Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Colorado Elk Hunting Units 18 and 181

Doing a little online research, does anyone have any elk information for Colorado units 18 and 181? Have been up there several times this year and only seen a few small herds in the Never Summer Wilderness area.

I hear those are tough areas to hunt elk, as there's a lot of pressure, a lot of steep timbered areas, and the elk tend to migrate through rather than stay in any given area. I also have a tag for unit 181 this year. We got elk tags as a just in case, as we have deer tags for 181 and 27. We're heading up that way Saturday to look around on our way to Wyoming. There's a lot of public land, and a lot of leftover tags...but I imagine there are lefotvers for a reason. The success rate's pretty low as well. Of course, success rate gets a lot higher for folks who unass the truck or ATV, and get out and HUNT.

I agree ShootDogs, from previous hunting in the never summer wilderness, it was steep with lots of trees and limited open space.

Hay Park can be a good spot in 18 if you can back get in there.

--thumper338

Let me know what you're after (bull or a cow) and I'll PM you with some info. If you're willing to get out and hunt there are some good places with few hunters but.....and that's a big, hard tough but....

Didn't you ask the same thing last year?

2 years ago apparently

Can I get in on this information offer?

That probably was me. Never been there before. I chose a place from the map, went up, camped, wiated for my brother to come late from a funeral.

First day there was a LOT of shooting in the valley below me. Next day I saw 1 cow and calf, didn't take them, but could have. Third day, some ranchers came by and said they saw lots of tracks down lower; I had a feeling they also knew who did all the shooting. There was sign of a bull in the black stuff, but we never did get close. I have a feeling that there are cows in some of the scrub, in the cottonwoods on the BLM. If we go back there we may investigate that.

There is a lot of country there, black timber, and parks. I would go back given nothing else to draw. It was a little too tame for my druthers, though. There is some world class mud if it gets wet, you would never get a camper on a truck in or out, or pull a trailer. The only thing that saved us was deep ruts so we couldn't slide over the edge.

We spent one day on the edge of RMNP, going in through the park. Since it was raining, also, we saw nothing. The ranger said all the seasons had been extra strange that year.

PM incoming

Anyone ever hunt the Cabin Creek area?

+1...better be prepared to work. That whole basin is just tough tough hunting. From what I've seen, the areas within 3 miles of road are hunted thoroughly. I'd recommend renting some llamas as most of the area in there is not really ideal for horses. Your gonna be tired and wondering why you did what you did, when you finally get back to the truck. I've been in there twice...yet to see any giants, but I'm sure there are a few around.

Yep year before last I was on this site asking questions and getting advice, got some good advice from this site. Seen some elk in 18 and 181, not a lot, but at least seen some. I will be going up in a few weeks to do some more scouting, just cant seem to locate much of anything. Lots of road hunters year before last, I found the only way to get away from them is to set out on foot where they cant go, so I parked at Bowen Baker trail head and hiked in. In Baker Gultch seen lots of fresh sign (tracks and poo) and Bowen Gultch was almost as hopeful. The hiking in and back was not so bad, and I only seen one other hunter. I will say that checking in with the RMNP ranger was not bad, it was nice knowing that someone other than people back home, knows where you are, if you got into trouble. This year is an OTC bull tag for third season rifle, cant wait. Thank you all that replied.

Was up driving around 18 this weekend, the ranger said that there were at least a dozen nice bulls taken from Baker gultch during archery season. From what I seen, there is no snow in the higher elevations, other than those places in the shade. Seen alot of aspen trees with fresh nibble marks. We drove into the RMNP to see what the bulls were doing, it appears the big boys have their cows gathered and are bugling. Seen a few high fire danger signs, but they are still allowing campfires. Went up highway 125 to the Divide, sat and listened, no bugling, plenty of green grasses in the open spaces.

Just got back from a 4 day trip into GMU #18 .

Primarily camped at 10,250' at the very end of 112.1A ~ 112E where it runs off the map a little over a mile into BLM land.

Not a lot of activity.
Two years ago, hunting (archery) the area from the bottom up, I ran into bulls 2 days in a row. Knocking an arrow twice for a couple monsters! It was loaded with elk, their extremely higher now, all the bugleing I did hear came from above.

It was my intention to hunt the area this year with a 1st season cow tag as my 'B' list option. But business forced a change of plans and the D.O.W. exchanged my tag for a latter option.

I believe that the opening of 2nd season, an ambitious hunter could do well if he positioned himself out on one one the ridges between the drainages to the south, intercepting elk moved out of the Cabin Creek Area and elk pushed out of the Elk Mountain and Trail head area.

Dropping a monster in that area would be an issue, you would be covering an area with 2000' elevation differences, I would recommend a sack of onions and a fry-pan and eat it there, unless you want an even bigger challenge of packing one out from there?

A fellow Horseshoer friend of mine knows people at *(PM for the name) Ranch, and mentioned asking them if they would except an access fee to haul one out through their ranch. I have not checked with them, but it would be worth a roll of cash to swing their gate.

Best of luck to those hunting the area! I wanted the public-land fair chase challenge. Using what I would learn from a 1st season cow tag for a second season otc bull tag, maybe another year.

All packed up and ready to head out to GMU 18/181 for 3rd season rifle, looks like we have a little snow to work with. I have been up scouting about a half dozen times this Fall, have seen plenty of elk activity and road hunters.

Was in unit 18 2nd season with a outfitter. everyone in camp saw elk and had about 60 percent kill rate. Could have been better but had a few misses. Fantastic area.

Heading out to 181 with a 4th season leftover cow tag. This is my first year hunting elk in Colorado (I went once before in OR, but saw no elk). Just joined the site and just finally qualified for a res. license, otherwise I would have been out for bow. Planning on car camping and then taking day hikes into areas, have no idea where though. I am going solo, so if anyone else is planning on being in the area and would like some company and some hot venison stew, give me a call at six five one - 206 - four six six nine. Will be out there wed.-sun. If anyone has any advice on where I might start, it would be much appreciated.

We went up to 181 3rd season. Saw an elk about 15 minutes before shooting light on opening morning; still too dark to even tell what gender. That was the only thing I saw, except a cow moose, in 3 days of hunting (had to come out early). Saw one small bull killed and heard a few shots, but didn't see anything else hanging anywhere. Didn't see ANY deer, except 5 does on private land along the highway.

Unit 181, what can one say! The true elk stat harvest is 8% for this unit and 14% in unit 18. These are DOW stats. Been hunting here for over 5 years now. It is an extremely hard area to hunt for 2 reasons. #1 on a bad year for unit 181, you will have over 100 elk camps in each sections of the unit. #2 at any given hunting season, you have alot of private land surrounding both units and hi roads that can't be traveled in late seasons, hence combining all the units to a general location.
For me, I got a cow last year. I was 1 of 9 for the combined season in unit 181 for late season hunts only and 1 of 5 who got one in the 4th season. 51 cows total taken in all seasons combined. There were over 150 ppl hunting and camping for the 4th season in my area. So, I walked in for about 2 miles, never saw a hunter that far in and a herd of 40 cows came into me, about 70 yards away. Like I said, I did not see 1 hunter where I went. It took 2 days to get her out. SO this tells you about the area. This is not an easy area to hunt. The ranches and their location takes the easy out of it! Much easier mountains to hunt near craig and such, but I love the challenge! Good luck to all.