Originally Posted by Champlain Islander

I haven't been hunting in that part of Colorado. Sounds like your grandfather has a lot of experience in that area. Spend a lot of time with him and talk about your plans. The information he has in his head is probably priceless. I am a long time whitetail deer hunter and spend most of the fall still hunting and tracking deer in the larger woods of northern New England. I hunt elk the same way and have had good success. What works for me might not work for the next guy. Our first trip was with 3 of us from our area and none of us had ever even seen an elk much less hunted them. it didn't take much time for us to learn about them. They are deer on steroids and if you are a good turkey hunter which we are that helps too. Personally I have found calls to be a great tool. Nothing works every time but a cow call used properly can yield results. I wouldn't go for elk without one. Elk are social and actually quite noisy in the timber. As they move through the timber they mew back and forth and make quite a bit of noise. If your grandfather doesn't get busted by scent ask him what he washes in because I want some of that.

If you access the Colorado DOW web site there is a great interactive map showing all sorts of info including migration corridors, summer and winter ranges as well as private and pub land boundaries. check it out..... good info.