Elk Viewing Locations CO
Elk
I am heading to CO for work, looks like I will have a couple of weekends to do some site seeing. I will be all over the state so I was wondering if there were any locations that a flatlander would be able to access so he could see some elk?
Pagoda Creek near Yampa is a sure bet!
Rocky mountain national park
Divide road that splits unit 61 and 62. Nice drive and you will see elk and mule deer. At the extreme northern end you can see desert sheep.
The refuge outside of Walden holds a lot of elk this time of the year
Garfield state wildlife area
If I found myself in the SW part of the state I would not miss driving Colorado 92 between Gunnison and Paonia through the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. It is some of the most amazing country I have seen.
Also the drive up into the Flattops from Dotsero, Colorado is pretty amazing as well.
All of this would be pretty impassable country until very late spring.
The bulls have dropped their antlers by now. But don't let that stop you... Lots of good suggestions here.
"The bulls have dropped their antlers by now."
That's debatable, some folks here were filming them in April and even May still carrying antlers... Do a search...
When I was a park ranger west of Boulder-Golden, the mature bulls carried their antlers until end of April/early May.
Drive Highway 285 through South Park. (Fairplay/Jefferson area) Lots of elk in the ranchers fields all winter.
So where exactly are your travels taking you? If you knew a basic location or a town we could give you better directions! Do you know a list of town you are visiting? If so provide the list and people can give you ideas from that list! I would suggest going sight seeing and looking at all the cool crap! While doing those trips you will surely see elk!
Drove to Craig today from Meeker on highway 13 at sunrise. We saw several herds of hundreds of elk, estimate more than 2000 elk seen. Did not have binocs with so could not really tell if the bulls still had horns or not. Also saw a few hundred Mule deer and around 50 pronghorn. Not bad for a 49 mile drive.
will be flying into Colorado Springs, heading to Delta, then from there to Denver by that weekend. then the next week in the eastern side of the state.
I assume you're taking highway 50 over monarch pass to Delta? If so I usually see elk near the highway between Salida and Montrose in winter.
You'll see good herds of elk in RMNP, and if you come in on the west side, you can see moose, too.
Over by Delta, you'll see hundreds of deer S of Montrose. Bighorn sheep in RMNP, too, as well as just W of Gunnison on the N side of the highway. Damn nice ram living there.
There's a good pronghorns herd as well as elk in South Park, too.
monarch pass is a good one! Most people go to grand junction and hit I-70 but taking US 50 to Carbondale over monarch pass and coming out in Glenwood springs is a really good drive and cuts off a lot of miles. I used to make that run several times a year when I hunted GMU 62 a lot.
Google "Estes Park Elk" that'll get you fired up - give some place to go look.
Would like to thank everyone for the suggestions. I look forward to seeing some elk in 2 weeks.
This thread has given me some good ideas as to where to go on our family vacation this Summer.
Straight Arrow, based on your recommendation above, we are going to take a route from Manitou Springs to Gunnison and Paonia through the Black Canyon of the Gunnison working our way up to Glenwood Springs and than on to Estes Park before heading home. I'm not sure if we are biting off too much in a weeks time.
In looking at google maps it looks awesome. It looks like one would have to be part goat to elk hunt in some of that stuff.
I thought I had seen everything in Colorado until I did that canyon drive bnt40. I was hunting in GMU 76 and needed to get to Gypsum to visit relatives..I could have easily gone through Leadville but the canyon drive was well worth the extra couple of hours. I hit it at the absolute peak of fall color. I was speechless pretty much the whole time and I'm used to that kind of country.
