Colorado units 14 &16 Zirkel Wilderness

[NcWapitiMan_87]

Four Carolina boys heading out to chase some elk with bows in September. We're planning to check out the Mt. Zerkel Wilderness north of Steamboat Springs. Any advice on the units? We're planning to pack in and are willing to get off the beaten path; we understand the area may be a little crowded with OTC hunters like ourselves.

 

[brettb]

During sept. I think you will run into more local hikers than hunters, yes it an otc unit but that area is huge with lots of big country. Depending on which part of the season you plan on hunting you may not have to go back in miles beyond miles to get into elk. which part of the zirkels do you plan on hunting? what trail/trails do you plan on using to access the wilderness? The easiest access i can say is up seedhouse but at the same time thats the main way in along with everyone else.

 

[ncelkhtr]

We are looking at going in the south tip of the wilderness area. A guy in another forum said it use to be an awesome area but an outfitter crammed to many trips in it and over hunted it, and also that there were a lot of hunters in it didn't know how much truth was to that. Just had us worried, we can't log any miles of scouting from nc. I called the outfitter he said he has spike camps near luna lake. That's about 4 miles from where we are planning on hunting. Another question we are wondering is when to go, we are going for 2 weeks. Just don't know what 2 weeks, first 2, 2nd 2, or last 2 weeks of season.... Any suggestions?

 

[MesaHorseCo.]

I've noticed something about good outfitters. They often place there camps in good spots.

 

[eltaco]

My suggestion is to plan for the first two weeks. The problem with CO is muzzleloaders get the whole 3rd week, and you can't determine how that will affect your hunt until you're out there. I'm not certain if you're planning to take up calling, but the pre-rut has consistently provided me more close calling encounters than peak rut without a doubt. Once you get into late season, the herds have gathered up, which can make them more difficult to find... and certainly more difficult to get into bow range of that bull! To top it off, the chances of bad weather just seems to increase as the season goes on. First two weeks would be my choice, without a doubt!

 

[brettb]

Ya I second coming out the first 2 weeks. If you are planning going way back up in towards luna I would almost recomend asking the outfitter how much he would charge to pack you in. Its alot further than what it looks to be on a map. When you get to the trailhead you will see an almost full parking lot with maybe 1-2 horse trailers, 95% of the vehicles will be local hikers and its like that 7 days a week until the snow gets to deep to hike. On youre way back in dont over look some great areas only a mile in, there are alot of elk that dont get pressure til rifle season in the easily accessed overlooked areas. The outfitter has camps in that area for a reason, he wouldnt be in there with yearly successful hunters if there wasnt a decent population of animals.

 

[MOcluck]

I was looking at hunting the zirkel wilderness also but started looking at another unit because of how close it is to Denver, not sure if this matters but figured the pressure would be higher. On a side note every unit I research someone says its overcrowded so I pretty much just figure that I'm gonna run into someone else hunting no matter what. Maybe someone who has hunted unit 14 and another unit could chime in and give some insight on the difference in pressure.

 

[armyjoe]

I've put some serious time into unit 14 so I will chime in a little bit. MOcluck - not sure why you think its close to Denver. Its about 5 1/2 hours to get to most of 14. Not close compared to most units. On that note - it is heavily hunted and you will definitely run into other hunters. You can get really far back into parts of the wilderness but its a LONG walk. The Dome is the big mountain there and there are several large drainage's going N/S off of it. TONS OF BLOW DOWN AND DEADFALL IN THIS UNIT!! I've hunted all of them coming fro mthe Seedhouse road side. BUT seedhouse road area in any direction for about 2 miles back is busier then a fat kid camp on free candy day. Also going south from seedhouse road you will need to be prepared to cross the Middle Fork River or South Fork River to get to those drainages. The south side of 14 coming from Rabbit Ears Pass is pretty decent but elk are more difficult to get on consistently unless you have spent some good time in there and located some solid pockets of them. The weather isn't bad up in 14 during the first 2 weeks and I would recommend those weeks because there are a TON of muzzle loader hunters that role in the 3 week.

If you do go into seedhouse road area I would recommend going all the way back in and hunting the two drainages that run North from the turnaround point. There is a trailhead there to Glipin Lake that you take and hunt off of that or you can go south from that parking lot down towards Gold Creek Lake drainage. That area will be rough but holds elk.

 

[cnelk]

Here is a good map with lots of info for those areas.

http://www.mountainjaymedia.com/pages/mountzirkelwilderness/graphical_hiking_trail_guide.htm

 

[MOcluck]

Sorry for some reason I was thinking of the Eagles nest wilderness, there all kinda blending together, could be that I was reading this thread at 3 in the morning cause I got called put to work to watch for freezing rain. Anyway sorry for the mix up and thanks armyjoe for the info.

