Wintering elk in Colorado
Contributors to this thread:Elk
From: Paul@thefort
22-Feb-20
I headed over to Walden CO yesterday to ice fish and passed by the Wildlife Refuge and saw these wintering elk in the bottom. It was cold out!
I headed over to Walden CO yesterday to ice fish and passed by the Wildlife Refuge and saw these wintering elk in the bottom. It was cold out!
From: Paul@thefort
22-Feb-20
From: Pop-r
22-Feb-20
Those two up close look to be wintering very nicely.
From: cnelk
22-Feb-20
There was a herd bigger than that on that refuge in November during 3rd rifle season
From: Paul@thefort
22-Feb-20
Brad, What, rifle hunters moving elk onto private property like the Refuge! NO WAY. And here I heard only bow hunters do that.
From: Grey Ghost
22-Feb-20
They look fat and happy to me. In another couple of months there should be a lot of tasty green morsels for them to munch on. It's shaping up to be a good antler growth year.
Matt
From: Skelly
23-Feb-20
When do elk normally drop their antlers?
From: Grey Ghost
23-Feb-20
Most will drop in March.
Matt
From: Wolfkiss
27-Feb-20
Great pics Paul, is that the place the Ute and Sioux used to call the Bullring? I always stop at that lookout on the way to Walden when we visit. Rgs Andy.
From: wkochevar
27-Feb-20
the wintering herd
the wintering herd
Good vittels....
Good vittels....
Here some more wintering elk in CO, No refuge but they were thriving quite nicely on my hay stack. Found out electric fences mean nothing to a big group of hungry elk
From: Sivart
27-Feb-20
that cold, maybe it'll kill the pine beetles????
From: Jaquomo
27-Feb-20
Pine beetles have petered out. Spruce beetles are the new threat and I don't know about their temp tolerance.
Wolfkiss, North Park was known as the "Bull Pen" back then, but I believe that alluded more to the Wood buffalo, not elk. Utes and Arapahoe came there to hunt and trap in spring-fall, but left in the winter. They thought the first white men who tried to winter there were idiots. -24 is a balmy morning when inversions settle in.
From: Jaquomo
27-Feb-20
Foothills elk wintering just north of Fort Collins right now.
From: cnelk
27-Feb-20
"North Park encompasses approximately 1,600 square miles; more than one million acres and the elevation ranges from 7,800 feet in the valley floor to nearly 13,000 feet on the surrounding peaks. The basin is rimmed on the west by the Continental Divide and Park Range, on the south by the Continental Divide and the Rabbit Ears Range, on the east by Rocky Mountain National Park and the Medicine Bow Range, and to the north where it more leisurely opens into Wyoming’s North Platte River Valley and the Snowy Range. As a result of the once abundant buffalo and the ring of mountains surrounding the bottom grasslands, the Native Americans who once hunted the area referred to North Park as “The Bull Pen.” Today, abundant elk, antelope, moose, deer, and cattle vie for the same area."
From: Paul@thefort
27-Feb-20
William, when I live on Lake Granby in the 1990s, and traveling to the town of Granby in the winter, a large herd of elk invaded a very large stack/pile/bales of grass and ate it to the ground. Some elk stayed there, slept there, and ate well. This was when we had very heavy snows and before the rancher fenced/wired in his grass stacks. The following year, all of his grass stacks were fenced in. That same year, the DOW, took a large bulldozer and made a trail into the surrounding foothills and then pellet fed the elk to attract them away from the grass stacks and also the highway as a few were killed crossing..
From: Zbone
27-Feb-20
Cool stuff guys, I lived a couple years in Colorado in the 90's and know actually where youenz are talking about, thanks for sharing....
From: TrapperKayak
28-Feb-20
Pretty strong elk pops. Hope they stay well!
From: South Farm
28-Feb-20
I remember seeing a herd like that near Yamp 20 years ago...was too tired from the hike in so decided I'd go after 'em in the morning. Never saw that herd again! Poof, GONE!
From: welka
01-Mar-20
Doubt that sight will remain in 5-10 years after the wolves multiply
From: Ucsdryder
01-Mar-20
Anybody seen any sign of winter kill in Colorado yet? We’re almost out of the woods!
From: Paul@thefort
01-Mar-20
A deer species of an other kind in the winter. Headed up to Walden to icefish last Friday and spotted this single moose calf bedded down on the ice of the creek that runs just south of town. The week before it was -24 but that morning only 10 degrees. Lots of hard crust on the snow which makes it hard for the critters to find food. Still have two more hard months to go for the wildcritters.
