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Back to New Mexico - Archery elk this time
- Thread starter seeth07
- Start date
seeth07
Well-known member
Photos from that trail cam. Lots of different wildlife.
seeth07
Well-known member
Been busy and also slacking. Time to wrap up day 1.
Back at camp from that first morning hike we both feel asleep right away for a nap and after waking up, there was no doubt we were out of shape. Stiff, sore and overall just out of energy for the day. We eat something and decide to head to plan b spot. It's about a 30 min drive over there and we get to the marked trailhead and it's empty - pretty common theme on this trip for the most part.
At this location there was a marked drinker not too far in and on a ledge before it dove off into a deep ravine. Up the steep other inside and down in the next gentle valley was supposed to be another drinker.
Doesn't take long and we get to the first drinker and it's full with some elk tracks around it. Just like the first waterhole we found, this one had a camera on it. In fact, exact same one, maybe same guy that thinks just like me on where elk could be? We press on and right after is the steep slopes down. No, it's not a slope down, it's really more like a cliff. With great regret and protest, my wife follows me down. In the bottom, we are greeted with an incredible view up and down the creek bottom with a large amount of flowing water through carved rock faces.
Two problems. First, there wasn't an immediate place to cross and second the cliffs on the other side were worse and basically impossible. After some review of map and judgements I could make by reading the landscape and trees down stream, we make our way and get across, and get back up on top.
Unfortunately, the next drinker down in the next valley was empty but we continued on making a big loop up and down many small finger ridges and eventually making our way down back to the truck with having to cross the creek drainage again. The elk sign in this spot was just as decent as the first location, no doubt there are some elk in there but not massive herds.
Back to camp and excited because my cousin was going to be arriving in a few hours. He is 10 times more experienced elk hunting than I am having lived in the Grand Junction area all his life so I knew that our chances were about to significantly go up!
Back at camp from that first morning hike we both feel asleep right away for a nap and after waking up, there was no doubt we were out of shape. Stiff, sore and overall just out of energy for the day. We eat something and decide to head to plan b spot. It's about a 30 min drive over there and we get to the marked trailhead and it's empty - pretty common theme on this trip for the most part.
At this location there was a marked drinker not too far in and on a ledge before it dove off into a deep ravine. Up the steep other inside and down in the next gentle valley was supposed to be another drinker.
Doesn't take long and we get to the first drinker and it's full with some elk tracks around it. Just like the first waterhole we found, this one had a camera on it. In fact, exact same one, maybe same guy that thinks just like me on where elk could be? We press on and right after is the steep slopes down. No, it's not a slope down, it's really more like a cliff. With great regret and protest, my wife follows me down. In the bottom, we are greeted with an incredible view up and down the creek bottom with a large amount of flowing water through carved rock faces.
Two problems. First, there wasn't an immediate place to cross and second the cliffs on the other side were worse and basically impossible. After some review of map and judgements I could make by reading the landscape and trees down stream, we make our way and get across, and get back up on top.
Unfortunately, the next drinker down in the next valley was empty but we continued on making a big loop up and down many small finger ridges and eventually making our way down back to the truck with having to cross the creek drainage again. The elk sign in this spot was just as decent as the first location, no doubt there are some elk in there but not massive herds.
Back to camp and excited because my cousin was going to be arriving in a few hours. He is 10 times more experienced elk hunting than I am having lived in the Grand Junction area all his life so I knew that our chances were about to significantly go up!
