Settle a bet about Wilderness Areas (Colorado)

[HighDesertSage]

In my experience wildness can be just as crowded. Nice easy walking trails can be just as bad as roads.

 

[GrumpyHiker]

Probably more people but significantly less annoying people. Nothing quite like the ATV brigades buzzing around at 5am every morning to remind you that you're in the middle of a circus.

 

[txhunter581]

+1. Or have a generator and radio going.

The “hunt” is more than just killing something.

 

[backstrapsaregood]

I don't know about the Colorado wilderness but I hunted the Frank Church for a few years. Everyone seems to think that wilderness = animals everywhere, not necessarily true. Another issue is there are a limited number of access points into a wilderness area, so everyone gets funneled into the same areas and you can only walk so far in. So even if the number of hunters is equal between 2 units everyone gets concentrated into certain areas. So I would take a look at the access for the particular area you are looking to hunt.

Nailed it

 

[brsnow]

I enjoy the hunt, but my goal is to harvest an elk. My family and I enjoy the backcountry year round, but the hunt is for time with friend and killing an elk.

 

[sneaky]

Wilderness areas equals more hunters. Every billy bad *** thinks he’s going to find a 300” bull in there.

I will, you wait and see. My middle initials will be M.F. too lol

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[sneaky]

You can’t even ride your regular bike in the wilderness, or even use a hand pulled cart with wheels in a wilderness.

There are certain wilderness areas where you can, motorcycles and whatnot were grandfathered in in certain wilderness areas. 99.9% you can't though.

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[H2PVon]

Wilderness has an appeal for NR for a few reasons. One big one is that I know the regs from one wilderness area to the next. Trying to learn a spot is much more than just learning animal behavior, coming across the country I also need to know all the camping regs as well which can vary from NF to NF, and even which side of the road I can camp on. Where are fire restrictions? Everything varies even within a NF. We don't get the opportunity to be there on a regular basis and get familiar with all the regs.
I walk in to a wilderness area and I know what I can and can't do, as well as what the others can and can't do. It means I'm not competing with residents that have ATV's without dragging mine across the country.
Having said that, I think I'm avoiding them from now on

 

[Topo_trekker]

I see the same amount of hunters in Wilderness as I do in NF...way more hiker and backpackers though. Last year had a guy with his dog camp about a mile down the drainage and just let him bark for 2 hrs. The elk didn’t make a peep for days after that...


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[trophyhill]

Funny when I hear guys talking about "trailheads" and how crowded it is. I tend to take elk/game trails into the Backcountry and rarely see another human. This is why scouting (boots on the ground) and picking maps apart is so important if you're looking to avoid human interaction in the Backcountry. There are horse/human trails that don't get much use, but only boots on the ground pre hunt will tell you this, or you may get lucky and stumble onto one while hunting.

 

[trophyhill]

I see the same amount of hunters in Wilderness as I do in NF...way more hiker and backpackers though. Last year had a guy with his dog camp about a mile down the drainage and just let him bark for 2 hrs. The elk didn’t make a peep for days after that...


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I hear dogs, I hunt elsewhere. Important to have backup plans.....coyotes don't seem to phase them, but if dogs are around, humans are around

 

[trophyhill]

I don't buy the NR explanation "being more appealing to nr's". Hunting the Backcountry here in my home state of NM is every bit as appealing as it would be if I were hunting any other Western state with great mountains including but not limited to Colorado

 

[txhunter581]

As a vet, I make my living from people's special bond with their animals, and there are plenty of good placed to take your dog, but elk hunting is not one of them.

 

[Rich M]

I bet there are plenty of hunters in wilderness areas - cause Go Hunt and/or Randy Newburg said to go...

 

[Coveyleader]

The difference between Wilderness areas and normal areas is that Wilderness areas, you have to walk to get where you're going. There are no guides coming in on ATVs, 4x4s ahead of you. There aren't a bunch of guys riding around on ATVs, etc. That itself is worth the price of admission. Nothing worse than walking into a Non wilderness area for a couple hours in the dark, and joe blow shows up from a different direction or via private land on his atv or jeep.

 

[Newtosavage]

This is hilarious! Another crowding issue for the wilderness areas is all the hikers and birdwatchers who flock (pun intended) to these areas to camp, and hike, and birdwatch.....all for free with no license required to help support the cost to administer these lands.

damn hikers and birdwatchers... LOL

 

[peddar01]

There will be people, however you wont see 4wheelers and side by sides

 

[ScreamingPotato]

Thanks everyone, looks like I was on the right side of this discussion. I have some other spots I think are going to be better but still need to scout out.

 

[Mason326]

Being a (now) NR hunter of wilderness in CO....

Same amount of people in a wilderness area as non-wilderness IF the terrain is fairly doable or there are trails. I prefer no wheeled traffic though, so I go that route.

I am now hunting what SHOULD be a hunter magnet (wilderness, burn, nearby ATV trails, blah blah blah), but only in miserable conditions (late season/snow) and terrain/slopes that look like this: \/\/\/\/\/\/ The steeper and harder to see or get into it is the less people I've seen.

Now, we still see SOME people where we hunt now, but they are all on the trails. All of them. If it snows, no one went past 1 mile in on the trail. The elk seem to know where the people can/can't see into, bedding areas all over the place in those spots even when they were only 200-300 yards off an ATV trail. Cracks me up. Bow season in the same place was similar but insane numbers of people. Still 95% of people were within 1/4mi of the trail. Only guys we spoke with that saw elk hiked straight up and over a mountain and got cliffed out.

 

[Roughwater]

Some wilderness areas are not nearly as popular as others. I have to say in general, you will Not find as many hunters in a wilderness area as non wilderness areas just due to the difficulty of getting there. Where I hunted in Utah it seemed like 50% of the hunters hunted the roads and thier hunts ended within a quarter mile of a road if that. I hunted in a winderness area in Colorado in 2012 and I saw zero hunters once in the Wildernss area. On the trails I saw more hikers than hunters. This was in 1st rifle season though.

Back in the 90's when hunted Colorado's Elk Archery season I only recall encountering a hunter in a wilderness area once and they were muzzleloader hunting. But I suspect it's much different now. Somewhere along the way in time bow hunting got lots more popular.