For many in Wyoming, hunting is a way of life. To hike into the bleak wilderness, scrambling over rugged terrain and scaling steep slopes to glass for game, and to finally find and acquire the perfect target is almost a rite of passage for many Wyoming teens.
But sometimes, life takes away the ability to scramble and scale—even to hold a rifle-–and with it, the dream of the hunt.
Enter Wyoming Dream Hunts, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that arranges hunting expeditions for kids with disabilities and life-threatening illness, including one deserving Powell High School freshman.
It was this organization that presented PHS freshman Gonzalo Anzurez with the opportunity to go on one of these dream hunts. Anzurez was left paralyzed after a tragic motor vehicle accident in August 2024, when the car he was traveling in struck a street sweeper.
Before the accident, Gonzalo enjoyed hunting in his free time. He completed classes to receive his hunter’s safety in fifth grade, and after filling his deer tag in seventh grade, he was looking forward to bagging an elk next.
Tev Kelley is the founder of Wyoming Dream Hunts, and he was Anzurez’s hunting guide. He said, “[The hunt] was amazing. Gonzalo is so shy at first, but once he opens up, he’s hilarious.”
The hunt began early in the morning on Saturday, Oct. 18, as the hunting party, including Gonzalo, his cousin Ryan Rivas, mom Cindy Anzurez, guide Tev Kelley and others, traveled to a northwest Wyoming ranch near Carter Mountain. Right from the start, they could hear the high-pitched bugling and chirping of the elk.
“We had to leave around 4:30 Saturday morning,” Anzurez said. “We arrived at around 6:30 in the morning, and then we staked out for a while before… we went back to town to recharge, get a couple bites of food and then go back out hunting.”
Once they arrived back at the ranch, the elk were grazing in the treeline, so they waited for a few hours before a bull elk came into shooting range.
“The stable ground was flat enough that take my chair over some of the grass,” Anzurez said. “I did need some assistance going through some of the taller grass.”
Using a custom 7LRM outfitted with a straw-activated trigger, Anzurez saw his target. From 340 yards away, he took down a bull elk.
“It was exciting, but also nerve-racking because the timing had to be right,” senior Ryan Rivas said. “There was only five minutes before the end of shooting light.”
After staking out all day, the long wait paid off. Anzurez completed his dream elk hunt.
“After it happened, I was super excited and happy for him,” Rivas said. “He had wanted to do that for a couple of years.”
Since Kelley founded Wyoming Dream Hunts in 2022, guides take about five kids each year on elk, deer, and pronghorn hunts. The organization is funded by local donors, including the Wyoming Outdoorsman, of which Kelley is also a member.
“I couldn’t be more proud of this kid,” Kelley said. “Gonzolo’s quick-witted humor, big smile, and his never-quit attitude will bring him to amazing places in this life!”