Roosevelt National Forest, Colorado

Game Unit 20

I joined up with some friends to hunt a less crowded area in hopes of finding an elk herd that wasn’t within Estes Park city limits. It was a clear night and sunny day. I was just up for one day during their hunt. As always it’s nice to get out and explore elk country.

I once new a guy who would get so upset when he didn’t come home with a trophy or at least some meat. It didn’t matter how long he hunted or where he hunted. He expected to whistle and have a trophy bull come running. He’d sit on a meadow and wish as hard as he could that a bunch of elk would come out and feed. He’d put so much effort, time and money into his hunts. Every time he’d come home empty handed he’d swear that he was going to quit because he’d hardly see an elk and if he did they were out of range. He’d get so mad but after a while he’d find himself back in elk country hiking around. Ok, it’s me. I’ll admit I don’t spend hardly enough quality time in elk country to even see an elk. My expectations are like many. We expect trophy bulls near the road or at the trailhead waiting for us. It just doesn’t happen that easily. Timing is everything. The elk are out there but you have to coordinate when they are also in the same place or nearby. I mean you wouldn’t hunt at 12,000 feet in December would you? Heck no. Timing is everything. You need to sit in an area with the freshest sign and best habitat if you want to see elk. If you’re not seeing the best sign you have no other choice but to keep walking until you do. I’ve never seen it take more than three days to find great elk country.

We hiked an area I hunted last January because I did find fresh sign up there. The neat thing was I found the same results. The few bulls that were in there last year were also in the area during our recent snowstorm Thanksgiving weekend. You can read about that January hunt here. I like the area. It has all the possibilities for elk. Even all the aspens have been chewed on. Funny thing is it’s a great place for deer too. It’s a minimum 7 mile walk round trip so many people don’t get up there. And if you want to hunt it right you have to camp up there or be prepared to walk a lot everyday. But the elk are in there. More so when it snows than any other time. So, like any hunt. It’s just a matter of time. You can hunt all over the map and hope an elk will cross your way if you put in the miles. Or you can find a place that has a lot of fresh sign and sit.

Never pass up the chance to check out a nice saddle above a meadow. Elk use them to filter into feeding areas. It’s a transition area to and from bedding areas. Typically elk would be found grazing in the meadows or creek valleys early in the morning and late in the afternoon.

The elk have used this area in the past. This nice Southern slope comes off a nice saddle between two promising meadows. At the top of the saddle you could glass both meadows. It’s a great place to sit.

This was a nice sight to see. A big game trail that several animals used to get from the trees to a small creek valley. Snow reveals everything in the area. How it moves, where it’s going, how recent they were in here and how long they stayed. Snow is a critical part of any late season hunt.

Creek valleys are popular places to find elk. They will feed on now dormant grasses and nibble on the ends of willow branches during the winter. At this point in the season ANY food is good food. Believe it or not green grasses can still be found if you look close enough. The snow melts, the ground warms and green grasses are exposed. Even though they are only nibble size portions.

This bull came out of the trees below a saddle to feed in this meadow. I believe it was one of the same bulls that I barely missed seeing last year. He had company with him too. I just wish I could have seen him.

We found a lot of sign coming out of this old burn area. Back in 2002 the Big Elk fire swept through this area. Luckily it didn’t burn much.

This was the freshest elk print we found all day. Possibly from this morning. Notice the chunk of ice and snow that was packed in the hoof but fell out. We found several fresh deer prints going the same direction. That’s enough to tell me this area is active. It’s worth coming back to. But I’d rather come back during a nice snow storm or the day after if it was cold enough. The further we headed South the more prints we found.

Elk are spread out when the weather is fair. In winter, elk tend to bunch up into larger groups. They are forced away from their lush summer areas into small sections of wintering grounds. Their winter grounds are shrinking all the time. For more about how you can help protect vital winter elk habitat visit the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Winter is a better time to see more elk but you really need the weather to cooperate. The bottom line is you need snow and cold. And I mean six inches of fresh snow with more on the way and highs in the teens or 20s. Warm, mild weather will just spread the elk out more. You see warm dry air doesn’t threaten an elk’s routine too much. But if you throw in bad weather their pattern changes. Snow pushes elk out of areas. The four feet of snow we received in March 2002 pushed even the biggest, most stubborn bulls lower. You need to know their migration routes so you can be there. Then all you have to do is wait. Sounds easy right? It’s not. Especially when your window of opportunity allows you to spend limited time in elk country only to find warm, dry weather. It makes for a pleasant hike but not a great hunt. Watch the weather very close. Prepare yourself for long days out in bad weather. Know how to survive in case things go wrong.

In highly populated units like Unit 20 in Colorado you need to respect private property. That’s where the elk are it seems. Though Unit 20 has a lot of elk too. Too many elk to all fit on private lands. A good BLM map will show you where both private and public lands are. Access is a serious issue. It never hurts to ask landowners for permission. The worst they can say is no. Give it a try. If that doesn’t work and the weather continues to be mild for winter do the next best thing. Find those small tracts of public land with good access points. If the sign is there then sit and wait. Younger elk get restless and often pass through. And if you’re lucky the weather will turn bad and the whole herd will walk by.