Colorado question.

[Squirrel Master]

Ok, first off I'm a new guy. With that said, I promise I'll stick around and be a part (hopefully productive part) of the forum. I've lurked for a long time. Myself and a few buddies will be elk hunting in Unit 81 in Colorado this year. I'm not even gonna ask about where to hunt because I'm not "that guy", I promise.

I have a couple questions though and hope maybe somebody can give me some input. We'll be hunting in bow season, and I expect this trip to be more of a learning experience for all of us. None of us are going with high expectations. We're planning to camp somewhere and make a semi comfortable base camp and walk to hunt. We're not scared a bit of putting miles on our boots and we're all working hard to get in the best shape possible. I think we have all the gear/equipment stuff covered for the most part.

We just are wondering where a good place to camp would be? We can even drive a few miles from where we camp to where we're gonna hunt, not a big deal. Just hoping somebody could point us in the right direction as to where we can set up somewhat close to some decent areas to learn how to elk hunt!! A park with some showers would be awesome but not mandatory. BTW, we're all lifelong hunters, but strictly here in Texas for deer, pigs, etc. so any other advice about elk hunting in general you want to throw at me by all means feel free, because we're certainly very green when it comes to elk hunting. Heck I've never even been to Colorado. Thanks in advance!!

 

[big44a4]

I’d advise against an elaborate base camp. At least until you find elk. I think it’s best to stay mobile so I’d camp near the truck and make long days hiking. Find no sign or no elk at least you didn’t waste time packing in and setting up in a bad area. Then drive to next spot and start over. No sense wasting time where they aren’t.

Never been to 81 so can’t help there. But something I had to learn the hard way last year wasting 2 days. Everyone camps far. Think more hard to get to areas. Only place during season I saw elk was less than 2 miles from road but straight up.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Squirrel Master]

I’d advise against an elaborate base camp. At least until you find elk. I think it’s best to stay mobile so I’d camp near the truck and make long days hiking. Find no sign or no elk at least you didn’t waste time packing in and setting up in a bad area. Then drive to next spot and start over. No sense wasting time where they aren’t.

Never been to 81 so can’t help there. But something I had to learn the hard way last year wasting 2 days. Everyone camps far. Think more hard to get to areas. Only place during season I saw elk was less than 2 miles from road but straight up.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That makes sense!! I'll keep that in mind. I ordered some maps today, so hopefully that will help us out a bit too.

 

[sndmn11]

There is a 3 football field sized free primitive USFS site

 

[sndmn11]

There is a 3 football field sized free primitive USFS site

BFRO Report 24068: Possible vocalization frightens fisherman from campsite along Conejos River

 

[AdamW]

I'm assuming you're looking for more than just the campground/campsite locations that are in the CO Hunting Atlas?

Colorado Parks and Wildlife Atlas

 

[Squirrel Master]

I'm assuming you're looking for more than just the campground/campsite locations that are in the CO Hunting Atlas?

Colorado Parks and Wildlife Atlas

I hadn't seen that...some good stuff there. Like I said we're going in blind, and the Colorado Parks and Wildlife website is a bit confusing!! For me at least!! It's my understanding that you can camp pretty much anywhere, which is different than most of the public land here in Texas where we have to stick to designated campsites for the most part. Is that right?

 

[cnelk]

Google 'Dispersed Camping' for the National Forest you will be visiting.
It will tell you how far from a road/stream you can set up camp

Typically when you see the dots along a roadway in the MVUM means its 'Dispersed Camping'

 

[justinspicher]

We put up five wall tents at the end of a FS road last season and walked everywhere looking for elk. It was pretty rad coming back to a fire, steak and potatoes and cold beer at night. I slept really good on my full size cot. It made the hunting way more fun and less chore like.

 

[Squirrel Master]

We put up five wall tents at the end of a FS road last season and walked everywhere looking for elk. It was pretty rad coming back to a fire, steak and potatoes and cold beer at night. I slept really good on my full size cot. It made the hunting way more fun and less chore like.

That's kinda what we're thinking, at least for this first trip.

 

[davsco]

hopefully you got an elk or two or three?? that would've made it super-rad!

 

[swampokie]

I bet putting up 5 tents was super rad!

 

[Runningwater]

Be nice fellow old farts!

 

[ScreamingPotato]

We camped in the national forest last year, moved camp once. Pretty much ended up driving half hour + in all directions to do our hunts so the advice to stay mobile is probably good. Being from TX myself I can say it's extremely foreign just finding a nice spot and setting up camp. We first setup way up front in the unit so as not to disturb anything further, but the more ground we covered we found old camp sign from dozens of camps with nice pre-built stone fire rings and even a rigged up skinning rack on a tree that I unfortunately didn't get the opportunity to use. We ended up moving camp to one of those nice spots many miles in that seemed central to the area we wanted to target, it was a pain but as another poster said it's nice having a full sized cot and full camp at the end of a long day.

 

[Squirrel Master]

We camped in the national forest last year, moved camp once. Pretty much ended up driving half hour + in all directions to do our hunts so the advice to stay mobile is probably good. Being from TX myself I can say it's extremely foreign just finding a nice spot and setting up camp. We first setup way up front in the unit so as not to disturb anything further, but the more ground we covered we found old camp sign from dozens of camps with nice pre-built stone fire rings and even a rigged up skinning rack on a tree that I unfortunately didn't get the opportunity to use. We ended up moving camp to one of those nice spots many miles in that seemed central to the area we wanted to target, it was a pain but as another poster said it's nice having a full sized cot and full camp at the end of a long day.

Were you able to drive in or did y'all pack in?

 

[ScreamingPotato]

Were you able to drive in or did y'all pack in?

We setup camp in a nice little nook at the fork of 3 Jeep/ATV trails and the main road. We stopped by the forest service offices for brochures and all that, we were told we could drive up to 100 feet (IIRC) off any road for purposes of setting up camp and that we could pack in camp wherever we like, no restrictions other than have to bury your poo a foot deep or something like that lol. We were in San Juan national forest and it's spiderweb'd nicely with trails and roads, didn't see any reason to pack in camp as there wasn't really any spots remote enough to make it worth while.

 

[Squirrel Master]

Awesome!! The San Juan is where we're gonna be so that's good to know.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

Awesome!! The San Juan is where we're gonna be so that's good to know.

Not sure of your route, but the national parks people were super helpful and they have offices scattered about. We stopped by the Durango office and asked all sorts of questions. You can call them up as well, they were way more helpful than I expected... actually passionate about their jobs it seems. But yeah, in our area of San Juan at least there were TONS of really nice already carved out diy camp spots right off the road. I was there with my wife so brought the portable shower we use at the beach and a 5 gallon bucket with the doodoo liners and some cat litter, so just hauled it out didn't have to mess with burying anything.

 

[TradAg02]

If you are going into it with the goal of spending some time in a beautiful place with some buddies you should be fine. If you are more interested in elk hunting, you need to be more mobile or look for another unit. You are going to be blown away by the number of camps along the road.

I have hunted 80/81 six times. Each year my gear gets lighter, I get more mobile and I train harder.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[justinspicher]

It was pretty rad, I’m not going to lie. I didn’t have a tag, I just hung out and enjoyed the trip. I did my elk hunting in archery. The camp sat at about 10,500’, within a miles walk you could be at almost 12k. Saw thirty goats one day, pretty rad.

We drove in, it was at the end of the road and basically had the area to ourselves. Most folks drove up, saw the tents and turned around.