 

[Pilgrim]

armyjoe and I put a lot of time in gmu 14 up there. One time, I talked to some other hunters up there that were on the north side of Seedhouse Rd hunting somewhere on Farwell Mountain. They said they were into elk, thick. armyjoe nailed it: if you're not on the trail, you'll likely be fighting the blowdown/deadfall, and that takes a ton of energy and time. If you're going in Seedhouse, go in and take the trail up south fork toward the dome or bushwhack into bear canyon (b/w burn creek and south fork). It would not be a fun bushwhack, but we ran into a group of guys one time that hunted that time and time again, successfully. Also, just to check for sign, take some of the trails not far off the road. Sometimes small pockets of elk hang out in areas close to the road that hunters overlook.

 

[jdmaxwell]

OP... I also posted this info on other site..
I hunted Mt Zirkell Wilderness area for 4 yrs in September..
We had good success and encounters there, but a lot of people also..
Also, I stated before, there is a early season Rifle Mule Deer hunt in the wilderness starting around Sept. 6th for a week..
We ran into guys hunting mule deer in there and once they started banging with high powers, the elk got very quite and on high alert..
No matter what getting to hunt any area like that is still awesome..

 

[RPS]

I've hunted unit 14 in Colorado for a few years (5+) now and have found the southern part to have many more hunters/hikers than the northern part (probably because of the shorter distance to the metro areas). What elk I've seen in the southern part always seem to be on edge and given the larger number I've been able to find up north, that's where I'm focusing my efforts.

 

[PARA1]

Ive put some miles in 14 I have always hunted from Buffalo pass east to 3 island lake, I think its about 4 miles in to the lake but it is pretty
in there and really didn't care if I saw an elk are not, but I did get on a good bull watched him three days but couldn't connect the beetle kill and
blow down is thick but it seems to hold elk. V/R

 

[husky390]

If you're camping in the trees, pay close attention to where you pitch your tent. There are a ton of beetle killed trees that are still standing, aka widowmakers. Also, moose are in that area. We backpacked into Rainbow Lakes two weekends ago and it was a zoo along the main trail.

 

[COlineman78]

I suspect that the overhunting by outfitters is a rumor or exaggeration started by people that hunt those areas to try to keep people out. I would worry a lot more about the early mule deer season rather than muzzleloaders scaring the elk. I would actually recommend the opposite of others and go later to avoid high powers. I hunt muzzleloader and I can tell you from experience they don't scare elk the way rifles do. Even when you're shooting at them they don't even move half the time. From what I know the south and west sides are more popular than the east side, so I'd look at the trailheads closer to Walden. It also is far from close to Denver. With perfect weather it's a 3.5-4 hour drive, which is longer than a lot of the more popular wilderness areas.

 

[PARA1]

I can tell you this about 14 its not easy country, I spent 10 days alone in there and I can say that its doesn't seem an ideal outfitter/packhorse
friendly area its steep with very few trails off main trails, remember its wilderness so there will be know 4 wheeler hunters also there is a dome trail that splits the divide id you want to start high and hunt down.

 

[MAT]

20 years ago I looked at a map and chose the Steamboat area based on proximity to the WY border and distance from Denver, I figured it was a remote area and there would be less hunters if access from one side was closed. Turns out the opposite was true! The north end of the Zirkels (technically GMU 161) is popular with hunters. It’s a very popular muzzy spot too as access is easy and there are plenty of ATV trails. Not many hikers so if you see vehicles at the trailhead most will be hunters.

Steamboat has grown a lot in the last 20 years, it’s no longer a sleepy little ski town in the off season. Any trailhead within an hour drive will be full of hikers, many of which were very curious of my traditional hunting gear last time I was there. I would not let hikers deter me though, just be aware they will be on the trails and camped at some locations. They can even offer intel on elk if you ask nice! I keep going back as I know the area, which always seemed better than trying the learn a new one.

Outfitters camps are permitted by the USFS so they know where they are, and I think they have to let the USFS know when they are occupied. I’ve had good luck with other USFS offices asking for maps of these locations, which the outfitters hate but it’s public information. The Steamboat office of the Routt NF is not as well organized but you can ask about an area of interest and they will tell you where the camps are. They can also email you a list of the permitted outfitters too. Most of the camps however are only occupied for muzzy and the rifle seasons, thus the concern from outfitters with having maps of their locations! It would help if they would actually set their camps up a bit more than easy foot hiking distance from a road. But there are plenty of guys willing to pay $1500 for a “wilderness” experience. I also think outfitters put up camps to “claim” an area of public land as they don’t use all of them every year.

Steamboat Lake is also very popular, any nice weekend it will seem like Disney Land with all the traffic. Most of the roadside campsites in the NF will be full of tourists and fishermen. In addition this is also a popular area with grouse hunters so you’ll run into them even in the wilderness. I ran into one guy who was 4 miles into the wilderness area with his dog.

If you are looking in the Seedhouse area the Greenville Mine road is passable but it’s rough (too rough for a trailer of any sorts so no horses). There are logging roads not shown on the map that head east towards the areas mentioned above. I’d call the USFS to ask on conditions as it sounds like it’s been a very wet year out there.

One other thing beside the early rifle deer (above 10K), there are now bighorn sheep up high in the Zirkels so you may run into the few hunters lucky enough to draw a tag. And watch out for moose esp. driving at night. And those big dumbass black angus.