losthwy

Took a look today at the peaks over Denver today. There is fresh snow on the peaks. It has been much cooler and wetter this year than the previous three. Good Hunting.

iloveto4x4innc

My mom lives up near Salida, and said there's fesh snow on those peaks as well. 4 more weeks until I get to see it for myself. Good luck and good hunting!

fillae

I will be doing some scouting and gun sighting-in in area 68 near Sauguache this weekend. Hopefully we won't have to hunt so high this year.

oldrgr

Fillae. Would be interested to know what you see in GMU 68. My group has hunted there for 27 years either first or second rifle season or both. This will be my 9th trip to the La Garita.
Regards.

GooseHunter Jr.

Could be a good year up in them hills!!

fillae

oldrgr,

This will be my first Elk hunt. My neighbor has hunted unit 68 for several years and said they have had pretty good luck there. I'm not sure what to expect, but I want to do my due diligence. Will report back here.

fillae

Well, I went to unit 68 to do some scouting on Saturday. The recent warm spell has removed all the snow that was in the high country a couple weeks ago. It looks like late July again. I didn't do a whole lot of walking around because I didn't want to disrupt anyones archery hunt. This was my first time to unit 68, so my main focus was to find a suitable place to set up camp. The temps were in the mid 70's, and everything was pretty dry. I didn't see any Elk, but did see plenty of droppings and prints.

oldrgr, any tips on unit 68 would be most appreciated ;-) This is my first time hunting public lands, so I don't want to do anything stupid.

Alsatian

How high were you where you saw the snow to be melted?

I'm hoping to do a two/three day backpacking/scouting trip at about 11,500' in the San Juan mountains NE of Durango, Colorado in mid-October. The recent snows made me despair of my prospects of carrying out my backpacking/scouting plan, but your news about melt-off has given me encouragement.

Anyone care to comment on my chances for doing a backpacking trip at that elevation -- 11,500' -- in the San Juans about October 20 this year? The problem I fear is too much snow on the ground to go in. Of course, I know more snow -- including heavy snow -- is always possible at the drop of a hat at this time of year.

fillae

Alsatian,

I never got above 10,000' on this trip. The Ten Mile and Sawatch ranges had no snow however, including the 14,000' peaks there. I will say that the San Juans hold snow longer and get snow sooner than any of the ranges in Colorado. I did an extended trip to Chicago Basin (In between Silverton and Durango) in July, and ran in to snow at about 12'000. Like you said, the weather can change in an instant. I think your chances of running into snow Oct 20 at 11,500' are above average. Good luck!