Routt elk hunt

[squirrelduster]

I am planning on an archery elk hunt in Colorado next year. I am looking at the west side of Routt N.F.
I would like to get away from most of the people.
Is this a decent hunting area with not a thousand people on ATV's?

 

[strombeckj]

I am planning on an archery elk hunt in Colorado next year. I am looking at the west side of Routt N.F.
I would like to get away from most of the people.
Is this a decent hunting area with not a thousand people on ATV's?

Depends, If you want to get away from most people look for "Wilderness Areas" within the Nat'l forests. no motorized vehicles allowed... Two feet and a heart beat or maybe 4 hooves.

Jon

 

[squirrelduster]

My main question is the ATV's.

I can deal with people but the guys riding ATV's everywhere drive me nuts.

I plan on camping two or three miles from any road and hunting from there. Not exactly a pack trip but hopefully far enough back to get away from most of the people.

I would expect that the archery season would not have quite as many hunters. Anybody hunt back in there?

 

[strombeckj]

You need to keep in mind that archery elk can be warm here and many people will ride ATV's to get to the top using 2 tracks and high lift roads since that is where the largest amounts of elk will be. Anytime you are dealing with public land you will have ATV's. Labor day weekend also falls right in the middle of archery Elk. HUGE camping weekend for lots of people. First two weeks are archery then mixed with muzzle loader (10 days) and the back to archery. Being 3 miles in will help and the elk will most likely be on the N and W sides at around 10,000 ft if it anything like this year. Almost 80 degrees in the sun and around 70 in the timber.

You can check into the summer herd population and find out where they are held up.

If you want to keep away from ATV's you may want to look into the flat tops area.

Jon

 

[squirrelduster]

Thanks for the info. I'll start looking at wilderness areas.

 

[BH Hunter]

I have hunted in the Zirkel's, it was so stinking crowded I could not believe it. Trailheads from every direction, you could only get so far and people were coming in from the other side. My horses aren't big lama lovers and there were lama's everywhere it seemed. We shot one elk in there and it was so hot we packed it out and hunted the NF for the remainder of our trip. I like the NF outside of the wilderness better. Comanche wilderness was much less crowded. I think both were CWD areas that had special rules for taking your elk home as I recall. It has been a number of years since I hunted elk in Co, however.