Wyoming Unit 36, A first timer story/info

FlareBlitz91

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Messages
174
Hey all,

Long time lurker here, figured I’d make a post and share some lessons learned and maybe help another first timer down the road.

This past year my grandfather died, not to get into the deep specifics of it all, but he was hugely influential on both my father and I and our love of hunting and the outdoors. He always wanted to do a western hunt (we’re from Wisconsin) but never made it, my dad has done one mule deer hunt but never elk, i also was turning 30 this year and said screw it, I’m tired of watching other people do things i want to do. Bought a leftover tag and told my dad to get one or not, I’ll go alone if i have to. At that time the only tags left were cow tags in the bighorns, I grabbed unit 36 and figured worst case scenario we have a great time.

Bottom Line Up Front: We didnt shoot an elk, but not for lack of effort. We did have a good time and learn some things about the unit and hunting in general though.

If you’re looking at this unit, access is DIFFICULT to most of it. We first thought we’d access from Hunter Mesa using the forest road and set a camp. With snow these roads become impassable unless you have an ATV or a dedicated off road vehicle with a winch. We did not so we walked in from the campground on Day 1, getting passed by ATV’s the whole time. The forest here burned a few years ago so is that young dense pine, zero visibility off trail. About 1.5 miles in on the road is where people are setting camp. We did see a cow moose here at about 60 yards so that was pretty cool.

After 1 day of hunting we decided to bail on this access plan. There was no elk sign in the area and 1.5 miles of walking to just reach where other people are camping is a no go for me. So we went down lower to the east side of the NF to access from some state lands. These are really the two main access points. There are others possible but would be grueling to then just be on level with people using these.

The access from the East is far better. LOTS of hunters though, most of them deer. Your options here are to either camp in the designated area on state land or disperse on NF. We did the former because my father doesn’t have the same level of back country camping experience i do, I’d have preferred the latter though to save us miles and elevation gain every morning, but it is what it is.

In this area we found fresh elk carcasses that had been killed opening weekend, saw a couple bulls packed out, and talked to a lot of hunters. Great experience overall, but we could just not seem to locate the elk, and by the sounds of it nobody else could that week either.

We did see a ton of mule deer in addition to the moose, mostly does, small bucks, but at least one bruiser that defied this deer regions reputation. He was in some hairy terrain though….which is funny because the deer hunters we talked to weren’t seeing anything, they seemed to be doing more walking than glassing.

Anyway, we came home empty handed, but had a killer time. I think my dad will stick with mule deer hunts for the future but for me we will see.

Short version if you’re looking for advice: Unit 36 has a ton of available cow tags and is a general elk zone, if you’re looking to dip your toe into it with a reduced price tag it’s a good buy. But be realistic that the hunting pressure here is disproportionately exaggerated by the difficulty of accessing the national forest land creating a couple funnels, one of which is basically restricted to vehicle use. I’d recommend packing in and camping at least 1.5 miles from the trailhead to get yourself a leg up. Plenty of deer in the area (not as many as others probably) but you have to be willing to sit down and LOOK. 37F74E12-C7C2-429F-BA46-BDEB5E00D8BB.jpegE4AA4E5C-E954-44EE-9109-BCC150C2B588.jpegA03C6B4A-7C79-4CB5-94F5-B94106CEE38E.jpeg819C0CE1-1226-4FF0-8FA0-DE8FDFAEBB14.jpeg4931A0AE-78E0-41E3-8710-9E5113E06C2D.jpeg06B3D4F6-7297-46CE-99A1-24D109F55DC0.jpeg4FE9A232-87B5-472F-99BF-DCCA9CFB8C25.jpegFC017023-9632-4B60-9F59-31AB4B24EF40.jpeg
 
Joined
Feb 17, 2013
Messages
2,254
A first elk hunt is 100% a learning experience more than it is a hunt. Your first lesson is you cannot learn to hunt elk until you find them. So picking a unit that not only has unlimited access to hunting but also is going to suit your goals and abilities is priority number 1. Be careful not to get a bad taste in your mouth by giving it hell in places that don’t have that. Learning an area is key to putting the pieces of the puzzle together and so I’d highly suggest cow hunting where you will bull hunt. Even if summer scouting isn’t as fun you’re better off doing that in your bull area than spending time elsewhere. Every day is an investment in future successes. Each day… and each season, you pick up where you left off. Easy draw cow tags these days almost guarantees private land with tough access. I admire your attitude and self motivation to just jump in and get your dad started. Your grandfather is smiling. But now he wants to see you kill one so plan with care and the time to start is right now.
 
