Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Considering a Hunt for the Boy - M/B Caribou - Suggestions??

Only fly in hunt I've been on was for goat back in the 70's so can't comment on that aspect.

If you can walk, one possibility is to drive up the haul road (Dalton Highway) and bow hunt . Get 5 miles off the road and rifles are then legal. Hike in and camp.

Last year wife and I planned to hunt 40-mile herd, either off the Taylor (out from Tok - we have a good walk-in area there that we are familiar with - closed to vehicles - game funnel about 6 miles in, but animals are killed right from the road sometimes), or off the Steese out of Fairbanks. Our choice depended on what the ADF&G updated game surveys showed as to location of main herd. They quit updating that info last fall a week or 10 days before the opener- August 11 (again for 2020).

We had not ever been up the Steese in my 51 years in Alaska, and the last report showed that's where the herd was, so we went with that, despite warnings that it was a "circus", and "zoo". I posted about our experience after the hunt, but I'll recap the pertinent parts here.

This is a Registration Hunt, closed by EO hunt when the quota is reached. Usually 2- 4 or 5 days. 5 days last year, fall hunt, which is what we did, so that's all I know about, based on a single season. There is a fall hunt and a winter hunt. I just picked up the booklets yesterday, but available on-line too. If you prefer hard copy PM a mailing addy, I will mail one.

That time of year, everything is in velvet - caribou are the only antlered cervid females in the world, I believe. Small bulls and cows can be confused going by antler configuration only. Bulls come out of velvet around Sept 1. As NR, I think you may be limited to bull only - for residents it is either sex for that herd.

"Zoo or circus" is, in my opinion, overstating it a bit - it was indeed - um - "well attended" ....... but not wild and wooly, nor is it a a "wilderness" experience. Whatever that is. Darned pretty country, however. And easy to navigate above timberline. Every spur ridge has a 4-wheeler trail going up through the brush and timber from the road. The Steese road was far better maintained than the Taylor usually is.

We got up there the day before the opener- 2 days after our target date, scouted around a bit, found a small pull-off off the end of a spur ridge, with no one there, about 2 pm. Plan was to hike the mile and half up the face of the spur to timberline and wing it from there, figuring all those folks camped out at the two summits (one on either side, several miles away) would run at least some caribou out our way. We were partly looking the country over (or as my brother calls it "another effin scouting trip") and meat. I told my wife we shoot the first couple caribou we can, and get out of Dodge- it was warm, with just a couple days break in rainy weather, and no telling how soon the caribou would leave the country once the pressure was applied.

By dark that night, there were 8 or 9 other parties at our little pull out, (and every such) all of them with ATV's or 4-wheelers - probably 20 or so in all. (Next year if we go, me too!). Somehow they all arranged themselves with no conflict and no one blocked in. I was impressed by the civility. Even those who had ben drinking. One guy (probably an officer in the military was my impression), had an attitude sober, but he kept it sunny-side up. Enough. You know- the martinet take-charge of everything type. But he confined that to his group.

Next morning about half the ATV's crossed the creek and went up the ridge there, the rest up the near side. I was fairly bummed at that point, expecting - as advertised - a "zoo" up top. When we got there, everyone - maybe 15 parties) had spread themselves out over a couple miles either on the ridge tops or down farther on the slopes, giving everyone else plenty of room. ATV's everywhere you looked, a half-mile or so separation, so not a "wilderness" experience - tho not so different from around the Arctic villages when the caribou first arrive. Actually less frantic. We squatted between two such groups to watch the show....

Several hours after daylight. the caribou started showing up in groups of 3 to one of a couple hundred - mostly 10 to 20 or so. I shot a modest bull from a bunch of 12-15 mixed sex animals (2 decent bulls), and by 2 pm we had the first load of meat to the camper. Pull-out was empty - everyone had limited out and booked! Good plan- temps were in low 60's. Got the rest of him to the camper an hour before dark and hung up for over-night in the trees, and shade the next day.

2nd day there was only 4 other people up there -2 walk-ins, and two guys on one 4-wheeler. My wife shot another modest bull from a group of 12 mixed-sex animals (again 2 decent bulls), about 400 yards around the slope from where I had killed my bull virtually on the trail down the day before, and we were all done by 2 pm, so we buttoned up, drove back to Fairbanks that evening. We "camped" in our son's yard, then drove down to Soldotna the next day, and processed meat the two next days, first kill- first processed. That was cutting it close without artificial cooling!

If we do that again, I will not only take the Rancher for packing meat, but a cooler box or chest.Or several- with the trailer for the Rancher, I'll have room - that pickup camper is a bit confining for that!

Mission accomplished, except my wife still wants to drive all the way into Circle "to see", which we had planned, but due to late arrival, did not do in '19. Probably next year, if not for caribou season, when we go to our remote cabin (probable moose hunt). Last year about 1600 caribou were killed off the Steese in 5 days before EO closure, IIRC, and a couple dozen off the Taylor- mostly by ATV hunters. Depends on where the herd decides to be.

After the first day, probably 85-90% or more of the hunters were gone from the Steese. As long as the quota holds out, skipping the first day might give one a better experience, depending on tastes.

Oh yes- I have several rather expensive (and not needed except for interest) maps of the along-the-Steese corridor hunt area. I bought them from a local map shop, but any such are far cheaper ordering them from USGS in Denver.