Colorado first season elk opened Saturday October 10th at sunrise. This recap starts Thursday the 8th. I got my chores done around the house, got the girls tucked into bed, and packed the final necessities and got on the road about 11pm and headed into the mountains from Denver. I arrived at my parents house just before 1am and didn’t get much sleep.
I woke up bright and early on the 9th. Went out to a glassing point we found last year at sunrise and watched over a 100 elk, cows, calf’s, and lots of bulls pour off of the public land down into a pond on the private. It was as if the opening day alarm was sounded and watched every elk in the unit pour out single file. I would glass other areas and pan back and the exodus was still happening. Glassed another hell hole and pretty sure I spotted a couple large bulls there, the smoke and 2+ miles were making a positive ID difficult.
After the great glassing morning I was on an even higher high, went and grabbed breakfast with a friend taking his nephew out for an elk hunt and then waited for my hunting parter to finish getting ready to head into the backcountry.
We scouted the evening of the 9th about 2 miles and 1500 vertical up from camp and didn’t see anything on public. We hiked back down to camp around 8k and literally ran onto a small group of elk less than a 1/4 mile from camp in the dark. 20 yards when we saw each other.
To shorten this recap I will list the rough circumstances that made this hunt not what it has been in the past. For the last 8 years we have hunted the same drainage and done very well. The normally hellacious road had been freshly graded and everyone now had easy access to where we used to be alone. To top that, we found out Saturday on a 12 mile exploratory hike that sheep and cattle had moonscaped the whole drainage. Hardly a blade of grass left in the whole drainage. This used to be a sanctuary but not this year...
Sunday morning started with the little hope we had left getting drained as 3 side by sides and a Jeep rolled by before 5am. Any chance of elk in the drainage were now gone. Quick change of plans and a 6 mile loop again produced no fresh sign. The rain and snow rolled in mid morning and hunting partner called it a season. His only employee quit with no notice on Thursday and he had to get back to run his business.
I woke up bright and early on the 9th. Went out to a glassing point we found last year at sunrise and watched over a 100 elk, cows, calf’s, and lots of bulls pour off of the public land down into a pond on the private. It was as if the opening day alarm was sounded and watched every elk in the unit pour out single file. I would glass other areas and pan back and the exodus was still happening. Glassed another hell hole and pretty sure I spotted a couple large bulls there, the smoke and 2+ miles were making a positive ID difficult.
After the great glassing morning I was on an even higher high, went and grabbed breakfast with a friend taking his nephew out for an elk hunt and then waited for my hunting parter to finish getting ready to head into the backcountry.
We scouted the evening of the 9th about 2 miles and 1500 vertical up from camp and didn’t see anything on public. We hiked back down to camp around 8k and literally ran onto a small group of elk less than a 1/4 mile from camp in the dark. 20 yards when we saw each other.
To shorten this recap I will list the rough circumstances that made this hunt not what it has been in the past. For the last 8 years we have hunted the same drainage and done very well. The normally hellacious road had been freshly graded and everyone now had easy access to where we used to be alone. To top that, we found out Saturday on a 12 mile exploratory hike that sheep and cattle had moonscaped the whole drainage. Hardly a blade of grass left in the whole drainage. This used to be a sanctuary but not this year...
Sunday morning started with the little hope we had left getting drained as 3 side by sides and a Jeep rolled by before 5am. Any chance of elk in the drainage were now gone. Quick change of plans and a 6 mile loop again produced no fresh sign. The rain and snow rolled in mid morning and hunting partner called it a season. His only employee quit with no notice on Thursday and he had to get back to run his business.
.... great pics and adventure thanks for sharing.
