Anyone have any advice or comments on this GMU? Tag is bought so I'm kind of all in already. First Elk trip and this was what I could manage. I have an either sex tag. Of course I'd love to take a big bull but I'll just be happy seeing anything.

Any advice or comments would be extremely appreciated.

Thanks,
SDS

Which season?

Nov. 11-15

My buddy went up there and looked all over yesterday. Said he saw a lot of sign but so much will change between now and Nov. I don't even know where to start.

I realize the question is really broad but anything is appreciated.

SDS

I know of a guy that scouts up there alot from another forum if you want the info send me a PM.

If it's warm, the elk will be far up the drainages. Not meaning high as most greenhorns say, but as far away from roads and human activity as possible. I usually find them on steep north facing hillsides with water very near smaller meadows or thin timber.

If the cold and snow comes in, as I always hope for, the cow/young bull herds will be moving to their wintering areas surprisingly near the highways. I've found these herds on benches just above the highways and near the larger meadows in the drainages or just above. The bull herds are usually hanging out farther up the drainages in thicker timber, but adjacent to south and west facing slopes with decent grass. I usually find the herds right at the private/public boundaries. The open rolling or flat sage near high ridges, timber, and drainages are also a very good place to keep an eye on in early am and at sunset, especially if the snow flies heavy and temps drop into the 20s or less.

I'm in 18/181 at the same time every year. Unfortunately, so are a lot of others.

Thank you very much for the information. I had heard about watching the north hillsides but the rest is good information to have. Is that area pretty busy with hunters in Nov?

My buddy is looking for places to camp while we are there and I'm kind of along for the ride since I'm walking into this blind. Regardless of how the hunt goes I expect to have a good time.

Thanks again,
SDS

18 gets a lot of pressure so the elk move over the divide into the unit north or into the private property on the west side of 125. That late in the season you may get to hunt the migration from rocky mountain national park south west towards the winter grounds near craig. tom

I am headed into 18 for the 3rd rifle. I scouted it briefly this weekend. Lots of Moose, but no one was seeing many Elk. I'm not a very experienced Elk hunter, but it seemed like most of the hunters I saw were just driving four wheelers up and down the trails looking for tracks. Looked like any animals in there would be headed as deep into the brush as they could get.

Craig is northwest of 18. And those elk never get close to that fair metropolis. Or even close to any of the winter grounds near there..........

Got that right Hunts. But I'm OK if everyone wants to go to Craig to hunt the middle park herd!! Pumpgun could be my best buddy.

taz, The middle park herd don't even make it to the Craig area. Craig kinda belongs to the Bears Ears and White river herds. I don't know if the cdow does any of their tracking surveys online, but if they do, you'll be able to see where the elk from an area winters.........And most don't migrate as far as the deer. Maybe exbiologist will chime in.......

I know exactly where they hang out in every season, especially their wintering areas. Middle Park is nowhere near Craig. I just hope everybody follows pumpguns advice and goes to Craig!!

Oh.OK. Slow here... I get it finally...grin

At the first crack of muzzle loading the elk in RMNP migrate INTO the park. There are two hunter access points to national forest from in the park, special considerations on how things are done: no loaded gun in the park (this is a hunting reg, not CCW), get a ranger to verify the location of the shot AND if it needs tracked into the park, THEY DO IT.

Beware of looking down and following tracks, the boundary is easy to miss, just signs on trees. Carrying a loaded gun into the park is a fine at the least, shooting anything is a trip to jail. I know, followed a trail past a sign I didn't see. The rangers patrol regularly, and are very polite and helpful, right down to not writing up any more than they need to.

The elk work the boundary and bed both sides. I have considered going back, but am sure the next goof would not be a warning.

I recently talked to a ranger at RMNP about this. They encourage hunters and very much want us to be successful, as they have no other way to control the herd. I haven't hunted there so far just because all the checking in and out stuff seemed to be too much of a hassle. With the storm coming over the next few days, this might be a real good spot for 3rd season.

how does the checking in and out work for the surrounding park areas?

