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Wildlife Migration
By PK | November 23, 2008
‘Tis the Season’ for the wildlife to migrate to their winter range lands. Dalton and I have been waiting for the elk to move from the Flat Tops Wilderness down to the private ranch where we have licenses for our last attempt for bagging an elk. Our question has been, “Where’s the Elk?” They seem to be very elusive, as many hunters this year were unsuccessful in filling their freezer.
Hunting on public land ended November 16, and only hunting on private ranches is now permissible. We’re ready, hungry for elk steak, so where’s the elk? It’s very apparent they are not on the private ranches. The weather has been unseasonably warm, delaying the movement of elk. We decided to go scouting.
We began our loop of Moffat County and Routt County by traveling west on Hwy 40 toward Craig, Colorado. We then took numerous side roads, north and south of Craig. We did this for two consecutive weekends, hoping to locate elk.
We spotted approximately 200 antelope (pronghorns) during our first weekend. I find antelope interesting for some reason and wouldn’t mind having a nice buck hanging on my wall. I’ve also never tasted antelope, and I’ve heard it’s not as tasty as elk. Regardless, next year I’m going for a pronghorn license as well as elk.
South of Craig, we counted quite a few mule deer. Amazingly, some of the deer were wandering around the residential areas of Craig.
I shot this mule deer buck, with my camera, inside the fence in front of someone’s house only two blocks from downtown Craig. With hunting season over, I can only imagine a hunter sitting inside that house fuming with this buck roaming around in his front yard.
North of Craig we came across quite a few herds grazing close to the road. One such herd was having their supper on the baseball field, others in neighboring lawns of Craig’s residents.
This photograph was taken along Hwy 7, north of Craig. We counted approximately 150 mule deer in our excursion of the Craig vicinity. Most of the mule deer we saw were does, only a few were bucks.
As the sun began to set on our western horizon, I captured this beautiful display of color.
We returned to Craig dashing our hopes of seeing any elk. But we soon perked up when we seen this huge mule deer buck visiting a Craig neighborhood.
Though not an elk, this buck is definitely worthy of being a trophy.
Our second weekend out in the field looking for the elusive elk proved much of the same at the beginning. It seems to always start with antelope.
From our vantage point above them, we could see they were spread out on both sides of the road. There were several nice bucks including one buck that only had one antler.
One unusual occurrence happened that never occurred before. The antelopes were crossing in front of our vehicle. All the other times, they have turned and run in the opposite direction. Could they know that hunting season was over? *grin*
Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam
And the deer and the antelope play…
And, of course, mule deer are abundant as well.
For our two day total, we counted approximately 350 antelope and 250 mule deer. That’s lovely! We’ve seen some awesome views of wildlife. At this point, we’re just watching to make sure they don’t jump out in front of us and create a new hood ornament and the big question yet remains, ‘Where are the elk?’
I’m literally twitching in my seat, my neck is aching from turning side to side, looking up and down the mountain sides and tops and bottoms, and watching to make sure Dalton stays between the ditches cliffs. I won’t even go into what Dalton is doing because he is worse than me when it comes to elk, but whatever he’s doing, he’s doing it while he’s driving!
Well, okay, he got a little loopy on me. In fact, we drove around in a loop and landed back in Craig. We grabbed a quick lunch and headed out again. We decided to ‘rethink’ this situation. The mass herd of elk are coming from the Flat Tops Wilderness, that we knew for sure. They would be headed north by northwest toward Craig, that we knew for sure. We decided to head farther south towards the Flat Tops, then west by northwest to try to intersect and see if they were migrating towards their winter range.
In the far distance in this photograph is the Flat Tops. As you can see, we are also at a higher elevation. This is the furthest road south towards the Flat Tops that is accessible by car and without a four-wheel drive truck, you won’t be traveling on the road we are now on. The roads were covered with packed snow and ice and towards the top of this mountain the snow was roughly 6 - 8 inches deep.
We seen one bull and one cow….finally!!!! Okay, actually, he saw them, but he could have been hallucinating. By the time I managed to get out of the truck and around the back, slipping and sliding along the way, they were gone. It was about this time that I realized two things. One, he actually stopped the truck on a 3-inch slab of ice and two, if it hadn’t been for the truck, I would have landed on my rear-end at the rear-end of the truck. Now, that wouldn’t have been so bad if we were headed downhill, I could have kept my hold on the truck and just skied along if it decided to start sliding. But we were headed uphill and I knew the truck could easily slide backwards. Needless to say, it didn’t take me as long to make it back inside the truck as it did to get out of the truck, which definitely is a first for me.
We’re up on top of the mountain at this point. Among tracks of a snowmobile are also tracks of elk. By this time, we’ve seen quite a few sets of hoof-prints made by the ever elusive elk. That’s Dalton in the photo with his binoculars. He keeps them within reach while driving and I swear a few times he’s tried to drive with them plastered to his eyes! To the right of him are restrooms and all I can say to that is, “Praise the Lord!”
With our weary minds now resting that we know the elk are ‘on the move’, I decided it was time to ‘once again’ take pictures of the ever-increasing awesome scenery. But before I continue, I would first like to show you this sign.
You won’t have to enlarge cause I’ll tell you what it says. It says there are over 30,000 elk in this area. Can you imagine 30,000 elk and driving all that we have drove and only seen two? That, my friend, is the elusive elk I speak of, the elusive elk in which we hope to bag, and the elusive elk steak we hope to soon be eating!!!
Now, on with the scenery!
The Flat Tops Wilderness in snow.
This is the Flat Tops Scenic Byway in which we’re traveling. There are no guard rails to keep you on the ‘not so straight’ and ‘narrow’. The snow is patchy as we descend on the western side. You can read my previous article, Flat Tops Scenic Byway when we visited there during the summer months.
A lot of territory for 30,000 elk!
That’s the road down below we’ll soon be on. One more switchback and we’ll be off the mountain!
Awesome, huh? This was taken at the base of the mountain on the road in the previous picture.
For once in my life I’m hoping for bad weather. That will push the elk further down and onto their winter range land. Soon, even hunting on private ranches will end and that end will come very soon.
Stay tuned to further adventures of Blogging Us:
The Argo Mines
Caribou or Santa’s Helpers?
Strawberry Hot Springs Review
Elk Hunters from Pennsylvania
The Meeker Hotel, Past and Present
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Topics: Colorado |
5 Responses to “Wildlife Migration”
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November 23rd, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Beautiful pictures as usual. I have never seen antelope. I hope your butt isn’t bruised from your fall. Tell that hubby of yours to keep his eyes on the road! If I don’t see any posts from you for a while, I will worry that you drove off a cliff!
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Those mule deer are big chaps, great scenery again whichis what we come to expect now. I’m sure you will bag one elk at the end of the day. What will you eat during the winter if you don’t?
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Karen, don’t feel bad. I’ve never seen one either until I moved to Colorado. They are interesting animals and don’t worry about Dalton’s driving. I’ll make sure we don’t drive off a cliff. lol
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Martin, It is beautiful scenery here and I never tire of it. Hopefully, the elk will migrate down to the private ranch and we can bag one. If not, it’ll be the usual - beef, chicken, pork, fish, whatever the grocery store has…lol
December 13th, 2008 at 10:18 am
The antelope are beautiful- their markings are really cool looking. I’m not a fan of hunting, so I hope you get to see them but I hope you don’t kill one:-)