CO first rifle season

[huntfishcamp]

We drew the tags and putting travel plans together for our first CO rifle elk, first season. We all live 18+ hrs away and preseason summer scouting prolly isn't going to happen, so trying to figure out how early to get set up..and get at least a full days scouting just before the rifles start cracking. We will be in SE gmu 12, those familiar with this area, will it be tough to find a decent roadside camp1- 2 days before the season? Is the flattops scenic byway an absolute zoo during first ( and all) seasons as ive heard? Thanks

 

[HighDesertSage]

It won't be as bad as the OTC hunts, but stillalot of guys are out there. I think they issue about 5000 tags for that hunt. I would show up a week early for scouting if possible. Get to a high vantage point on opening morning and let other hunters move the elk around for you. I would also look toward roadless areas and plan on spending a few days out at a time.

 

[one ate E grain]

I haven’t hunted the unit but I did draw for it and spent a couple days scouting last year. I got injured and couldn’t hunt last year.

I drove in from Yampa and took the scenic highway via Dunkley pass. That scenic byway does indeed seem the main route to access the unit. Vaughn Lake is probably the most popular camping but there are many side roads and places along the road to camp. I seem to remember a couple/few outfitters along the West Fork Williams Fork, and a corral or something for horses maybe at Ripple Creek pass. Also a well used pack trail there which doesn’t show on my online Colorado Hunting Atlas which I’m using to try to jog my memory.

In the evening I headed down to the North Fork White River (outside GMU 12) and saw at least a hundred elk grazing on the irrigated hay fields. Oh and back on the Scenic Byway I rousted a cow up out of her day bed still dark colored the way they are in the early summer sometimes. God knows what she was doing sleeping so close to the road. Only elk I saw that trip.

I cut back north up into the unit entering on a dirt road just E of Jensen State Wildlife area and slept past Yellowjacket Pass. Next day on north to Williams Fork and took the road out to Indian Run State Wildlife Area which might be a good place late season. Then on out to Yampa.

The North and West of the unit is low elevation. A lot of BLM and private.

A couple few weeks later I went for a walk. My plan for the unit was to go into the Wilderness area as far from a road as I could. I parked at Stillwell Reservoir and hiked across unit 231 where a finger juts out and camped up top of the devils causeway with a good view of a fair sized very high valley below. I glassed till dark and saw nothing. Next morning I heard someone splitting kindling for the wood stove down by Causeway lake or something. The horse tracks I’d seen were maybe outfitters. It was muzzleloader season.

I don’t have any bright ideas. It’s first season, I’d look as high as possible. Bow hunters and muzzle loaders do create pressure, and Colorado has a lot of all kinds of hunters. The Forest Service had a freeby map showing where what kind of vehicle can travel. Seemed like ATVs and 4WD travel was by designation only. I looked for my copy just now but couldn’t find it. Maybe you could call their office in Yampa and they’ll drop one in the mail to you.

I’d look for the highest place furthest from any motorized travel and with plenty of thick trees so the outfitters can’t get in. Where that is I haven’t the faintest but I figured I’d toss in my 2 Kip for what it’s worth. Lot of elk, lot of success, but a lot of people and a lot of outfitters.

Good luck. A lot of people are going to get an elk out of that unit, might as well be you.

 

[Recurve62]

See Colorado in the dictionary, it means lots of hunters. That said, get there as early as you can, drive your chosen FS road 'till you find a suitable camp site as close to a trail head as you can. Two days of scouting is better than one, one is better than none but do what you can.