Colorado Elk Rookie

[jimmy88]

Hi all, I'm new to the Colorado Elk game with last year's experience being filled with snow, deer and moose. I tried 2nd rifle up above Granby in unit 18 but only filled my pack with snow. This year I drew 1st rifle for unit 62. I've scouted a fair portion of big Dominguez Canyon and areas West of Wagon Park. After 17 miles on foot and another 20 in the truck looking for open trail heads, I found a few decent areas with lots of poop around dried up water holes. My concern is that most of the sign looked months old as though it was more of a winter range area and possibly not ideal for the first week of October. I am trying to get out one more time before the season starts to hike the areas between Brush Mountain and Kelso point. Can anyone give me insite if I am wasting my time there or will that range be occupied with more than just orange bodies during 1st rifle? I appreciate any feedback as I will most likely only get one more shot at this before I PCS outta here.

 

[11boo]

Lots of access from divide road down. If you can get up on monument hill there is some decent glassing from there. It could be gated, but is usually open. Public land, they just have a bunch of towers there.

i would start up high and try to figure out where the elk are. Divide road is a good road, anything heading down off it will turn to crap with enough water/snow.

we did a second season rifle hunt there once and got hammered with 18” of wet snow. Chains kept us moving in the muck.

there is very little water up there too, don’t plan on filling your jugs up there. Cattle will be out, but the elk won’t mind. Some private land, ONX will be useful.

There is a USFS rental camp up there with good water if they don’t mind.

I dunno, only hunted it once and got skunked, but there are a lot of elk up there.
pretty sure in my case we didn’t go low enough, but the road was so bad even with chains we were struggling.

good luck and Have fun. It *should be excellent weather and a great time.

 

[11boo]

I’ll add, I have friends who usually go up there somewhere every year during rifle and always have meat in the freezer. They have been going for years though.

 

[dingleberns]

check the CPW hunting atlas for summer/winter concentration. It is accurate and they could be in between those two places if they aren't in their summer or winter place yet.

 

[jimmy88]

Thanks guys I appreciate the heads up! I recently downloaded OnX and have been diving through that quite a bit the last few weeks for points to check when I get back out there.

 

[jpitt777]

Can anyone tell me if they have been able to get cell service on top the mountain in unit 62?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Phaseolus]

You can get cell service by climbing on top of Monument hill, it’s about a 150’ hike.

It’s extremely dry up there, maybe drier than anywhere in the state. Find water and you will find elk this year.