Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting I Got My Premium Elk Tag

This year I decided to spend my 20 points in an attempt to draw a high-early bull elk tag in unit 76, the upper Rio Grande basin. I was successful. Woopie!!

Based on statistics from previous years, I had anticipated that 20 points would be enough and I would be successful. So I've already been out there a couple of times. I plan to spend a lot of time hiking, backpacking and scouting in the area throughout the summer. You know I think that may be as much fun as the actual hunt.

I've taken several nice bulls over the years, so one more bull is not all that important. I just think it will be an exciting experience to be hunting during the rut, while they are bugling.

My dog is not all that great as a companion, so I'm looking for scouting partners. If any of you are interested in doing a recreational backpack scouting trip into the upper Rio Grande basin, let me know.

KC

Congrats on your draw! Proud for you!

I respectfully disagree on the nice bull observation....My biggest is a 360 7x7 and I'm looking for a 361 every year. However, I do see your point.....there is nothing like being out there in the fall just listening to 'em go at it before sunrise. It makes you sincerely appreciate what we hunters have. I'll never take it for granted.

Wishing you the very best of luck this fall.

KC,
It was good meet you a couple of years ago and spend some time in camp with you. I truly wish you the best on your big point draw hunt, so go get a big'in.

Be Safe,

Godogs:

Thanks for the good wishes. I'm glad that there is more than one point of view. Wouldn't it be boring if we all thought the same.

KC

Dang KC, good luck!! Is that a special early season, or 1st rifle? I'd take you up on that scouting trip but right now I'm still recovering from ankle surgery.

Good job! Pics be required...... <G>

KC, I'm in Durango. Maybe we could meet for lunch over at South Fork or Del Norte on one of your scouting trips. I'd like to meet you in person. Bob

Kc--congrats, I hope you shoot a wall hanger! keep us posted.

Man KC that tag is a lot of years of waiting, Congrats! Looks like Creede is about 4 hours from us here in the springs, shoot me a PM on your thoughts regarding a scouting trip and maybe I can provide you some company.

KC - congrats! I'm guessing this is the early rifle tag correct? If so, dang that'll be a fun time! You know the unit is huge and high so I'd get some pack animals to hunt with.

Have fun!

Congratulation and good luck. I can't wait to see the pictures of your hunt on this site, hopefully with a nice bull on the ground at the end.

Nice work!! I love drawing good tags!! Savor it and hav fun!

Smokey:

The hunt is scheduled in the first week of October. There are only two units in Colorado where you can hunt during the rut and this is one of them. I'm pumped.

KC

Bill:

I'll take pictures and post them throughout the summer and during the hunt.

KC

Bob:

I sent you a PM.

KC

Congratulations! You have a great summer and early fall ahead of you!

CreekWarrior:

Yep. I'm thinking the same thing. I've already talked to one of the local outfitters. I'm checking into some kind of horse support. I don't want a guided/outfitted hunt. I can do that myself, but there will be times when a horse or mule would make things a lot easier.

KC

KC - check if Sombrero Stables has partner ranch down that far. They may not but likely know of someone that does. I can call them if you want - I've done business with them on multiple occasions for the exact service you want.

Bill:

Good idea. I just called their (Sombrero) home office. They are closed for today. I'll call them in a week when I get back from AZ.

I've already talked to Greg Pearson of Long Ridge Outfitters. He wants to sell me a drop camp. But I don't want to be tied down to some location that the Forest Service chose for where they would let him put his drop camps. I'm still talking to him. We shall see. He seems like a real nice guy. He just left to go fight some fire.

KC

Check with "Alamosa". He's hunted 76 several times. Plus he's a local---may have a lead on a pack horse.

One other idea - call the NF and get a list of outfitters/packers - I have one for Routt. That's where I ran into Sombrero.

Bob:

He has already volunteered to help with info. I'll see him soon. Thanks for the suggestion.

KC

Congrats!

Congratulations on your elk tag.

that's fantastic. good on you for being patient and drawing a really unique tag in such a high demand unit. much as I'd love to help scout...... Texas is a bad place to launch for weekend trips!

