Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting What's the strangest place you have seen elk?

Likewise in Packwood, WA, in November 2002. Right in the middle of the road next to the main gas station.

Just spent 10 fruitless days hunting elk on the east side of WA and this big bull ran right up behind me when I was gassing my rig on the way home. Very tempted to pop him with a tent pole and roll him into the pickup bed.

But tent pole season was over for that year.

Standing in the ditch waiting to cross the Trans Canada highway around 10 miles out of Winnipeg. Not exactly elk country. Huge bull too. Bar elk wins! Yuppie elk is a close second.

Late 2006/Early 2007 we had three big blizzards that forced elk out of the Black Forest north of us and pushed these elk out onto the plains were we live. I was about 50 yards off of US24, and these elk are about 1/2 half a mile from a shopping center that has a Safeway.



JohnDog

I was paddling a canoe on a lake in spring and saw one on a tiny island at the tip of a point coming out of a marsh. I think the cow went there to have her calf and be away from black bears and wolves.

We commonly find them right next to camp when elk hunting. Everyone always seems to overlook areas close to their camp. We also find them in areas close to the main road, but just out of sight in a brush hole.

Maybe not as strange as some but while prairie dog hunting in Logan county CO. we saw a single cow elk out in a pasture with a herd of domestic cows. Actually they were under a shade tree next to a small county road and when we stopped to look she spooked and took off. I don't know how far Logan county is from the mountains but she sure looked strange out in that country in the middle of summer. John.

Seemes even stranger to me to see them behind a high fence in Idaho. The eastern part of this state is covered with high fence elk "ranches". Just ain't right.

I've seen quite a few elk out on the plains near Limon. It's a little off to see them there. The weirdest though was when we were hunting whitetail in Kansas last year and had a 5x5 bull bust out of a draw in front of us. The ranch foreman ended up picking up his sheds

Drum

One cold and snowy morning I was tracking what I thought to be a lone bull... I'd get glimpses of him ahead of me 300-400 yards moving through timber and open hillsides, but couldn't get a shot. He was a dandy 320+ type bull. While I was on his trail I got momentarily preoccupied with his tracks and when I looked up he was staring back at me over his butt (rack in frontal silhouette). I peeled off my daypack lickity-split, used it as a rest, and dropped him with one 180 Partition at the base of his neck. Range was 225 yards and it took me a bit of wading through snow to get to him. When I did, I was shocked with the worst case of ground shrinkage I'd ever been part of. Instead of a beautiful mature 6pt I had what was essentially a youngish 5pt. Getting over the shock, I realized there must have been two bulls, and I'd only seen the bigger. Well, it was cold, and he was on a steep open slope and I needed to get him opened up so I rolled him down the hill fifty yards to a wooded spot to dress him. When I was done wrestling him into position I looked up and there, at fifty yards watching me, was the big 6pt wondering what the h=ll I was doing. I threw up my rifle and dry fired on him... and that's the strangest place I've ever seen an elk

A couple years back, I took advantage of the late season elk slaughter (I know, I know...) and went down to hunt the Snowcrest range the week before Christmas.

There's a series of small slopes above timber line that break down to the southwest just off the crest itself. These slopes are between 9500 and 10,500 feet.

The last half hour of light both nights I was down there, every one of these slopes had a small herd of elk feed out onto it. The mountain goats were down around 9000 feet, damnedest thing I've ever seen.

About 10 years ago I was hunting just outside of ft collins for deer and saw a 5x5 bull in a ranchers horse pen, right next to his house. He was in there playing and eating hay. He finally jumped the fence after about an hour and headed up the draw I was hunting. It was very strange.

I saw several elk near the summit of Fremont Peak in the Wind River Mtns once in July. That's over 13,000 ft and very steep in places. The bugs were bad down at 10,000 so I assume the elk went as high as possible to escape them.

Grand canyon herd looks kinda cool when you run into them...

I never saw them, but when I was living in Willcox folks swore there was a herd just a little ways north of town.

They released several into the Smokey Mountain National Park a few years ago. I've seen them wading in the river right in downtown Cherokee NC.

We had a cow walk within a few feet of our tent while camping in Rocky MT National Park a few years back.

On the MOON! Craters of the Moon in Idaho on a moonlit night, scared the $hit out of me.

In the late 70's up on the west side of Mount St Helens---WAY up on the slopes.
Also on Hwy 12 in beautiful downtown Packwood, WA. Early in the morning during deer season two years ago we had to stop to let them get out of the way so we could proceed through town and on our way.
One more: July of 1997 on I-84 in the Gorge, one nice bull coming down the slope towards the freeway where the Bighorns are, about milepost 125. (I came by there yesterday and saw a bunch of Bighorns bunched up together close to the freeway---must have been over a dozen head).

about 50 miles west of here on a ranch outside San Diego TX

About a hundred yards off the beach, right at the mouth of the Columbia River. Was a surprise but I hear that herd stays there year round. Was at least 50 of them.

Packwood Wa.
You guys that saw elk there, have you seen any lately? Used to see them there on almost a daily basis but have heard the Indians from the Yakima area had about wiped them out. I would hope that was a bad rumor but would like to hear a recent report as it has been 4 years since I was working near there.

I don't know about the indian poachers around there, but I go through there several times a year and see them often, if it's early in the morning or in the evening. Just this year I have seen elk in as many as nine different places along Hwy 12 between Randle and Packwood. I've seen as many as four separate small bunches in Packwood itself.