Colorado unit 54 first season rifle hunt

[PistolPoke]

Hi everyone, me and my father have drawn first season rifle tags for unit 54. We are both from from Oklahoma but have many years of experience in Colorado sking, and fishing. We are both in better than average shape so I don't think the altitude will be a major problem for us. This will be our first elk hunt ever and we are in need of some advice. We spent this past weekend in the unit driving and scouting and don't feel any better about the hunt then we did before we went. We drove up 726 road first went all the way to the top where trail ends at the wilderness boundary and got out and hiked down the mountain to beaver creek. All I can say is that is some rough country an we only seen one elk. It was moving pretty fast though the woods. We talked to some bow hunters and they said they had not seen any elk. We also checked out the areas up 723(rainbow lake) and up 724 road. We both were courious as to where elk might be found that 1st rifle season will they be way back in the wilderness area, or will there be lot of snow by then that pushes them down the mountain onto national forest land. We are taking pack animals and are willing to go pretty far in to set up camp. Any info would be greatly appreciated

[Camo]

I have not hunted unit 54 but it has been my experience with elk in Colorado that you will need to go back in a few miles, away from the other hunters, to find elk. We hunted in Gunnison National Forest second rifle season last year. We walked the mountain for 3 days and never saw an elk. We were stopped by a park ranger who was a pretty nice guy. He checked our tags and asked about what we were seeing. After visiting with the guy for about 15 minutes he broke down and told us that he is not supposed to tell us this but that there were no elk in the area we were hunting. He said the elk were about 10 miles further back in the mountains and would not be where we were until after a BIG snow and after the hunting pressure dropped off. He basically told us that if we wanted to get an elk we needed to be 10 miles, or more, further in and beyond where the bow hunters and rifle hunters having been walking for weeks. The one factor to consider is do you feel comfortable back in the national forest? Have you done any preseason scouting where you plan to hunt? The woods can get pretty dark back in and you need to be prepared for weather changes and have some very good maps. There is a chip you can buy for your GPS unit that will display some good maps which will be very helpful to plan your hunt and also help you navigate around the mountains. The locals and experienced elk hunters have pretty good success but they know the mountains and they know what they are doing. Your hunt is very doable but plan, plan, plan, and do it now. There are guys on this forum they can help a lot so ask questions and a few will help if you ask.

[PistolPoke]

Thank you camo for the input. That answered a lot of questions for us. We seen lots of bow hunters hunting on the state and national forest lands that you can drive on and were wondering if there was a reason they where all hunting it seeing that we had not seen any elk. We are willing to go in far past the west elk wilderness boundary we just have some questions as to what trail head to use to enter in. The beaver creek trail head at the top of 726 road was out of the question for us. We were afraid of rolling a mule off of the trail and killing it the trail is very steep and narrow. We didn't like the rainbow lake trail head to much because of all the people that will be using it. If anyone has any info on other good trail heads into the wilderness boundary we would appreciate it. Maybe some on the northeast side of the unit.

[PistolPoke]

Does anyone have any info about the trail going into the wilderness by Mill creek off of 727 road

[kevin_t]

Yes I love unit 54 , I did mill creek up to west elk peak a few yrs ago. Nice elk country but probably need to get a ways back to get more opportunity

[WapitiTracker]

Hey Pistol,

I hunted that exact area first rifle a few years back. I hiked back and camped at the base of Storm Pass. The last push up to the alpine area right above timber line is pretty rough. I have been riding in these mountains my entire life. I would be pretty nervous taking a pack string up there, might be better suited for lamas I am sad to say. You could camp at the base before it gets nasty with your horses, as I remember I started getting into the elk about a mile past where the trail rises to the last plateau of the valley which is the nasty part of the trail. Once you get on-top of the last plateau of the valley the trail smooths out again. As you are walking up the last part of the valley there will be a ridge to the south or your left. We watched a heard of about 30 elk on this ridge (200 yards away) for about an hour. Had a 4x4 in my sights for the majority of the time trying to get a better bull to step out. Look in the saddles at the tops of all these ridges, they should be scattered with tracks in the snow from the herds migrating from ridge to ridge. That's another thing, it depends on the year but the snow probably won't be bad enough to bring the elk down yet, if it hasn't snowed about 12 inches or so the elk will probably still be in these high alpine areas. That is one thing to note, it did snow on us about 5 inches one night. We didn't see any elk that day but did see some fresh bear tracks. The first night in the canyon we had 4 bulls bugling back to us, although they were probably just satellite bulls hoping for a last minute effort . All that being said for me there was a lot of elk sign in this area including elk themselves! I don't know what type of hunter you are but if your just looking to get an elk, pull the trigger on the first thing you see up there! There are some big bulls, we had some in our binocs in another area of 54 a few days later but were never able to get to them (way up on a far ridge a long way away, big 6x6's though). There are a lot of elk in this area, some nice bulls but a lot of 4x4 rag heads. I wish I would have taken the one I was scoping for a good hour as he chewed his cud! This is rough country but gorgeous and if you hike into this place you shouldn't have much pressure, we saw no one up there at storm pass on the East side. Unit 54 is not for the weak when it comes to elk hunting, most of the area as you probably know includes the West Elk Wilderness. Enjoy!