When I hunted there, there were two dedicated trailheads/parking areas for access. You buy the park access, fill out a form as a hunter. It is only something like 1/2 mile to the boundary, you want to be sure you are further in by all means, that was my mistake. I am not sure how scientifically located the signs are. The restrictions were, no loaded gun in the park, tracking into the park was to be done by a ranger if you needed to finish off one, have a ranger verify where the shot was taken from, and where the elk is before taking it out, you could start the gutting, just not move locations. The rangers regularly patrol the boundary, so there is a scent trail the elk can recognize Hunting camps are not allowed in the park, but there are forest locations, and motels in the area.

Wife and I were up there camping one year at the start of muzzle loading; must have been 200 elk walked through the campground opening day, so I know they move in from the pressure.

Yes, those GMU 18 elk mostly winter outside of Kremmling, Granby and Hot Sulphur Springs. It's not a very long migration compared to the ones that go through Craig and south into 211. Many of those don't just come from the Bear's Ears, some are coming in from much futher north in Wyoming.
As for other comments on the unit, it's got enough public land, but kinda overrun for my tastes, even in 4th season. I rate it as my 95th (out of 105) best unit during 4th season. Even during 4th season you're looking at over 6 hunters per square mile of public land. And they shoot about 40% of the bulls per year in that unit. 12% five year success average during 4th season, middle of the road elk density. Not ideal. But someone kills them, may as well be you. On the plus side, west of the park, the terrain isn't overly rough and there is enough road access.

Since the tag is either sex 4th season in unit 18 it also includes unit 181. I've been hunting around Kremmling/Granby over 30yr now lots of good areas in those units.

I've got the same tag plus late cow unit 18. They put alot of gates on the access road this year be interesting to see when they close them.

Hey Roper, how's that hope and change working out?

I waited until 3:00 pm on the last day of late season unit 28 to shoot mine. The big herds didn't start moving until the third day of heavy snow.

I'll be back up at Jeff and Sarah's for this year's late season. Should be good again.

I am SDS's friend thats been scouting around GMU 18 and 181. Looks like some nice hunting to be done, just going to have to work for it. I like the idea about hunting west of RMNP and have been up there a few times, but also have been scouting north of HWY 40 between roads 219 and 21, but south of Cabin Creek/Forest Road 112. Had not seen many hunters during the early seasons, but had not been up there for about three weeks.

The creeks that travel north and south look like they'll support some elk, its near south facing slopes that are not to hard to traverse and feeding areas near by (water, food, bedding + hunter = success (we hope).

While scouting, we noticed several primitive camping areas that support several outfits. What are the general mountain courtesy rules for camping near other outfits? Are these areas accessible for camping with a small pop-up tent trailer this time of year?

Any advice, thoughts, comments would be nice.

Also, we seen a lot of what we thought are blue grouse (?) walking along road ways, plus moose along several of the active creeks and plenty of mule deer.

I didn't do any good had some tire trouble the last day. Glad to hear you got one. We deer hunted Oct 17 thru 25 got some nice ones unit 37 and I got alittle scouting done unit 18 and I'll be staying at Red Mtn also.

traversing,
The basic courtesy is don't crowd another camp, give em as much room as you find to be reasonable given the number of hunters in the area. Only you can tell us if that specific spot can get a pop up into it, but you'll be surprised what some people will take a trailer through.
One other comment on the grouse, I always felt that if you're seeing grouse, you'll probably be near elk as they like many of the same habitat types.

Your not kidding about where people will take a trailer. I have been hunting western 18 for a couple of years now and this year there were a few people that had nice fifth wheels up on the mountain. My wife will kill me if I took our trailer up there, safer and easier with the tent and stove.

If you have a 4th season permit you might try the wheatly creek area above Parshall and Hot Sulphur Springs. They seem to move down that way towards Kremmling.

Not being set up to process an elk, does anyone have a suggestion of a processor near Denver? Not that I am trying to get the cart before the horse (elk), but would like to be ready just in case and with a processor that refered by a fellow hunter. Thanks in advance

Steve's Meats.

Rocky Mtn Meats
5650 W. 29th Ave
Wheat Ridge, CO 80214
303-233-0757

These folks are very good to deal with, friendly, and do a great job on anything you take them.

Arapaho Meats in Lafayette is also very good, but a longer haul north. I used to take all my stuff their when I lived up by Longmont.

