I know where to find them. They live down in a steep deep canyon that few people hunt. They are there but there is a high price to pay! At 62 years old I am nearing the end of my ability to hunt in places like that. I felt like I could still do it this year so I went to that canyon to get my bull.
My elk hunting partner couldn't make it this year so my wife went with me. We set up camp the Thursday before opening and scouted that evening. It was warm, dry and windy. The first elk I saw was a six point Thursday evening. His partner was a nice five point. Friday morning they had a small five point with them. Friday evening we saw the six point and the big five point.
Opening morning they were gone but I spotted a big five point on the next ridge down the canyon in a strip of dead fall-probably the same big five point we saw before. We went around and got across from him and he bedded before I got into position. I could see him with the spotting scope through the pine boughs. While we waited for him to get up I took a close look at how we would get him out. It was ugly with all the dead falls and the steep hill side. There was a strip of rock above him which would have been very tough to get up if you could get up it at all. I decided to leave him. When we got back to the top of the canyon he was up and feeding again-broadside!
Didn't see much of anything til Tuesday noon I spotted a ragged little bull down in the canyon. He had good brow tines so was legal. He had a fork on one side and had broken a point off the other side so he was a 3x2. He was down a ways and I decided I didn't want to work that hard for that bull. It snowed Wednesday.
I spotted the bull I killed Thursday at 11:00 AM. He was in the same area as the little raghorn. We went after him and it started snowing again. He was down a good 1000 vertical feet below the top. It took until 1:30 PM to get in position on him. It looks like the small five point we saw Friday morning. It took an hour and a half to get across the canyon to him. We headed up the hill at 6:30 with the first load of meat. The trip up was lit by a nearly full moon lighting up the snow. We made the top at 8:00 PM and had a 45 minute walk to the truck. We made two more trips down in the next two days to get all the meat.
This is my wife and the bull when we found him.
Me with the rack and the 300 Weatherby at the top after everything was out.
It was quite an adventure for my wife. It was her first elk hunt in Colorado and she loved it. This is a tough place to hunt but the smile says it all. As for me-I need to find an easier place to hunt!
