CO 81 archery elk - wilderness or Forest
Elk
Hey all!
So, I've been digging around trying to get some info on GMU 81 CO. I was planning on a trip to the flat tops with some friends, but as usual, they bailed. So, with the season coming around the corner, I went with a unit that produced a decent success according to last years records. I will be doing a Solo hunt and was hoping to get some pointers on where to start down there. I see conflicting information on the san juan wilderness vs the national forest. I plan to be out there for 5 or so days, with 2 days back in the springs for recovery and back out if need be until season ends. I got lucky and was able to put all my vacation for almost towards archery season this year. Not looking to steal anyone's honey hole, just looking for some pointers. I know I will be competing with a lot of other hunters and outfitters, so maybe you can at least let me know where not to go. Knowing there will be a lot of hunters, I am planning to use the to my advantage, but I also don't want to be 5 miles deep with 10 different outfitters next door to me. Thanks in advance and happy hunting!
I used to hunt 81 SJ Wilderness up above Platoro Reservoir. It wasn't hard to get away from people but some years it was hard to avoid sheep or cattle. If you can find where they are grazing before hiking into the back country it could save you a lot of grief.
It is steep country and has a lot of spruce beetle kill so it can be slow going in the woods.
Thanks for the quick replies! Simek, I like to consider myself pretty knowledgeable with computers, but I'm having a hard time trying to find that PM. I don't see a link or anything on here that will allow me to view it. Lost Arra, thanks for the tips. I plan to contact the wild life management officer over there to hopefully figure out the general areas where each outfitter will be, where all the hunters typically migrate to during opening day, and now where the grazing will be. I didn't even take that into consideration, but thanks. You said you hunted north of Platoro, but have you ever ventured down South of conejos peak? According to google earth, it seems there are some nice places for the big critter to get water, food, and cover. I haven't looked at the north end, but the south end doesn't seem too steep... but I'll see for sure here soon.
Bh, it looks like you are leaning more towards the conejos canyon area. 80/81 is a huge area, settling for the area south of conejos peak is a start. However with the pressure I saw last year make sure you have a plan A, B, and C, D or F. If you want to be successful you have to able to move to a new area. Thing about the wilderness is that you can reach it within a mile or so of the road. So they all get hit pretty hard. However the area you are talking about holds elk, but so do most other areas. There are other areas that easier to hunt, and most people overlook them, do not judge an area by the way it looks. I was just up to that same area last weekend, it is actually my favorite place to go. I can give specifics if you are interested. Might even give you plan b, C, and D.
I was in the area last year. First year I did not see an elk. My son had a raghorn in range the first evening at dusk....no shot. That's all. There was a guy that had packed i six different camps from Elk creek to Chama peak. Amish people that stayed in all of archery season. To top that off there was over 1000 head of sheep in around Trujillo lake. We will try it one more time but decided to try the limited draw rifle. All the livestock is supposed to be out by first of October. Hope this helps.
3dd, thanks for the info. Did you and your son Hunt archery or rifle? I haven't looked at where some of those areas you mentioned yet, but I'll be sure to make a note on my map.
We hunted archery. We were there Sept 13 thru 19th. No bugling activity. Was above average temps. This is our first time to hunt limited rifle. Hoping for cooler weather and if we're lucky we may catch tail end of rut.
We hunted around Red Lake and it was pretty dead other than all the sheep. Going to Idaho this year.
Thought about Idaho myself Mark W. Right now planning on the Hunter-Fryingpan wilderness all the way back in to the top. Any of you ever hear or know anything about it. Looks like light to moderate archery pressure and is somewhat rugged, maybe keep a lot of foot traffic out. Will be using my mustang for getting back in the booneys.
BGH, last year we hunted toward the end of Septebmer (Archery). First time to hunt the unit. We saw elk about every other day, but had not shot opps. Pretty rugged country. I made the mistake of committing to one area, for the most part. Talked to one guy that shot a raghorn, but did not find it. Talked to another guy that killed a 6x6. Lots of folks seen on trails and in camps, but did not run into anyone hunting. Did not see any livestock. The trailheads looked like a parking garage, but like I said, once you got back in, was not too bad. We were about 3.5 miles into the wilderness.