Steve's in Arvada is just a 1/2 mile east of me, but those folks are azzhats. A hunting partner and I arrived there just at closing time once. The guys,including Steve, started cutting open our expensive meat bags, saying they were in a hurry to close up. We said we could go to Rocky Mtn Meats if they wanted. They promptly ducked through the door and locked up. I used to think very highly of Steve, having used him for more than 17 years. Needless to say, there's another wonderful example of CO customer service that I can do without.

The folks at Rocky Mtn will do you right, from the butchers in the back to the very nice ladies up front. I've known these folks for years and like them and way of doing business.

Good luck in your hunt.

A migration SW from RMNP would place the elk along the Colorado river toward Glenwood Springs. The wintering grounds of elk from the Steamboat Springs area and Northwest side of the Flattops is the Axial Basin area South and West of Craig.

thanks for the advice, as long as I have a few to choose from, we can pick once we have two elk hoof's up. We are a week away from heading up that way and setting up camp. Thanks again

Are any of the public campgrounds along the Colorado River west of Hot Sulphur Springs open ths time of year?

I only know of one small public "campround" on Beaver Creek in the SWA near the DOW office. It's not a real CG, just a few wide spots. The other areas are for fishing access only. Plenty of camping in the BLM and forest north and south of the hwy.

Thank you taz4570, we are packed and heading up in the morning.

Enjoy. We'll be there Tuesday noon or so. Looks like it will be toasty. Bummer.

taz4570, we did not run across you but we did see Roper and got some great intel on the area. The weather was nice and the snow came in on Friday and Saturday, but we had to head back to Littleton on Saturday afternoon. Spending time up there in August and Sept was helpful, just was not expecting so many road hunters in trucks and ATVs. If we had a moose tag, we'd be in hog heaven, lots of moose in the area. We are going to start planning now for next year and spend as much time as we can scouting the area until then. We ended up camping in Lone Buck off of hwy 40 across from the rifle range, next year we are going to camp elsewhere, we had trains pass by about every two hours night and day, but it was nice being by the Colorado River to fish. Hope you had better luck then we did.

We spent a full day west of RMNP up Bowen and Baker Gulches in Never Summer Wilderness, it was not so bad because there were no road hunters, however the terrian was steep. Like someone else mentioned, the RMNP rangers were helpful. They do need the herds thinned out, plus the camp ground near the access areas seemed ok even though they clear cut the trees out of it due to the pine bettle kill. This was our first year to rifle hunt elk in Colorado, for a DIY hunt, we had a great time, it would of been better if we had one or two hanging.

Although we didn't shoot any elk, or even see any in the GMU we were hunting it was still an awesome time in the mountains. The weather was mild but I'm glad I headed east when I did. I was able to avoid the worst of the weather.

We weren't the only one's getting skunked up there. I only heard (third hand) of one elk that was shot this week. I don't feel so bad knowing that I did at least as well as the "regulars".

I am envious of you guys that live up there and get to enjoy that kind of country year round.

SDS

Just got back in town from our hunt. 2 out of three and only because I didn't want to shoot one after one of my partners shot a cow in a really nasty spot. One of our guys filled in the dark stuff on the first day. Second filled yesterday noon after a 3-4 hour stalk from one side of a very steep drainage to the other. He made a close shot in the quakies that gave me several opportunities on other cows and calves. I didn't relish the idea of pulling one out of that place, much less two so I enjoyed watching them. Besides, with an E/S tag, I was after a bull. Back up there Friday for the late season cow hunt, anyway.

Very good hunt. Clocked 8-10 miles a day and surveyed lots of new territory in an area that I thought I had mastered years ago. Good ideas for next year.

Taz, congrats. We didn't hear from anyone who got anything last week. We were logging lots of miles at some pretty high elevations....especially for me. I'm a flatlander and I was sucking air up high. It just wasn't in the books for us this year but it was still a great time.

What did the weather end up doing up there yesterday (Sunday)? It was looking pretty rough when we headed out and I felt pretty lucky to get headed back east ahead of that snow.

SDS

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning were cold and snowy. Especially Sunday morning for the cold part, 8 degrees. Sunday afternoon cleared out and warmed. Sunday evening was very cold for the hike out across the ranch. I was rather happy when my wife and the rancher met us 2 miles into the hike and saved us the last 3.5. Monday am was -7 when packing out the meat the 300 yards from the tree to the road.

We'll be looking for another good partner with a very good pack string for next year.