1921 Passaic Road · Clearmont, WY  82835 · (307) 736-2277 · grizout@vcn.com

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The boss making his rounds

I love going to the mountain cabin!

Look, I'm driving this thing.

Kale receiving his American FFA Degree.

Kale & Kade Showing Lambs at Fair

The Three K's

Saddle Up Kade

Kale Roping

Cole and Cody

Mule Deer Buck

Nice Bull!

Sidewalk Turkeys

Nice Mulie Buck!

Cole

Cody

ABOUT US

Cole D. Benton
Grizzly Outfitters, LLC
1921 Passaic Road, Clearmont, WY 82835
Telephone: (307) 736-2277 · e-mail:
grizout@vcn.com

  1. Life Member and Past President - Wyoming Chapter, Wild Sheep Foundation
  2. Life Member of Grand Slam Club/Orvis
  3. Life Member - National Wild Sheep Foundation
  4. Member of WYOGA (Wyoming Outfitters and Guides Association)
  5. Member of MOGA (Montana Outfitters & Guides Association)
  6. Member BOW (Bowhunters of Wyoming)
  7. Life Member - North American Hunting Club
  8. Member Buffalo and Sheridan RMEF and NRA
  9. Member, Buffalo Lions Club - Received Gold Lion Award, 2009

Cole, Elaine & Cody

Grizzly Outfitters, LLC is owned and operated by Cole and Elaine Benton for the last 37 years. Our son Tyler works alongside us and manages the Squaw Creek part of the operation. When not guiding hunters, Tyler is ranch manager for his in-laws Cross H Ranch.  His wife Jackie works for CASA in Buffalo.

The spring and summer of 2023 in our region was blessed with an abundance of moisture and run off water for the reservoirs.  The grass was belly deep for the cattle and wildlife.  The horn growth was awesome compared to the past two years of drought.  We had several milestones this past year. In March we traveled to Des Moines, Iowa and Grizzly Outfitters was awarded “A Living Legend of FNAWS” plaque for our years of hunting donations for their fundraiser going towards  “Putting Sheep on the Mountain”. Our oldest grandson Kale attended Casper College majoring in Animal Science and was awarded a scholarship on the livestock judging team. He has traveled the country attending different livestock shows throughout Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, Oklahoma, & Tennessee to mention a few.  In July we took the grandkids to Alaska fishing and had a wonderful family time.


"I've got this flying down pat."

August was the Johnson County Fair and grandson Kade took the honor of Reserve Grand Champion Market Beef award. His lambs received several ribbons also. His 2024 lamb and beef projects are looking great and his hours of hard work with them will surely pay off come fair time again.  The boys have become quite the entrepreneurs starting their own business, KNK Livestock.  Their flock of ewes has grown and they sell lambs to other 4-H’ers.  They participated in the WY State Fair with their 4-H and FFA livestock projects. Kade is now the main hunter of the family as he harvested an awesome bull elk, whitetail deer, cow elk and antelope.  Kale was in school traveling much of the fall and he had very little time to go hunting, but did harvest a cow elk. Granddaughter Kenna turned one this year and loves going to daycare and playing with her little friends.

Our daughter Lacey works as office manager for Zowada Plumbing in Sheridan.  Her husband Fred works as a diesel mechanic and helps with heavy duty recovering of big rigs for All Valley Diesel.  They help with running errands and purchasing supplies throughout the year.  I rarely have time to run to town for groceries during our 110 plus days of hunting.


Jackie, Tyler, Kale and Kade


Kade and Jordan

Kade's Antelope

Kale's Muley

Cold morning for cow hunting

Kade's Monster Whitetail


Cole at work in the winter time.

New sign Kale made for Cole


Kade and his FFA team wins state event.

Kade's Overall Grand Champion Market Steer

Kade's Grand Champion Market Steer


Kale Moving Cattle

Tyler and Kale Team Roping


Helping dad load up cow elk


The End


The Docking Crew


Kit Foxes on the Ranch


Tyler's 2013 Bighorn Ewe


Tyler's Dall Sheep


Tyler's 2011 Bighorn Sheep


Partners Profile with Cole Benton
Donating Elk Passion

     Cole Benton glances at the frustrated girl, Baileigh Rodriguez, trudging along beside him. She's worn out from the hiking and disappointed at the shot she missed earlier. It's 2008 and they're following elk across some Wyoming hills near Arvada.

