fees for bags, hard-to-get answers from ticketing agencies, recent news stories about canceled flights, etc are making me consider driving. There will be 3 maybe 4 of us to share the driving and it looks to be about 24-hour drive. The plan would be to drive straight through. I personally drive 15-18 hour trips several times a year but the other guys have never driven more than 5ish hours from home. Not sure how they will tolerate the drive. Taking a 2500 GMC crew cab if I drive.

Advantages to driving: Haul the gear we need, cost; $1200ish in diesel split 3 ways vs plane tickets/car rental and maybe at least one night in a hotel, and have my own truck.
Disadvantage: Unexpected delays (mechanical, traffic, weather, jail): Sleep will be crappy and minimal so probably not in the best shape to start a 7 day sleeping on the ground trip. Possibly lose 1/2 day of scouting/hunting on the front end.

So those of you who have experience flying how much of a pain is it with hunting gear?
 
TNRifleman said:
I would 100% drive it. Have done 22 hours out west before and we now do 18 each year. If you need help making he decision, research how much it costs to ship meat and antlers back to this side of the MS.
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I would agree. There is no way I would fly out for a trip like this.
 
I went to Wyoming last year. I was going with a buddy from KC, I got my stuff to his house a few weeks prior to leaving and hopped a plane to KC on the day we left. It cut some of the trip out and saved a day driving for me. If we had shot anything he had room to store the meat until we made arrangements to get it back to me.

This plan also works if one or two of the people can get a days head start on the rest of the crew and drive and the others fly into a city along the path. We have been in situations before where one guy has to work one more day than the rest of the crew and instead of waiting for him we took off a day early and he flew and met us. We hauled his stuff and he just flew with a backpack.
 
Both have benefits. You can drop ship meat. Cheap igloo coolers on a pallet dry ice is fairly common in the west I've seen the guys running deep freezes unless it is used as a cooler it wouldn't be for me.
 
I'd drive.....with 3 guys...two stay awake and one sleep.... marathon driving we call it...if you have 4 guys it will be hard for anyone to really stretch out and sleep.....stop for fuel and bathroom only.
But....that truck will be packed with gear...never enough room....so if successful and you have multiple elk to haul back....plan on renting a uhaul trailer for the return trip...the extra room is nice for coolers, bags, etc.....no doubt I'd drive.
 
Solo - fly
3-4 guys - drive

If you're going with guys that hardly ever get more than 5 hours from their homes, I'd be more worried about them getting home sick and wanting to bail halfway through the trip; than I would on whether they can drive 24 hours. I'm speaking from experience.
 
Drive, but if any way possible, break up the trip into two days. Driving from CO to MS I have done many 16hr drives, and that is tough. I've pulled a camper 23 hrs straight before, and by the time I reached my destination, I fell like I had been on a 3 day drunk. It took me a couple days to get over it. If your young, you will probably be fine.. If your older, it will be probably be harder on you. .
 
Thanks for the advice. I didn't even factor in the cost of the shipping meat if we get lucky vs loading up a bunch of coolers in a truck. This is our first time so I will be happy to just see a few within bow range.

I drive to 99% of my destinations whenever possible but they want to fly and rent a truck there which seems a little backward in my mind. Rent a truck for a week for $800 to have it sit at a trailhead for 5 days.

Yes, my one concern about fitness is our base elevation will be at 10,000'. I have done a lot of hiking with a heavy ruck but it's always been 8,000' or lower which I never had an issue with.
 
We'll be driving again this year. 17 hours to Denver, stay the night in a hotel, then 4 hours to our hunting location. Usually we get there around noon and have the rest of the day to scout.
 
The one time I Fed Ex an elk home it was over $400.

Also going to Colorado I always make Hays, KS first day. About 15 hours but makes next day short. When younger my hunting buddy & I drove straight thru to Idaho once & Montana once. Believe MT was around 40 hrs as nearly on Canada border
 
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Buzzard Breath said:
Solo - fly
3-4 guys - drive

If you're going with guys that hardly ever get more than 5 hours from their homes, I'd be more worried about them getting home sick and wanting to bail halfway through the trip; than I would on whether they can drive 24 hours. I'm speaking from experience.
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This.
 
