Trip to colorado...

I am finally home. Spent the first 3 days in Unit 65 looking for elk and was sorely disappointed. I did find a few (about 20) but not what I expected. What I did find was high up in the wilderness area and tok forever to gert there. After seeing this and noticing how dry it was I decided to move camp. Headed down to Unit 80 and set up camp, within an hour I had counted at least 100 elk on the slopes above camp. This continued any time I headed out to many different areas of the unit. I did not see any big bulls, but I saw plenty that I wold be proud to shoot. Several nice 5x5's that were still growing and I would be real happy with one that I saw at about 20 yards. Took my wife with me on a hike and had her sneak up to 60 yards on a herd of about 20 elk, she was absolutely amazed since it was her first time getting up on some elk. We were spotted and they headed off slowly, I gave some calf squels(??) and they answered back as they moved away. I should have some picks to post soon. I saw a nice herd of 11 mule deer bucks above timberline and spent some time watching them. I took about a 6 hour hike on wednesday that left me puking with my legs feeling like wet noodles! Man, that 12,500' elevation kicked my butt! Anybody else out scouting this week?

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There are 11 muley bucks in the last pic, I wish it would have come out better through the spotting scope.
I should have some better pics from the other camera next week.
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AGCHAWK
Man, that sure is some fantastic lookin' country a3d! Thanks for sharing.
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a3dhunter
No problem, I sure had some fun and I can't wait to go back August 25th!
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MuleyMadness
Sounds and looks like a great time. Glad you found some Elk after you moved. Any of those bucks big?

Great looking country!
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a3dhunter
The biggest was a four point about 26-27" wide and about 14-16" tall right now, definitely a buck that I would take come season. There was another one that was about 24-25" wide that looked like he may be getting some non typical points started. This unit takes 2 PP to fraw for rifle season, but 0 points for archery, definitely something I will check into for next year. There was one road I could access that got me within 200 yards of the basin they were in, I started hiking while it was still drak to get where I wanted to go and they busted away from a water hole. I held up and waited for daylight and then eased up to the rim and couldn't believe what I saw.
I expected to have to walk a while before getting into something. There was another nice set of bucks about 1/8 of a mile away. Definitely a good area. I have some pics on the other camera of a small buck from the area, have to wait for the film to get developed and have them run off a disk.
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waynedevore
Thanks for sharing 3d, Great pics! You got into some fine high country. :thumb
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ABert
3d, a little heads up on the units you looked at. Normally come rifle season, there is plenty of snow that pushes the animals down. Archery is tough in both units due to the animals being high in the early fall. Some of those pics look awfully familiar to me!
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a3dhunter
Abert, they should be familiar! We camped near the three forks above Silverjack and then I took off from there. After 3 days I realized the elk were too high for me to comfortably hunt them daily unless I packed into the wilderness area.
The good thing about 80 is that I hope they stay high! They are easier to glass and very predictable on where they are feeding and watering. I am more concerned about other hunters over there than I am with them staying high.
Oh yeah, I am only hunting bow season, not rifle hunting this area.
For rifle hunting I head down onto blm land, this year I will be in unit 35 for rifle season hunting mule deer.
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a3dhunter
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Default Avatar
nice pics a3dhnter .
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Hiker
ad3hunter, Looks like you had a good trip. Great photos! Thanks for sharing them.
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silvertip-co
Great fotos. We love it here. To find elk find water nearby. Good luck hunting.
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a3dhunter
I hear you silvertip, I have many water sources located and several of them in little coves of trees that are very protected, one of them should pay off for me!
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