[ferris bugler]

Good elk country all over, and good horseback riding as well. Not too much you can't ride on a horse.

[PistolPoke]

Thank you for all the comments guys the info is really helping. We both either sex tags would obviously like to take bulls but neither one of us care if we get cows though. We were kind of curious as to what they temps may be out there in the wilderness area during that second week of October. It seems to me from all the comments that there are plenty of elk in the wilderness area if we are willing to work to get to them.

[ferris bugler]

The second week of October could give you anything. Plan on cold nights, but during the day you could have anything from mid 70's to feet of snow.

[WapitiTracker]

"Hi, thanks for the info you have given me about the mill creek area. I was curious as to what 727 road is like to that trail head. Is it accessible with a truck pulling a horse trailer? How is the road? Is there any parking once you get to where the road ends? We went up 726 road while we were out there it took us two hours to get to the top of the mountain where the trail head was at. There was some areas on that road that would be very hard to access with a horse trailer. Thanks for any help you can give me."

Sorry I couldn't respond in PM. The road is fine, there is a parking spot right at the trail head you should be able to turn around a gooseneck quite easily in and park in (this is where I parked and I was the only one there). I wouldn't be worried about taking the trailer on 727 (as long as it isn't some 3 axle 40 fter, even then you are probably fine). I have never been on 726 so I can't compare it for you.

There is at trail that goes to the north of Mill Creek along the private land. Another good trail to take for many miles (7+) back, I have know several bulls to be taken from this area come 3rd season.

This past winter during 1st rifle it snowed 17 inches in one night in the white river where I was and the year before it was warm during 2nd rifle.. That being said I agree with ferris, be ready for anything. Makes packing hard when you are trying to stay light as possible.. Hiking up those ridges will making you really appreciate those high speed ski lifts! It does me anyway.

[PistolPoke]

Thanks for the info. We have a tandem axel 22' trailer so shouldn't be a problem. What is the access to the trail head like from the parking lot? It looks to me that there is some private land up there and houses before the trail would start on google earth. Also how far did you go up the creek? It looks like the creek bottom gets really narrow and steep at higher elevations up mill creek.

[Waygoner]

You won't get a trailer past the parking lot. There's a creek crossing just past the parking lot that's a little steep.

[smj281]

Hey Pistol,

I hunted that exact area first rifle a few years back. I hiked back and camped at the base of Storm Pass. The last push up to the alpine area right above timber line is pretty rough. I have been riding in these mountains my entire life. I would be pretty nervous taking a pack string up there, might be better suited for lamas I am sad to say. You could camp at the base before it gets nasty with your horses, as I remember I started getting into the elk about a mile past where the trail rises to the last plateau of the valley which is the nasty part of the trail. Once you get on-top of the last plateau of the valley the trail smooths out again. As you are walking up the last part of the valley there will be a ridge to the south or your left. We watched a heard of about 30 elk on this ridge (200 yards away) for about an hour. Had a 4x4 in my sights for the majority of the time trying to get a better bull to step out. Look in the saddles at the tops of all these ridges, they should be scattered with tracks in the snow from the herds migrating from ridge to ridge. That's another thing, it depends on the year but the snow probably won't be bad enough to bring the elk down yet, if it hasn't snowed about 12 inches or so the elk will probably still be in these high alpine areas. That is one thing to note, it did snow on us about 5 inches one night. We didn't see any elk that day but did see some fresh bear tracks. The first night in the canyon we had 4 bulls bugling back to us, although they were probably just satellite bulls hoping for a last minute effort . All that being said for me there was a lot of elk sign in this area including elk themselves! I don't know what type of hunter you are but if your just looking to get an elk, pull the trigger on the first thing you see up there! There are some big bulls, we had some in our binocs in another area of 54 a few days later but were never able to get to them (way up on a far ridge a long way away, big 6x6's though). There are a lot of elk in this area, some nice bulls but a lot of 4x4 rag heads. I wish I would have taken the one I was scoping for a good hour as he chewed his cud! This is rough country but gorgeous and if you hike into this place you shouldn't have much pressure, we saw no one up there at storm pass on the East side. Unit 54 is not for the weak when it comes to elk hunting, most of the area as you probably know includes the West Elk Wilderness. Enjoy!

That makes me feel better about my current plan. I head out there in 2 weeks. I am beelining it straight towards Storm Pass

[smj281]

So how did the trip go?

[erle1139]

Good luck guys, we'll be on the other side of West Elk Peak in Soap Basin with an outfitter. Can't wait!

[smj281]

I got a 10 point bull on my trip to GMU 54. This was my first time elk hunting and my first elk kill.

[WapitiTalk1]

I got a 10 point bull on my trip to GMU 54. This was my first time elk hunting and my first elk kill.

Wow, great job! Can't wait to hear the story and see a pic or two.