Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Moving to CO. Elk hunting near Springs

My daughter lives in CO Springs, wants us to move out from WI. I am mule deer hunting in Delta CO this year unit52 private. More guys this year than last, not alot of room. I am thinking of buying over the counter archery bull tag and spend all of Sept. in CO scouting and hunting, have a wall tent and stove, I have hunted before in CO ID MT, am lucky. Can anybody tell me what the ground and timber is like in Grand Mesa NF? my deer tag will be good for 52 and 521, In my dreams I would like to find a place to rent near Springs for my wife and I to live most of the year. I am a logger here in WI, and might think of logging in WI winters for a few more years. Come out to Springs in March, work a job, until Sept. I am 58 years young, can operate most dozers, hoes, loaders, cherrypickers etc, drive trucks, have CDL. Is this just a fantasy or a possible reality?

It's somewhat sparsely vegetated on the valley floor between Grand Junction and Montrose. As you rise in elevation, it turns into pinion/juniper with some ponderosa and then, turns into gambel oak and then into quaking aspen and finally, spruce/fir. Of course, there's lots intergrade within those habitat types.

In terms of geology; sandstone, redrock, lime, phosphorus and a smattering of uranium. Gumbo mud when it's wet and dusty when it's dry. Good tracking soil.

Used to be some really nice bucks on that side of the valley. Been a long time since I was on the mesa, though. You might want to talk to Brad at DOW in Montrose.

There are some OTC units to the westof CO Springs around the Cripple Creek area. I'd look over the current CO DOW big game brochure and find those areas.

I guess you are asking if you can get a job in Colorado Springs, operating heavy equipment, starting in March and continuing until hunting season. Is that right? If so then the answer is probably yes. Heavy equipment operators with CDL are in demand here just like everywhere else.

I know nothing about hunting in Grand Mesa National Forest, unit 52 or 521.

Shoot me a PM when you get into town and we can get together for a beer or cup of coffee and talk about hunting opportunities in Colorado.

KC

ja guy,

Last year we had a big fire in the Black Forest which is just NE of the Springs, and now there is a lot of standing dead timber. There was just a story on the tube about how they did some big effort to get dead trees away from the highway, power lines, etc.. And in the northern half of the state (think N of I70), there is still a lot of beetle killed trees. Sounds like job ops for a logger.

Like KC I don't know what hunting is like on the Mesa, I've never been there. I plan to rectify that with a fishing/atv trip in July though. I've got a wall tent and stove like you, but it is a little overkill for archery season. Try to go with a lighter camp so you can move around more if nothing is turning up in a couple of days. You can still get a big storm in September but it usually clears out and turns warmer in a day or two.

Hope this helps - John

I live in Black Forest about 12 miles NE of the Colo. Sprgs. boundary. It use to be 25 miles.

There are some areas immediately west of Colo. Sprgs., but interspersed with private land. One of the bigger areas borders Pike Forest and is the Colorado Springs Utility's watershed and the elk move back and forth on it, never far from the border.

I'd be looking further west to get away from the crowds. At least in the Tarryalls, or Buffalo Peaks area.

I played that close in game years ago, now I travel 200-250 miles to hunt elk in Colo. The closer you are to the front range, the more hunter pressure leading to meeting more idiots without a clue.

One good opportunity for heavy equipment operators is at the Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mine. You can live in Teller County or Ute Pass and have a regular schedule.

Thank you for the info, I am looking forward to getting out there. I will look over unit maps for otc areas, understand need to get away from the crowds. I rifle hunted up by the rabbit ears a few years ago, thought it looked green enough to have elk in Sept, but some of the locals said you needed snow in WY to push them down? I have an atv, any use for them? Thought I would look for a horse to rent prior to hunting if I got an elk down in a difficult spot.

It really just depends on the snow. Most elk hang high by the timberline during the late summer months, but there are also areas with a lot of resident elk as well that don't hit the high country but stay cool in the green timber. I don't find much use for an ATV elk hunting except perhaps on a forest road that is too rough for a truck. You've got to get way off the roads to get to where the elk are anyway.

I use to own a cabin in North Park and hunted several years near Rabbit Ears Pass. There's a resident herd that hangs out in that area. I don't hunt there any longer (sold the cabin) so will give you a honey hole when you come to Colorado Springs.

ATVs are not very useful for elk hunting in Colorado. You can't use them in a wilderness area. You can't use them on National Forest land except on vehicle roads and multi-use trails, and there aren't many multi-use trails. Over the decades we've occasionally had an ATV in camp and they just sit there unused. It has not been worth the effort to haul them half way across the state. But where we hunt, it's pretty steep country and if it's legal to drive an ATV you can use a pickup or Jeep. I suppose that there might be some places where there are elk on BLM land that's not too steep and an ATV might be useful in that situation.

I setup a base camp at the trailhead but do most of my hunting out of backpack camps. I rent a horse every year and stable it a ranch near the trailhead. We use it to haul out elk but don't keep it in camp because it takes time to care for the horse and that's time that I could be hunting. Sombrero Ranches has several outlets in the northern Colorado mountains where you can rent horses. I'm only aware of one place in southern Colorado where you can rent horses.

KC