The Hunt

Skipping ahead to late October leads us to our first elk hunt in Colorado. Prospects looked good going into the hunt as several late season scouting expeditions revealed a decent amount of elk sign.

Thursday, Oct. 23rd. Arrival at hunting grounds around 7am with 3 fresh inches of snow from two nights ago. First high spot/lookout reveals no elk, although the scenery is stunning. On the right you can see the Mummy Range in Rocky Mountain National Park, however; no elk are to be seen. Our hunt continues following an elk trail discovered previously. Two sets of elk beds are found with fresh tracks from that morning. The tracks go to a feeding area with plenty of droppings as well.
The rest of the day went like this, walk, look, walk, sit, and walk some more(6.5 miles total). No elk were seen.

Friday, Oct. 24th. Arrival today is earlier at 6:30 to set up on the feeding area from the previous day. Nothing doing until 10am when we decided to look for a creek that we saw on a map. Turns out the creek doesn't exist in the fall. Only activity going on is a forest service truck doing surveying on the nearby road.

Later, two animals are seen walking a LONG ways away. Hurrying to find the tracks and catch up we were disappointed to find they were only mule deer.

Sunday, Oct. 25th. Arrival today at 6am for the 1.5 mile hike to set up on the feeding area again. Nothing doing at this spot until 8:30am when a monster mule deer buck comes down the trail 60 yards away. He stops to look at us broadside for no less than 3 minutes. A nice animal, but he was able to go on his way because he wasn't an elk. 10am rolls around and it is time to spot and stalk again. Nothing doing again.
It was a fun few days, even without seeing any elk. The weather was beatiful everyday, but perhaps a little to warm as the majority of the herd hadn't yet migrated to the area. Here is one last picture of the meatless, but happy hunters on Sunday.