I (Blake) was fortunate enough to get invited, along with my dad, to Colorado for muzzle loader Elk season. This came two weeks before the season started. My dad and I were like little kids at Christmas hitting up Academy and Bass Pro Shop daily to make sure we had everything we needed. We made the 13 hour trip late on a Friday night with my cousins J.D. and Marc Laughery. The drive there was filled with a lot of anticipation and no sleep. When we arrived, we met up with a local that provides my cousin with a lot of his connections in order for this trip to take place every year. He showed us a bull moose he had taken recently. He had been trying to draw a tag for that hunt for 18 years and as you can tell he was very happy with his harvest.
Here are some pics of our cabin along with the view from the back porch.
Here are some elk that reside on this protected area where we were staying.
On our first scouting trip after arriving and checking out places to hunt, we came across a cow moose and her calf. It was pretty amazing to see how clear these mountain lakes were along with the numerous amount of trout occupying them.
After taking a little while to enjoy the scenery and become comfortable with our surroundings, we hunted that evening. Here are a few shots from about 20 feet up in a tree stand that I hunted. Hearing a bull elk bugle for the first time is pretty remarkable and definitely gets you pumped up for the chances we thought we would all have throughout the week.
We could not have asked for better weather to hunt in along with numerous amount of elk located on the private land we had access to at the bottom of the mountain. Being a first timer in the mountains, it's hard to know what to expect when it comes to breathing such thin air. You feel like you are constantly short of breath. The private land we hunted the entire week was at 9000 feet high. If we would have had to hike up some of the mountains, we would have been at close to 12,000 feet. That air gets uncomfortably thin that high.
My cousin JD connected with his bull elk on the second night of hunting.
That morning my dad and two cousins got to witness a bull moose up close and personal. He came within about 25 yards of them which can get a little uncomfortable if you know a little about how aggressive some moose can be.
On the fourth day after everyone being surrounded by elk and a few close calls, I connected with a cow elk and my cousin Marc thought he had killed a really nice bull. It turns out that three shots, two from within 30 yards, sometimes just aren't enough. We searched and searched for about 8 hours total and could not track him down. My cousin had time to take a picture from the where they shot and watched him thinking they had just taken a trophy. Unfortunately, they did not have any more ammo left when he started to recover and hobble off a few minutes later. If you zoom in you can see some very tall horns sticking up where he was laying.
We could not have planned out a better trip. It was a once in a lifetime hunt with the perfect conditions and chances for every hunter to harvest. It was a blessing to be able to spend time in the woods with my father and enjoy good company with my cousins. Here are some shots from the drive home.