We shipped expedite with southwest motor freight. It was about 300.00 but had two elk on it and it beat us home even though we were pretty sure we left first
 
I've made the drive from Wy (22 hrs) and Mt (24hrs) Straight through with just two of us switching up driving. Not a lot of fun, but that's the way to get gear and animals back.
 
We drive it every year. I have never priced flying a hay burning mule from middle Tn to Craig Colorado. We take WAY to much stuff to fly….way to much
 
Well, I was outvoted 2-1 add the wife being ticked about not having the truck around in case she "needed" it and we are flying. Knoxville to Denver round trip $450 per person and $35 per check 50lbs bag. Another $700 for a rental once there puts me around $720 to get there and back. Oddly, flying vs driving we don't gain anytime on the sound one vs the other. Hopefully, it goes well. I told them if we do it again next year we are driving then we can compare the two experiences.
 
Ive driven back from Yellowstone with a 6 month old baby, drove straight through. If you can do that you can drive anywhere, lol.

I prefer to drive and prefer to drive straight through, maybe a power nap at a rest stop, but if the other person wants to get a shower and hotel on the way back Im usually game. I personally hate getting to the airport, dealing with that and then dealing with a rental...it never seems to go smooth. Flying also has a way of wearing me out, I just feel like "blah" after a flight.
Driving to that elevation has an advantage too. You slowly acclimate to it, might not make a difference for you but it could also make all the difference in the world.

Best of luck and hopefully you guys do it again next year. Make sure to share your story with us here too!
 
Pluses and minuses with each.

Like said before... solo... fly, no question; 2 people, drive it straight through taking turns sleeping.

That being said, my son and I are flying to Wyoming this Sept for antelope. First of all, I'm not quite comfortable with him driving exhausted on his turns behind the wheel. Second, it's just so easy to kill an antelope, pick the best 50lbs of meat to freeze in a cooler, then check the cooler as your 2nd checked bag on the airline to bring back with you.
 
When I took my oldest daughter to hunt in Wyoming, I drove. She was 14. We stayed in Nebraska on the way, got up and went on into South Dakota and visited Mount Rushmore and drove in into Wyoming. We hunted 5 days. The last day, I killed my antelope mid morning and we wrapped it up. Got up at about 4 am, we were pulling out about 5 am. I drove straight through from Gillette Wyoming back to West Tennessee, took about 20 hours to get home. We had a mule deer and two goats in the coolers on dry ice and the capes. Also had elk and deer sheds I picked up off the ranch that I was ok'd to bring home. With all our clothes and gear it was tight. Had I taken a deer, it would have been really tight, but I am sure we would have made it fit.

When I go back, I will drive.
 
casjoker said:
Well, I was outvoted 2-1 add the wife being ticked about not having the truck around in case she "needed" it and we are flying. Knoxville to Denver round trip $450 per person and $35 per check 50lbs bag. Another $700 for a rental once there puts me around $720 to get there and back. Oddly, flying vs driving we don't gain anytime on the sound one vs the other. Hopefully, it goes well. I told them if we do it again next year we are driving then we can compare the two experiences.
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With as screwed up as airlines are now, not sure I'd fly anymore if they gave me the plane 😂

Few weeks ago it took my daughter 45 hours to fly from Nashville to Anchorage, due to cancellations. Last weekend my granddaughters flight from Charlotte to Huntsville was cancelled twice. Friday 6:30 PM, 7:00 Sat AM & finally got out at 1:00 PM Saturday.

Good luck with trip & enjoy the experience!
 
I see you're flying. Good luck and post pics.

For me, driving is the way to go. Done solo hunts to Crested Butte CO, Firth NE, Greybull WY, and others. Although the trip back from Greybull had a 5 day stopover for whitetail in SD. Doesn't really save money to fly when you factor in the rental vehicle.
 
I did the 30 hour drive to Idaho a couple of years ago with my wife. Never regretted it. Flying adds a lot of cost if you achieve what you're setting out to do, not to mention the risk of delays and cancellations these days.
 

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