     "You want to know the good news?" Benton asks, his voice low.  She looks up at him, curious despite her disheartened demeanor. He tells her, "Sure if you miss the elk, we both have to walk back. But if you make this next shot, I have to walk all the way back to the pickup and you get to rest here with your elk the whole time."

     A big smile spreads across the Rodriguez face and his words give her the motivation she needs. Pretty soon, she's shot herself an elk and Benton has started trekking back to the truck, albeit with a grin of his own.

     "The one thing you never get over is the look on a 12 year old kid's face when he walks up to his very first elk," says Benton.  He ought to know, since he's donated and guided more than 20 elk youth hunts in only the last two years through his business, Grizzly Outfitters.

     With the hunts lasting up to three days, Benton manages the impossible - finding enough time and energy for all of them.  "We take these kids out and we work off our hind-ends for them, but it's such a great feeling that when you finish, you just want to start all over again."  Benton volunteers his time and resources to make the hunts as costless as possible for the kids.  Including the 15 future hunts for this fall, Benton will have donated about the equivalent of $50,000.

     Others have caught on to Benton's generosity, offering their help in producing the youth elk hunts. Four ranches, Padlock Ranch, Buffalo Creek Red Angus, Sheridan Ranches, and the OW Ranch lend their land to Benton for the elk hunts, free of charge.  Jeff Shelley, with Big Horn Meat Cutting, offers some free meat processing to the kids.  Benton says their help is "instrumental" to the youth elk hunts.  Benton donates many of his hunts directly to the kids and even the organizations that sell the donated elk hunts use most of the proceeds for youth oriented projects, such as hunter safety courses.

     Benton believes a relationship with wildlife goes two ways, "You take from the wildlife and you give back."  For seven years Benton has worked as president and vice president of the Wyoming Chapter of the North American Wild Sheep Foundation, and he's been on the organization's board for 12 years.

     "Cole Benton is a rancher and an outfitter that has helped wildlife more than most wildlife professionals and I'm very proud to have him as both a Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation supporter and my friend, says Rick Pallister, the Wyoming Regional Director, who has worked with Benton on the RMEF banquets and other events.  Four generations of Bentons actively support RMEF, from Cole's wife, Elaine, to his father, to his son Tyler and wife down to his little grandkids.

     Benton has guided hunts since the age of seventeen and run the Grizzly Outfitters for the last twenty years, serving delicious home cooked meals alongside its great hunts.  When the Game and Fish put pressure on Benton and his partner landowners because of the increasing elk population, Benton reacted with the idea of the youth elk hunts and he soon talked others into the idea.  As the elk numbers increased, so did the number of interested kids.  "I didn't really intend for it to get this big," Benton says, "But I haven't really found a decent place to stop.

     The Grizzly Outfitters donated hunts to just about everywhere, including the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.  He donates to three different RMEF chapters in Wyoming, to two chapters of the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, to Montana youths through the Game and Fish and directly to youths from Wyoming and other states.  The Buffalo Chapter of RMEF uses an essay contest to select the receiver of the elk youth hunt.

     Stephen Wadsack, one of the essay contest winners, says that initially Benton appeared a little scary.  "We had to show up there in the really early morning and meet him at a sign near the road.  It was still dark out and he drove up, all alone, in his pickup."  However, Wadsack has good memories of the Grizzly Outfitters and remembers Benton immediately sharing entertaining stories about his own hunting experiences and warmly welcoming the boy into elk hunting.

     Wadsack was especially impressed with Benton's investment in the elk hunt.  "Cole was someone who I'd never met before, but he cared about me getting that experience so much.  He went far above and beyond what he had to do," Stephen says, and this holds true for all of the elk youth hunts that Benton guides.

     "He cared a lot about what was going on, and made sure we were in the right place, that we had a nice good shot, and that it was just really fun," says Baileigh Rodriguez, the girl that Benton offered motivation to last year.  She had never hunted before, but she loved hunting with Benton.  "Just the way he knew hot the animals moved, and where they moved, and where you could approach them, it was awesome.  Cole Benton knows a lot about what he's doing."


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Grizzly Outfitters, LLC
1921 Passaic Road, Clearmont, WY  82835 ∙ Telephone: (307) 736-2277 ∙ e-mail:
grizout@vcn.com

© 2005, Grizzly Outfitters, LLC