Good luck! We are headed back this year for round 2!
I also saw the group of Amish folks....was crazy to see them packing in barefoot!
Any of you ever been in unit 47???????????
Reason #1 for having a Plan B. Returning to your wilderness area camp site to find this will really knock your enthusiasm down a notch.
One a positive note when your hunt is over be sure to hit the drive-in burger place in Antonito. After a week of MH meals this may have been the best burger I've ever eaten.
They were shooting stick and string and wearing plain clothes. The ones I saw did had boots on though. We hiked in last year. This year im bringing my horses back.
I appreciate all the info guys! After reading all this, I am definitely going to have a plan B, C, D, E, and even F. I plan to be out for a few weeks this year, with a couple days in between back home to recover, but majority of the time in the woods. Mark, you are the second guy to say that there are a lot of sheep in that area. I have that area crossed off on my map because i want to avoid all that heartache. Simek, I plan to be around 3-4 miles back too, so best of luck to the both of us! It'll be a hike back out with meat, but well worth it! What area did you run into the amish people? Redwillow, I been in 47 once a couple years back. I didn't see anything, but I also didn't spend a whole lot of time out there. Beautiful country and it definitely holds a lot of elk. I had a short weekend and was not able to get in deep like I wanted to, but I'm pretty sure I would of ran into some had I had a couple more days that year. Sorry I can't help you, but you if you got horse, it'll definitely help out in the wilderness.
Arra, That burger would be the "Paul Special" from the G6. Really hoping to make it down there this year. Can't beat one of those babies with a chocolate shake after a few days on the mountain.
That frickin burger looks amazing!
We ran into the Amish folks around the confluence of the South Fork Conejos Trail and the Canyon Verde Trail. They said they were headed back to Blue Lake.
I just had one of those burgers when I went scouting, it looked identical to Lost Arra's picture and yes BoonROTO it was "fricken amazing".
Besides the awesome burger I was a little bothered during my scout trip, it was the second time I scouted an area and was somewhat happy with what I found. As I checked the last spot in that area before leaving, I found what had to be an outfitters camp, it wasn't set up yet but the bones of the camp remained and I was fairly sure it would be used again. This camp is obviously located in that spot so that clients could hunt exactly where I had just spent two scouting trips scouting, Long story short, I still figured I could quickly slip in there and be successful but it was right at the limit for me to get a bull packed out of there solo and without it killing me so I was thinking to hire a meat packer. I saw a cowboy on the road so I stopped and asked him about someone to pack an animal out, he said IF I had time it would be 250 bucks, I didn't say anything but for me "IF" isn't secure enough without having another on call but the conversation went on and he said he was the outfitter in the area, next he asked where are you hunting and I told him the approximate area and he quickly turned into a different person. He said that he has 25 Amish hunters that he places all over the area and they are there for the whole hunt. I asked if the latched poles I found were indeed his camp and he confirmed the location, he then went on a 5 minute rant about OTC tags and all the NM hunters that come up and then went in to how he had to move his camp back into the area further because people were just walking past his clients and then he went on to do his best to discourage me from going back, it was really pissing me off since I already had 2 scout trips logged in but I stayed calm. My first thought was too bad for his clients I am going to hunt it anyway, after a few hours I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to hunt at my distance limit right next to his clients camp, basically I was glad the turn of events happened now and not later and have moved on to new areas and won't be wasting to much time packing in to just one spot.
Just thought I would share my recent Colorado scouting experience for this unit.
Best of luck to my fellow Colorado OTC bow hunters
About 5 years ago I went to the area south of Platoro lake about 4 miles to the south. My hunting buddy and I covered 63 miles in 7 days on foot and never saw an elk. Once or twice we found fresh sign, but no elk. We did see a couple from the truck along the Conehos (sic)river. The elk had been pressured out. We didn't give it a good try, but saw lots of old and sheep sign though.
