First (and probably last) OTC elk hunting trip in CO

First off, no we didn’t kill anything. We e-scouted a bunch of promising spots before the trip, talked to some close friends who went last year (and were successful), got onX waypoints from them, and went to check them out. This was my first time hunting elk, and we decided to go during peak rut. Our entire trip from TN and back was Sept 20-30.

I couldn’t believe the amount of completely untouched (by elk) mountain meadows full of delicious green grass we found. Completely vacant. Almost zero sign of elk, and all of it old. Like dried-out poop old. Algae growing on top of unused wallows old. Clover growing in footprints old. And we went DEEP into it. Crawling over and through the densest deadfall we could find to these remote meadows in search of sign. And found nothing.

Started talking to other hunters. Everyone from out of state (and even a few CO natives) were kind of perplexed. We eventually found elk at lower elevations, and it seems that all the pressure had driven them down to desert areas to hide in scrub oak and private lands.

Out of the entire time we were there, we heard elk bugle on only one morning. And that was after the full moon the night before. We got a couple to talk to us, but they moved away from us deeper into private land. Smart creatures.

I’m absolutely addicted to elk hunting. It is like a combination of whitetail and turkey hunting. All the training I did for 3 months beforehand paid off. I learned a lot and have some adjustments to make for next time. I will definitely keep applying for tags. Just not sure I’m going to do OTC anymore. There is rumor that CO will be severely restricting (if not eliminating) OTC units next year.

IF it’s available again, and IF I were to do OTC again, I would go opening week. CO has a muzzleloader season right in the middle of archery. We went after muzzleloader. Seems like that was a mistake. We also found elk above 9400’ in only one of our spots, and they stuck to a 200-acre patch of private land in the middle of a national forest until nighttime under the full moon. The pressure was immense, I’m sure. I also wonder how much winter kill (which was supposed to be pretty severe last winter) had to do with the limited amount of animals we saw.

Passed these guys from Delaware (now that’s a long drive) on our way home to TN. Looks like they got the same scorecard. Lol.