Good luck and Godspeed, sir.

I'll be interested to hear how the forest has come back after the burn a few years ago. Those burned areas might be pretty nice by now. I think that was called the West Fork Complex fire and vaguely recall it burned 110K acres. That forest wasn't healthy and probably will be a good improvement.

The outfitter I talked to down there was one of the established ones and said he only operates the early seasons due to the early winters there. I'd have to dig up the name of the outfit but his name is Sam or Sammy and he is a heck of a lot of fun to talk to. It seemed to me that an outfitter would be most useful if you wanted to go up one of those long canyons that extend south of the Rio Grande toward the Weiminuche. Passing through The Spanish Window in there is something I have yet to cross off my lifetime bucket list.

One year we were lucky enough to have some weather come in during a hunt there. I was studying the map by the dim light in the camper looking for where those elk would move down if they moved. The paths weren't hard to figure out. Next morning I got dropped off on the highway in the dark, picked my way quietly in the dark about 1/3 mile, at first light I could make out 2 hunters maybe 1/4 mile below me. I bugged out about 90 degrees different direction to put a ridgeline between me and them hoping not to mess up their hunt any more than I already had. I was not even hunting then, just hiking and covering ground and making a ton of racket. I cleared a stand of old growth pine and got that feeling I was being watched. A heavy 6x6 was standing 50 yards to my right. He had thick beams and a big dark brown mane. Maybe would have scored 325. I had a cow tag. We stared at each other a while and he waited for me to dig my camera out of my pack. When the low battery alarm sounded on my camera that was the end of that. No picture.

I hunted the early rifle season in 76 last year. I did not use an outfitter but ended up with my camp about a mile from Greg Pearson's main camp. I talked to him at the trailhead and in his camp. He was very willing to share information so as to avoid bumping into each other. He was not possessive of the area at all. He is a great guy and I ended up hiring him to pack my bull out rather than making a second long round trip with my llamas. I think his area would be a great one to have a drop camp in, and I never saw another hunter there. His guys were cheerful and a pleasure to be around. Can't say anything about their guiding skills but their horsepacking skills were top notch.

I ran into another outfitter at the Squaw Creek trailhead a couple days before the season opened, as I hadn't decided where to go yet. I don't know this guy's name but he was unfriendly, and downright unpleasant when I told him where I was thinking of going (Chief Mountain area). He told me he already had a camp in there and there weren't any elk there anyway, all had moved out, damn shame as he was bringing hunters in the next day etc etc.

Congrats on the tag KC. I'm hoping to do a smokepole elk hunt in CO one of these days.

Still planning on doing a float/hunt trip on the south side of the Brooks Range here in AK?

Congratulations, my friend. I'm glad you finally get to use those points in an area that should provide both a great adventure and a quality hunt.

KC----Not sure which part of 76 you are looking at but the San Juan National Forest is going to be closed on Tuesday. Fire danger is extreme. Not sure about the Rio Grande. Check the Durango herald's website for the story. Bob

Very nice! My sister and BIL have hunted there a fair amount. he gets a cow tag and keeps putting in for a bull.

KC
Congrats on a great tag

Looking forward to your trip report!

get them lungs & legs conditioned if you haven't already !

KC
Congratulations on your tag. Three of us drew unit 76 archery this year. We are going to hunt the last 10 days of the season. Have to get away from the roads. We burned a lot of preference points but have wanted to hunt it again. Saw lots of elk last time, just couldn,t arrow the big bull.
John

KC, I’d go for a walk in the woods with you, been meaning to go prowl 76 a bit.

MuskegMan:

Probably not this year. I'll be concentrating on this elk license. My grandson will be fifteen next year and that seems like a good age for an Alaska adventure.

KC

Alamosa:

I got your phone number via PM. I'll give you a call as soon as I can get some maps together. I'll buy you a beer.

In May I spent a couple of days up at Ruby Lakes. It was still looking pretty bleak then. Things may greening up now though.

