Hunting in Colorado's Drought

[windymtnman]

I've been hunting in Southern Colorado since 1989, and living in the mountains fulltime since 2010. In all my years here, I've never seen a drought like this. The major creeks have some water in them, but the lesser streams and springs have been dried up all Summer. While currently we're getting some relief in rainfall, it seems as though it might be too little too late.
Perhaps others have posted their concerns here already, but I've not seen any posts on this situation. Since the end of April, I've been monitoring my usual haunts with game cameras, and frankly, the big game is not to be seen in their "normal ranges". I have no doubt it's because there isn't any water for them.
So, how will this impact hunting these areas? Elk cover a lot of ground and will adjust their movement to hit the water sources and yet respond to hunting pressures. I've been thinking about my own hunting strategies and where I may try my luck? I also wonder how this may impact area Outfitters that pretty much use the same camp locations every year, and those locations may not have the game in them because of the aforementioned reasons.

 

[Bullshot]

I've been hunting in Southern Colorado since 1989, and living in the mountains fulltime since 2010. In all my years here, I've never seen a drought like this. The major creeks have some water in them, but the lesser streams and springs have been dried up all Summer. While currently we're getting some relief in rainfall, it seems as though it might be too little too late.
Perhaps others have posted their concerns here already, but I've not seen any posts on this situation. Since the end of April, I've been monitoring my usual haunts with game cameras, and frankly, the big game is not to be seen in their "normal ranges". I have no doubt it's because there isn't any water for them.
So, how will this impact hunting these areas? Elk cover a lot of ground and will adjust their movement to hit the water sources and yet respond to hunting pressures. I've been thinking about my own hunting strategies and where I may try my luck? I also wonder how this may impact area Outfitters that pretty much use the same camp locations every year, and those locations may not have the game in them because of the aforementioned reasons.

The last couple times I was out by you it was pretty dang dry. But some elk were still able to be found in areas accessible to me (though I left empty-handed). So for you to be posting this, it must be really really dry. Hopefully you have a few tricks up your sleeve or the weather turns around in time. Good luck this year. I'm hunting two states over to the SW and hoping the waterholes there are filling up with some monsoon rains after their rough start.

 

[Pagosa]

Seems to me they either travel alot around the mountains during a extended drought or campout on irrigated fields. Hopefully you guys get some heavy snowpack with forecasted super el nino