Where to hunt in Colorado - Map Study

[cohunter14]

There has been a lot of questions going around about where to hunt in Colorado. How do you pick a unit and, once you do, where do you go? The CPW website has a lot of useful information to help you pick a unit including estimated herd sizes as well as estimated success rates for each season. These can help you get an idea on where to start. So, once you boil it down to a unit or two, where do you go from there?

The CPW has a hunting atlas available here: http://ndis-flex.nrel.colostate.edu/HuntingAtlas/. On this site, you can zoom into locations, toggle back and forth between aerial maps, topo maps, and a basic street map. You can also select a number of things that are relevant for finding elk, including summer ranges and concentration areas, winter ranges and concentration areas, as well as migration routes and corridors.

Here is a screen shot of a random area that I just pulled up. I covered up all of the relevant information using paint, so hopefully I am not giving away information on someone\'s honey hole

[attachment=0]<!-- ia0 -->summer1.png<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment]

You can see that I included all of the summer components for this area as well as the migration information. The basic pink area is the entire summer range, while the area with pink hash marks is the summer concentration area. These are defined by the CPW as follows:

Summer Range: That part of the range of a species where 90% of the individuals are located between spring green-up and the first heavy snowfall, or during a site specific period of summer as defined for each DAU. Summer range is not necessarily exclusive of winter range; in some areas winter range and summer range may overlap.

Summer Concentration: That part of the summer range of a species where densities are at least 200% greater than the surrounding summer range density.

 

[cohunter14]

So obviously, if you are going to be hunting archery season or one of the earlier rifle seasons, you are going to want to focus on the pink areas, with the hash mark areas being even better. So, let\'s take an area that has the high concentration and focus on that. Here are some zoomed in maps of the larger concentration area on the right. You will see a topo map with the \'game species\' transparency still high so you can see the hash marks and a topo map without the \'game species\' information.

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[attachment=0]<!-- ia0 -->Untitled.png<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment]

 

[cohunter14]

Next, here is the aerial view as well as the FS-MVUM map, which shows the motor vehicle access to the area:

[attachment=1]<!-- ia1 -->aerial.png<!-- ia1 -->[/attachment]

[attachment=0]<!-- ia0 -->Untitled2.png<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment]

 

[cohunter14]

So, now lets turn this over to you all and make this a learning experience. You have all of this information on approximately a 60sq mile area here (10 miles x 6 miles). If you were heading into this area to scout or maybe you can\'t even scout and you are just heading in to hunt, what will your plan be? Where will you focus your time and why? What do you like and dislike about the area?

One thing I do want to point out is to ignore the elevations listed as they are not correct. I have no idea where those came from.

As a reminder, you can save this image to your computer, right click on it and click \'open with paint\' and you can mark this map up with anything you want. Save it and attach it in your post.

 

[americanbwana]

Here is my input.

I\'d personally check the areas with lines to look for water, wallow, and areas where they may travel.

The circled areas may be bedding areas.

 

[razorback]

What stood out to you about the areas you circled as bedding areas?

 

[americanbwana]

North facing \'holes\' with streams below them. I\'m guessing there may be a spring up near the top third. I\'d look for those wet areas, and hence maybe even some wallows.

They also have some flatter areas, might be good bedding areas. Or depending of how open they are, maybe areas that attract herds during the night. If so, you might be able to hear them bugle at night, and maybe drag in a satellite bulls at first light. Or dog them to figure out where they are going to bed down.

AB

 

[Retterath]

That is a good tool provided by colorado, i have been using it a lot lately now i decided on a unit.

 

[razorback]

Maybe a little off subject but when folks refer to \"parks\", are those the open areas you are referring to?

 

[cohunter14]

Maybe a little off subject but when folks refer to \"parks\", are those the open areas you are referring to?

Yes, parks are meadows.

 

[cohunter14]

I will throw out some initial thoughts on this one since it has been a few days. First of all, this was completely unintentional, but this is a great way to show the importance of the FS map on the DOW site. You will see that the majority of the high concentration area is lacking any roads.

This brings me to a point that I try to make when you hear someone say they want to hunt wilderness areas and get away from everyone. You will see on this map that there are a couple of pack trails that go through the area, and the majority start on the northern portion of the map. There are also at least six different trails that dead end up in that area. So, to me, there is going to be a lot of traffic during hunting season up north and a bunch of them will either be hunting right there, or jumping on those pack trails and heading in. If I were to hunt this area, I highly doubt I would plan on coming in from up there. Instead, I would use the road on the eastern edge of the map. There is one pack trail that comes off of there, but heads south fairly quick. But why not park off that road and head in to the area? This is something I always try to mention to people hunting wilderness areas: you don\'t have to enter it at a trailhead like everyone else. Find a different place where there is less traffic.

Those are some of my initial thoughts. I will add more notes later, but I would like to see some others mark up the maps first. Common guys, don\'t be shy! :tease: