Colorado public land-Whats what and where and how???

[jeffy]

Ok so as i posted not too long ago, a buddy and I and maybe one or two more, will be heading to lovely Colorado next year for some DIY OTC archery elk. So of course its quite a bit in advance but prepping now until then is not harmful in any way just better planning i think.

So the question goes, how to figure out what i am looking at on google earth?

I have been looking at unit maps and can pretty well figure out where the unit boundaries are as far as geographical features and major roads and what not, but some of these areas look to be a main roads then 10 miles of hills and valleys and mountains with what looks like a circulatory system of dirt roads with dots on the end of them. Are these access roads to get to particular ridges and valleys and the dots are parking areas? All of the dots at the ends of roads also seem to have a structure of some sort on them in some of these units, are these private residences all scattered about? theres some that look to have oil pumps on them as well........ugh i was hoping to start off somewhere before getting involved in the apps for phones and gps that marks private and public boundaries and things of that nature. i definitely dont want to inadvertently end up on someones private farm so i will definitely be trying to find some clear way of defining these borders. I am very used to having public lands being marked in green on maps, but so far i have to feel like there is alot more public land than my usual designations would indicate over there. So is there really any way to tell whats public and whats not without additional info giving maps at this point?

I guess that will be the beginning of my tips and hints gatherings from you western locals. Expect more to come....im already so super pumped for this trip it is unreal!!!!

 

[COlineman78]

Here is a post I made in an earlier thread about this. I have collected some useful overlays for Colorado including land boundaries (they get a little messed up in areas that were too complex for my shapefile conversion tool, but it is obvious. Available hunting land is national forest, BLM and some state lands. Wilderness areas are often preferred by back country hunters as they are heavily restricted and allow no motor vehicles.

http://www.rokslide.com/forums/show...ting-Questions&p=440729&viewfull=1#post440729

 

[jeffy]

wilderness areas sounds perfect!!! We are already going into this planning with a mindset of lots of hiking miles throughout and at least a few miles away from the truck before we set base camp to stem out from. Definitely thinking remote, which im sure is relative coming from flatland greenies that dont have to walk for more than a day in any direction to land in some form of civilization. lol.

thanks

 

[Pow]

Sounds like you are looking at an area with a bunch of well locations.

It won't help for wells, but for private land, my county (I assume other counties have this) have a GIS system that maps private land. I look at that when I'm trying to figure out ares with patchy public/private land.

 

[Dos Perros]

Lots of counties also publish GIS data for public roads, and those will overlay onto Google Earth as well.

When you say next year do you mean 2017? If so, you'd really be doing yourself a favor to fly out for a long weekend some time this year and poke around, see it with your own eyes.

 

[AdamW]

Remain calm!

One thing I have found in my last several months of research is don't limit yourself to one media when it comes to looking at an area. My elk partner has been looking at a printed CO atlas and it has some info shown better than onxmaps, google earth, the online atlases, etc.

 

[Bar]

Check out the map on the DOW web site. It has tons of info on them including private land.

 

[yak]

I figured it all out by importing land ownership overlays into Google earth. Nothing is going to beat feet on the ground though...The other alternative is to use a program like OnXmaps.

Here is a link to some instructional videos with GE. Hope this helps.

http://www.rokslide.com/forums/show...nal-Video-Series&highlight=google+earth+video

 

[Charina]

I would suggest altering your 3D view settings in GE to get a better feel for how incredibly steep and rugged the mts are. Got to Tools: Options: and in the middle of the 3D View tab, change the Elevation Exaggeration to 2. That will give you a better feel for what you are dealing with as far as slope.

 

[jeffy]

very good advice so far. thank you for all of that.

also yes, we are shooting for early sept archery in 2017. my buddy has already said that he might make his honeymoon trip partial scouting trip as well, lol. i do like the idea of going over for a in person view of the general area. now i just need to put my tools together to try and find that select few areas we want to fully focus on.