tx_basser
Member
Wanted to see what you Elk guys think of what I experienced last year, where my son and I spent all of 2nd rifle season around Dolores/Rico area. I loved the trip.. it was hard work, and spent allot of quality time with my son... just being guys.
First off.... I had never hunted Colorado, and pretty much WT hunted my entire life except for a couple of seasons in WA state where we hunted Blacktails. Anyway,, this was a group hunt, to try and get my son (17 at the time) some experience with Colorado to see if he liked it as compared to where we hunt in Texas.
Day 1/2: The group hunted Taylor Mesa with the 2K other people up there that think it is deer camp. Son and I put in quite a few miles the first day and by Sun afternoon found some active sign of Elk, so we set up in on some trails similar to how we deer hunt. Nothing materialized after Monday morning, so I figured this was for the birds, so my Bass Fishing experience told me it is time to go find the fish.. so to speak.
Days 3/4: We headed up past Rico into Lizard Head Wilderness and it was tough going to say the least for this 52 year old desk jockey. Did not see anybody else.. no vehicles at Trailhead, etc.. so I thought at least we can't use other hunters as an excuse. We hiked up maybe a mile to around 12.5K feet and started moving horizontal around the ridges to see if we could see anything. We would go in/out of the dark timber, and we started noticing bedding activity that was recent.. and I even found hair in a couple of beds. This was some of the tickest timber I have ever hunted.. it was literally broad daylight, but seemed like almost pitch black while following some of the trails through there. We did not see anything, so we started circling around till we came out on the next finger and started downhill. We then found a wallow and allot of fresh tracks, rubs, etc... that peaked our interest. We headed back the next morning before daylight and made a big circle to a small grove of trees that was about 200 yards away so we could watch the wallow and rubs. Noting materialized, so we decided to continue searching.
Day 5/6: We kept searching, and decided to go lower as we heard that pressure was moving the elk to their wintering areas early or private land, etc. We then noticed GOBS of people.. i was like HUH.. never would have expected this many people hunting this low of elevation in this warm of weather.. but what do I know. We studied some maps of where most of the people were, so we kind of plotted a couple of small strips of public land next to private land that we could watch for activity. First evening we heard a bull over the ridge behind us, and someone taking a shot later on.. so we figured they were coming off the private property we were next to and feeding on the public we were hunting. We geared up and hiked over to the next mesa the next morning and found the bench the elk were feeding in the evenings.. as it was covered in scat, tracks, rubs, etc. We hunted there the rest of the day and that evening.. nothing, so we loaded up camp and spent the night in the Walmart parking lot in Durango and drove back to Texas next day.
Some of you guys may read this.. and go "What a moron, etc.." but we were going on pretty much newby's and wanting to learn about elk hunting and garnder experience. I will say.. i was not prepared for the level of hunting and searching I would have to do.. it is completely different than WT hunting, as you have to be mobile and find the elk.. then hunt them. The altitude played heck with my anxiety, and had to spend quite a bit of time in Cortez calling the Dr to get a refill of some of my meds, getting additional supplies that we had overlooked, etc. I wish we had stayed in town in Dolores instead of camping up on Taylor Mesa as we lost allot of hunting time driving up that windy azz road and back down every day. One of the guys in our group killed a small raghorn, and I was shocked at how small it was... I've seen bigger Mule Deer.
First off.... I had never hunted Colorado, and pretty much WT hunted my entire life except for a couple of seasons in WA state where we hunted Blacktails. Anyway,, this was a group hunt, to try and get my son (17 at the time) some experience with Colorado to see if he liked it as compared to where we hunt in Texas.
Day 1/2: The group hunted Taylor Mesa with the 2K other people up there that think it is deer camp. Son and I put in quite a few miles the first day and by Sun afternoon found some active sign of Elk, so we set up in on some trails similar to how we deer hunt. Nothing materialized after Monday morning, so I figured this was for the birds, so my Bass Fishing experience told me it is time to go find the fish.. so to speak.
Days 3/4: We headed up past Rico into Lizard Head Wilderness and it was tough going to say the least for this 52 year old desk jockey. Did not see anybody else.. no vehicles at Trailhead, etc.. so I thought at least we can't use other hunters as an excuse. We hiked up maybe a mile to around 12.5K feet and started moving horizontal around the ridges to see if we could see anything. We would go in/out of the dark timber, and we started noticing bedding activity that was recent.. and I even found hair in a couple of beds. This was some of the tickest timber I have ever hunted.. it was literally broad daylight, but seemed like almost pitch black while following some of the trails through there. We did not see anything, so we started circling around till we came out on the next finger and started downhill. We then found a wallow and allot of fresh tracks, rubs, etc... that peaked our interest. We headed back the next morning before daylight and made a big circle to a small grove of trees that was about 200 yards away so we could watch the wallow and rubs. Noting materialized, so we decided to continue searching.
Day 5/6: We kept searching, and decided to go lower as we heard that pressure was moving the elk to their wintering areas early or private land, etc. We then noticed GOBS of people.. i was like HUH.. never would have expected this many people hunting this low of elevation in this warm of weather.. but what do I know. We studied some maps of where most of the people were, so we kind of plotted a couple of small strips of public land next to private land that we could watch for activity. First evening we heard a bull over the ridge behind us, and someone taking a shot later on.. so we figured they were coming off the private property we were next to and feeding on the public we were hunting. We geared up and hiked over to the next mesa the next morning and found the bench the elk were feeding in the evenings.. as it was covered in scat, tracks, rubs, etc. We hunted there the rest of the day and that evening.. nothing, so we loaded up camp and spent the night in the Walmart parking lot in Durango and drove back to Texas next day.
Some of you guys may read this.. and go "What a moron, etc.." but we were going on pretty much newby's and wanting to learn about elk hunting and garnder experience. I will say.. i was not prepared for the level of hunting and searching I would have to do.. it is completely different than WT hunting, as you have to be mobile and find the elk.. then hunt them. The altitude played heck with my anxiety, and had to spend quite a bit of time in Cortez calling the Dr to get a refill of some of my meds, getting additional supplies that we had overlooked, etc. I wish we had stayed in town in Dolores instead of camping up on Taylor Mesa as we lost allot of hunting time driving up that windy azz road and back down every day. One of the guys in our group killed a small raghorn, and I was shocked at how small it was... I've seen bigger Mule Deer.
