Planning a hunt in CO 55 near Fossil Wilderness

[NebraskaStickHunter]

Please don't roast me for asking some questions just trying to gain some knowledge of the area and any pointers beyond they are everywhere. I am looking at coming in to the fossil wilderness area on the northeast side around crystal creek. Looking a topo maps there is ridge west of there running N-S with cross mountain (private looks like). There is going to be 4 of us looking at doing a bivy style hunt working in pairs trying to locate and not scare the elk into the next basin. If anyone has insight on this area, it would be appreciated. Or should I look at other areas within like Collegiate Peaks or Maroon Bells for wilderness areas? Thanks and we are archery hunting by the way last week of the season, 15-23rd.

 

[Thomas11]

I’ve bowhunted this unit twice. I’ve wanted to venture into fossil ridge but haven’t yet. It’s very big country! Until u see it, words can’t describe the mountains in this unit. U have to choose a good route into the backcountry here as literally some mountains u just can’t go up. My initial impression on fossil ridge is it’s pretty timbered and would make glassing hard. I think the elk stay up at timberline in archery it seems in this unit. I’ve hunted in the collegiate peak wilderness once. U can PM me

 

[chindits]

Fossil Ridge is just a weird wilderness and I haven't hunted it in about 25 years, so don't expect anything I say to be how it is now. It really has never grown on me probably because it is such a small wilderness in a big GMU, and also there are so many vantage points that you can see nearby houses be it Taylor, Lost Canyon, or Pitkin. You can hear the outfitter that bought Nelson's outfit on a podcast. I was impressed at how honest he was about what realistic expectations should be for a bull in Fossil Ridge, as in be happy with a small one. It has a weird feel to me compared to the rest of 55, just that above timberline stuff isn't like the grassy forb covered high alpine else where in 55. The bottom of Crystal where it dumps into Taylor is private. You could side hill around it, but your going to be in for a workout. You can still make out the old trail in parts of the bottom of Crystal, but it hasn't been used in a long time. There was an outfitter camp in those big meadows just west of Crystal Creek that you are seeing on google earth and imagining elk frolicking about. He has an undesignated trail coming in from the south west if I recollect right. There is a trail just east of Crystal, I think Summerville trail, but I can't say I ever found an easy sneak into Crystal bottom. You better like hunting dry lodgepole, because that is what I mostly remember of that area. Not much help, sorry. It's just a weird place that never should have gotten a Wilderness designation IMO.

I do know of an area where there were actually some big bulls in 55, but the area gets hunted hard and if it wasn't for my game camera photos I wouldn't of believed it if someone just told me about them. Don't be surprised to run into other hunters. In Gunnison Basin GMU 55 is the street corner whore of OTC hunters and the number of archery tags they give out for that unit is crazy.

 

[NebraskaStickHunter]

Thanks for the knowledge so far, I was drawn to this unit because it was a draw unit with decent bull ratio so we are looking for chance more than inches. I hoped the pressure may be less without the otc unit having potential for vast numbers of hunters swarming the area.

 

[sodaksooner]

We've hunted 55 a few times. Have gotten into elk both times, but there are a lot of hunters around. We didn't make it to fossil ridge but it was in our plans. Talked to a couple of guys that had last fall, but they were hunting where we were for a reason... Not much happening in there last season from what I heard. Take it for what it's worth.

I guess Crystal creek gets hit pretty hard. relatively easy to get into and lots of parking around the edge of it.

Didn't pull any elk out of where we hunted, but had several opportunities. Brother missed a decent 5 x 5 and I was drawn back on a really nice bull for the unit,right at a 300" 6 x 6. Needed one more foot and the wind switched. That was 3 years ago. We were in them a lot last year too, but the area we were hunting was so thick. Really frustrating to have a bull 10 yards away and couldn't see him. Lots of deadfall where we were at but that's where the elk were. We worked 8 to 10 bulls that week, had 6 of them in bow range, but no dice. We had fun anyway.

Couple of pics. 1st one looking SE from taylor park area. Fossil Ridge is just on the right edge of the pic.

Second is looking North out of Taylor park.

 

[Docrock]

Is it all of crystal creek that's pressured hard or is it only certain areas that are focused on?