Elk in Estes Park

[TOGIE]

She's a lot closer to those elk than I'd get.

i'm never one to give tourists the benefit of the doubt in estes park when it comes to the elk, but i have a feeling she just kinda walked out the front door to the visitor center to kind of find herself, well, stuck there

you can tell that bull is pissy

 

[WyoDoug]

Wolves pushing them in to towns?

Encroachment by man. Keep in mind that at one time Estes Park was their habitat.

 

[Bigjay73]

Encroachment by man. Keep in mind that at one time Estes Park was their habitat.

How do we know native Americans didnt inhabit that area? I know I would have.

 

[WyoDoug]

How do we know native Americans didnt inhabit that area? I know I would have.

Likely. Where the buffalo and elk were, so where native Americans. Nomadic tribes followed both buffalo and elk.

 

[Bigjay73]

But I feel ya. As much as I'm for growth, kinda wish more areas were engulfed by parks and NF

 

[mtmiller]

Keep in mind that at one time Estes Park was their habitat.

Wolves or elk?

 

[matt0550]

it's just the way it's always been in estes park. interesting intersection of national park, town, migration routes, summer range, winter range, fair amount of surrounding NF. always been a difficult place for cpw to try and meet herd objective for the unit.

i've heard sharpshooters do get employed in the area from time to time, was never really certain to what degree or how often that's the case. some of those low level areas in RMNP have had habitat issues cause of all the elk

And think about how much gas the lawn service saves not having to mow that EVER...they make up for it in fresh planted flowers every couple of weeks though I'm sure.

 

[Phaseolus]

Wolves pushing them in to towns?

The probable release of wolves is “west of the continental divide’. It would be a while before they move to Testical Park.

 

[Phaseolus]

Encroachment by man. Keep in mind that at one time Estes Park was their habitat.

Something has changed though, there never used to be huge numbers of elk in Testical Park when i was growing up.

 

[Cogreeny]

Something has changed though, there never used to be huge numbers of elk in Testical Park when i was growing up.

As long as I can remember there’s been big numbers of elk in Estes Park sometimes had to drive around a little but trust me they were somewhere eating out of bird feeders etc. My grandpa said in the 20’s and 30’s elk were damn hard to find around here.

 

[Cogreeny]

Not sure why it posted my response in your quote

 

[Phaseolus]

CoG,

I’m thinking back to the late 60’s and early 70’s, I just don’t remember huge numbers of elk in town.

 

[williaada]

CoG,

I’m thinking back to the late 60’s and early 70’s, I just don’t remember huge numbers of elk in town.

When I lived there some of the locals would wait just outside the city limits and shoot some of the big bulls just off of Big Thompson Hwy.

One of the wranglers at the rising stable lassoed a cow. The Wildlife officer was not impressed, gave the guy a $500 ticket.

 

[TOGIE]

CoG,

I’m thinking back to the late 60’s and early 70’s, I just don’t remember huge numbers of elk in town.

I’m guessing there simply weren’t as many elk in the 60’s and 70’s

 

[Mtnhunter1]

Looks to me like Montana elk management after another 20 years of shoulder seasons with multiple tags!

 

[OzzyDave]

That is so cool.
The garden maintenance folks would have a secure job.

 

[Cogreeny]

There wasn’t as many elk then but seemed like we had worse winters then that pushed them out down in the lower ground but before they did there was good numbers in and around the outskirts of Estes. Crocker ranch, meadow dale etc.

 

[buffybr]

How do we know native Americans didnt inhabit that area? I know I would have.

They did. When I was a kid (in the '60s) I found a broken spear point or knife in the woods on the edge of town. My Grandparents were founding members of the Colorado Archeological Society and we found arrowheads all along the Front Range from Denver to the Wyo line.

 

[Bigjay73]

They did. When I was a kid (in the '60s) I found a broken spear point or knife in the woods on the edge of town. My Grandparents were founding members of the Colorado Archeological Society and we found arrowheads all along the Front Range from Denver to the Wyo line.

That must have been pretty cool.

 

[WyoDoug]

They did. When I was a kid (in the '60s) I found a broken spear point or knife in the woods on the edge of town. My Grandparents were founding members of the Colorado Archeological Society and we found arrowheads all along the Front Range from Denver to the Wyo line.

What it was made from and if you find whole weapons, how those were made, like I did in Washington County in Colorado can tell you who likely it belong too. Cheyenne tribes tended to prefer gypsum to make arrow and spear points with. I donated an intact tomahawk to the museum near Limon that I found when I was out there antelope hunting.