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

I hunt 18 most years, usually in first, but went third this year and got a cow on Saturday morning. Saw a little 6x6 too. All told I was in two different herds with 30-40 animals in each.

I hauled the first load out on my back, but wound up with injured feet and had some help getting the remainder. It was a five hour round trip from my camp to the trail head and back. It would have taken three trips to get my cow out (two load of meat and a load for the hide and head) and one more one way to pull my camp. The hike out of the troublesome basin is grueling IMHO. In four days I lost 10 lbs in there. It can be done though.

Yep. What he said. It's tough hunting in there...and you'll be working hard to find a 4x4, or a 5x5. Anything bigger than that is kind of rare for that area I think. There are some big ones somewhere in there, but not many of them I don't think. Last year while in there, we bumped into some other hunters about three miles in. We came into the area from the north, they came in from the east. 10 mins later we ran into another hunter...he had packed in from the south. I haven't found that unpopulated area in there yet. Back to the maps I guess.