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4rcgoat

WKR
Joined
Dec 12, 2015
Messages
1,191
Location
wyoming
Agree 100% with the above statements, im just up the road, we get cow tags for 37 regularly and most of the time the majority of cows are on private by then. But if you hammer out the face of the mountain long enough you can catch some stragglers that might be moving in or out of private. Once the snow piles up it gets pretty grim on NF.
 
OP
FlareBlitz91

FlareBlitz91

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Messages
174
Agree with what you’re saying completely, it was totally meant to be a learning experience and get out to see what we could see. Hunt hard but count it as a success if we even found elk.

The ones we found weren’t alive, but gave hope that we weren’t complete idiots.

Also I’m just a big fan of camping/hiking etc as it is, it’s plenty of fun for me to do that while looking for elk, and better than the times i did similar stuff in the army. I’m more likely to burn myself out stomping hills and ridges back home chasing white tails.

Next time though I’ll be on time for the regular draw and will put fort the effort like you suggested!
 

waitforit

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Mar 23, 2019
Messages
180
Great writeup! I hunted 36 and I'm pretty sure we went to all the same places along the way. It is a tough hunt, lots of hunters and agree that access is really challenging. I was impressed at some of the people we ran into on foot 3-4 miles back. I left with the impression that in that zone it was all about placement on opening morning - after that the elk seemed to have scattered. Like you I could not solve that zone and have moved on to try other places but I need to go back sometime to see if I can figure it out!
 
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FlareBlitz91

FlareBlitz91

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Messages
174
Glad someone else can confirm! It definitely seemed like the elk we saw picked out were in the first couple days and then they were scattered to the wind. It was beautiful country and the hiking wasn’t bad, but i probably won’t come back without some more experience under my belt elsewhere with less challenges.
 
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FlareBlitz91

FlareBlitz91

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Messages
174
How much different if at all is hunting this unit during Archery?
I couldn’t say as i haven’t been that early, better road conditions make for slightly better access but I’d expect the elk to be higher so it’s a horse a piece I suppose.

Only one way to find out i suppose :p
 

Dwnw/theAltitudesickness

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Apr 21, 2021
Messages
216
I personally don't like that October 15th date to hunt elk. Rather hunt a month earlier or month later. Hunted the Bighorns during this timeframe few years back, so many deer hunters until that season closes. Elk might fall all they way off the mountain with a big snow and then climb all the way back up with the high hunting pressure. Or stay on the giant private ranches.
 
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FlareBlitz91

FlareBlitz91

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Messages
174
I personally don't like that October 15th date to hunt elk. Rather hunt a month earlier or month later. Hunted the Bighorns during this timeframe few years back, so many deer hunters until that season closes. Elk might fall all they way off the mountain with a big snow and then climb all the way back up with the high hunting pressure. Or stay on the giant private ranches.
Agreed that there are a lot of deer hunters, especially clustered around one of the two real access points. Like someone else said it really makes it an opening day game and after that everyone is scrambling to make the best of it, from what i saw at least.
 
Joined
Mar 16, 2021
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Western Iowa
Agreed that there are a lot of deer hunters, especially clustered around one of the two real access points. Like someone else said it really makes it an opening day game and after that everyone is scrambling to make the best of it, from what i saw at least.
We hunted 35 this past fall and waited until the 22nd to try and avoid some pressure. Our experience was very similar to yours, and we worked our butts off and came home without an elk. However, my buddy and I had our kids with us, and they had an experience that changed them.

We typically drove in with my Ram as far as we could in the dark and hiked in from there. We got past all the camps, and it got pretty sporty once the snow fell. We averaged 6 miles of boot leather every day, and after putting a herd of cows to bed one night, we punched out 12 miles and a couple thousand feet of elevation the next day.

The elk were scattered, and the guys we talked to on the trail said movement was good from opening day until about 10/19. Then it just died. We hunted hard from 10/22-10/28, leaving in the dark and coming home in the dark. The country was awesome and the time spent with my daughter was priceless. Even though she leaves for college next fall, she will be in Central NE, and she keeps telling me, "...but Dad, I'll be 3 hours closer to WY from school..."

Can't wait to get back!
 
Joined
Apr 8, 2019
Messages
1,780
The elk were scattered, and the guys we talked to on the trail said movement was good from opening day until about 10/19.
This for sure and its well documented in JSC reports. We were camped a north of 36 and the 1st night of season we couldn't sleep for the elk buggleing behind our tent all night. Filled my gen tag 2nd day of season at around 8400 feet while it was dumping 8ish" of snow. I do think opening up season earlier this year will help with success rates.
 

Mrshort

FNG
Joined
Dec 31, 2020
Messages
29
Location
Colorado
Cool! Thanks for sharing your experience. Lived in CO all my life... but haven't tried WY yet. Gonna fix that in the coming years.
 
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