I gave Greg Pearson a deposit for horse packing services. He seems like a good guy. He wanted to sell me a drop camp but I don't want to be tied down to a place where some forest service beaurocrat tells him where he has to place his camps.

What's the Spanish Window?

KC

Bob:

We camped at a campground in the San Juan NF on Monday night. They locked the campground gate as we left yesterday morning. Fortunately unit 76 is in the Rio Grande NF, not closed. There's a hurricane forming off the tip of Baja, and it's forecasted to move right over Arizona into Colorado.

KC

BeanMan:

I sent you a PM.

KC

KC -
I had heard of you as a mountain climber long before I heard of you as an elk hunter.
I'm guessing that at some time you probably used the Durango-Silverton narrow gauge to access some of those 13K and 14K peaks in the San Juans that are difficult to reach any other way. From most of those peaks (I forget exactly which ones) you can look east toward the Rio Grande Pyramid and notice a notch missing from the solid rock ridge - almost a perfectly square void. On modern maps that notch is labeled as The Window but old timers still know it as the Spanish Window. It is a remarkable landmark and one that few people ever see, let alone pass through, because it is remote and committing. The ridge separates Ute Creek from Weminuche Creek is not easy to cross other than through the Spanish Window. One of the cool things about passing through it is that by default you will descend via a different drainage (Ute or Weiminuche) than you entered and both are epic. Many years ago I stood at the Window, found 2 fully in tact elk skeletons there, but I have yet to pass through it.

Good for you, KC. If I had the time and money this year, I'd go prowling with you - new country is always fun. and I'm an alpine addict, whether 3,000 feet in Alaska, or 10K Outside.

And I haven't been that far south...

Greg:

Yep. I climbed the peaks in Chicago Basin thirty years ago and I've been back a couple of times since then. However, I was concentrating on climbing at the time and didn't really take the time to look at the distant peaks to the east.

I've seen Rio Grande Pyramid and The Window on the map and thought of backpacking up the Weminuche and making these old lungs burn on the summit of the Pyramid. If I get up there, I'll have to pass thru the Spanish window and descend via Ute Creek. I want to see what things look like around Black Lake while I'm at it. I suppose that I'll hitch hike back to Thirty Mile Campground. l probably take five nights for these old legs to make that trip. Wanna come?

KC

Chance to cross something off the bucket list? I'd have to seriously consider it.


The Spanish Window

Here’s a couple pics from the last 3 days KC and I spent scouting a piece of his unit. Had a great time!













[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...F-46B0-ADF2-A687349076DC_zpsgxr8ffmr.png[/img]

Man, put the pictures up! I’d like to see what I am getting in to.

Last pic wouldn’t fit I guess so here it is.

Eartag on that bear?

Yeah both ears. We called him a two time offender! He was a good looking bear.

Very nice pics!

Cool. Is that RIo Grande Reservoir in the first pic?

Smokey:

Yep. Rio Grande Reservoir. Didn't see many elk on that trip.

We saw a young bull elk on the first trip and a few more on the second trip. On each trip we also saw a few deer, a bear, and a moose.

My camera is a cheap POS point-and-shoot with a tiny digital display. I took a bunch of photos on the trip with BeanMan, but none of them are worth posting. I gotta get a new camera.

BTW BeanMan and AlaskaCub are both quality guys.

KC

It’s so crazy KC to think we drove through where the Spring Fire is not an hour before it kicked off and the conversations we had about those mountains and La Veta pass and now that chit is scorched earth!

I had to go over Poncha Pass to return for another trip with BeanMan.

It got down below freezing every night which was a pleasant surprise.

The terrain was very different from what I am used to.

Really enjoy seeing the pictures of this area, It is a great place for photographs.

Here are a couple taken just a few months after he big fire.

Congrats on the draw!

Best of luck getting to a nice one.

Love to hear them bugle during the rut.

I received my license in the mail today. I leave tomorrow morning for another scouting trip.

KC

Doing it right, putting in the pre-season work KC. Good luck!

KC,

Congrats on the tag. Best of luck to you!