help planning a colorado hunt.

[cchhaadd35]

Hello all. A freind and i are planning an archery hunt to colorado in september. We have narrowed it down to units 71 or 711 in the san juans. What i need help with is interpreting the Interactive hunting atlas on the cdow website. I cant tell wich areas we can hunt and which areas might get me shot,lol. ON the interactive hunting atlas it shows that most of these units are us forestry service land. I just want to make sure that i dont spend six months planning on hunting an area i cant. I appreciate any info you can provide.

[WapitiTalk1]

Welcome to "the" elk forum friend. Glad to have you on board. Stand by and I'm sure you'll get some input from the Colorado cats.

[Elkduds]

Everything tinted green on the atlas map is Forest Service land, yellow is BLM, both are open to hunting. Some SWAs and STLs (purple, maybe?) are open to hunting as well, you can research access to those by their individual names. Pay attention to the 2 sliders on the left side of the map to increase highlighting of tint-land status. Also helpful is the upper right box that opens/fades open motorized vehicle access on USFS lands. Some of the old roads shown on the topo maps are now closed. Watch the online tutorial and play w controls to see all the bells & whistles on the CO big game atlas maps. Plenty of useful info there. Good luck.

[atfrith]

Anything green (national forest) or yellow (BLM land) is public and open to hunting. Obviously common sense still needs to play a roll, IE: can't cross private property (generally the places on the map you see without color) to access public property, no shooting from roads, etc. Also, there are some purple areas called STate Wildlife Areas. MOST of them allow hunting but you can look them up individually byt there name and look at the indivudual property's rules. Hope that helps!

[cchhaadd35]

thank you phantom16 for sending me over here. Im finding alot more useful info on this forum. Thanks elkduds for the tip about forest service land. Thats what we were planning on hunting, i just wanted to make sure before i spend a lot of time on google earth.

[atfrith]

HAH, elkduds beat me to it.

[Elkduds]

Only 2 kinds of gunslingers, pilgrim: the quick, and the dead. I'd say we confirmed each other's info pretty well, eh?

[cchhaadd35]

Okay, now that i have that figured out, I have another issue i bet yall can help with. It probably goes without saying that i know zilch about elk hunting being from Oklahoma. I have been a whitetail hunter all of my life. I know that elk are not whitetail deer. I used to spend the summers in new mexico and southern colorado with my grand parents when i was younger and fell in love with the mountains. My expectations for this hunt are not to kill a 300
+ bull. I care not for trophy hunting, i usually only hunt does around here. I hunt for the experiance and the challenge first and meat second. From all the research ive done so far, it seems the first trip is expensive just from buying all the gear. After that ill have everything so it'll be cheaper to come back, and coming back is the plan for years to come. My main question is this: Now that i know which units im looking to hunt, What type of terrain should i focus on when looking at maps and google earth. Can you guys recommend any good books that will teach about elk behavior and habit. Me and my buddy have been looking at google earth for about a week now and it occurred to me that i have no idea what good elk hunting territory even is. Im sorry that was kind of long winded, i just wanted you guys to know what i was about.

[Indian Summer]

Keep in mind that you can't hop corners from public to public. Sections have to be adjacent to cross from one to another. Good luck & welcome aboard!

[cnelk]

Below is a snapshot of the two units you mentioned.
It shows many of the options available on the Colorado Hunting Atlas - Summer Concentration/Migration/NF/BLM

If you reference my red arrows, one shows the FSMVUM.
When you select that, you will see what roads/trails are open for vehicle use
You can use the slide to dim/highlight for better viewing

The other arrow points to the Visibility tab.
This is also a neat feature as you can use the slider to dim the Hunter Reference or Game Species

Get to know it inside and out.

Good Luck

[cchhaadd35]

Thanks cnelk, i didnt know about the tab showing me the roads. When i select elk as the game species, it doesnt show me as many options as in your screenshot. It doesnt show the migration or summer concentrations, only the winter info.

[cnelk]

Select the Visibility tab

You can check the boxes that apply to your inquiry - see RED arrows

Below that is the slider to dim/highlight your inquiry - Hunter Reference/Game Species

[timberland]

What does "hunter reference" refer to on the bottom?

[cchhaadd35]

lol, thanks. I found it right before i got your post. Thats a big help. Anybody have any suggestions on the units im looking at, 71 and 711. Are these good to target for my hunt or should i look elsewhere?

[Mikeha33]

Timberland, The hunter reference is a slider bar that you can move to see what areas are which, so you can refer to the legend, and each color, or shaded area denotes what type of land it is, i.e., State Parks, BLM, DOW, etc. It's a good tool to use to cross check the area you intend to hunt, to check all rules and regs.

[navet]

I hunted GMU 70 last year(my first). 71 is mostly public land and has Lizard Head wilderness on the north end. The NF where I hunted did not allow and 4 wheelers off the FS roads. By using the info cnelk gave above you can find all your access points. The area is beautiful. Are you packing in or hunting from a base camp?

[cchhaadd35]

I think were only gonna have a five day hunt so were probablt gonna try and and have a main capm off the road a few miles and then hunt a few miles more in.

[navet]

Sounds great... I asked because there is a very nice RV park literally across the street from Lizard Head Wilderness( South side) in GMU 71. I will find the name of the RV park if you were interested.

[cchhaadd35]

Heck yeah navet, ill take all the help i can get. 71 is still on the table for sure, nothings set in stone till we actually go do it.

[navet]

Burro Bridge camp is directly across from Lizard Head near Dunton CO. I cannot find the rv park...I hate when I forget those things...getting old