My First Colorado Elk Hunting Trip

Early on Thursday morning November 3rd, Jared and I headed toward the middle of the Colorado Rockies to go Elk hunting. This was my first hunting trip West, and one I definitely will never forget! We did not have cell or internet service while up in the mountains, but now that I am home safe and sound, here are some of the stories, details, pics, and video of our adventure West!

This first pic is just a sneak peak into the type of scenery we encountered up in the mountains! I just felt like I should at least have some sort of cool pic up near the top to break up the monotony of lots of words to get this trip started....


Colorado's third rifle season didn't open up until that Saturday the fifth, but we headed out a couple days early to bring all the gear for the hunting party. We met up with our hunting partners Dave, Edwin, and Rand near Paonia, CO and we brought lots of guns, ammo, camo, 4 wheelers, and pretty much every other gizmo and gadget you could potentially need on a hunting trip in Colorado. All those guys are gear junkies, but Edwin goes way above and beyond with stuff like energy jelly beans, 8 different walking/shooting sticks, several elk cannons and packs and packages of who knows what! I only brought a small duffel bag with clothes, a gun, boots, and a backpack!

Anyhow, by 3 am Jared and I were driving his Ford F250 diesel and pulling Dave's big covered trailer full to the brim. We realized driving down I-80 that gas stations were few and far between so we bought a diesel container and filled it up at our second gas station. Wouldnt you know it was needed before we found our next fuel station!


My good friend and perhaps the best bluegill fisherman in America lives near Lincoln, Nebraska. He owns the website bigbluegill.com and has caught several bluegill over 3 lbs in just the last year! (He did classify my personal lake as the second best bluegill fishing lake in the nation, but I don't have 3 lbers yet!). Here is a pic of him with a 3 lber from Richmond Mill:


Here is a pic of an almost 2 lber from my lake last year. His arms are extended way out, but nonetheless a very nice special hybrid bluegill!


I texted him about an hour away from Lincoln that I was rolling through town and he insisted on buying us lunch. Since it was lunch time it was perfect timing!! A 1.5 lb burrito later and we were back on the road.

We rolled through Denver and about 8 oclock or so we pulled into a little mining town called Idaho Springs for some dinner and a hotel. Or should I say motel... We found a restaurant called the Buffalo Restaurant and Bar.


Click the link above the picture to read more about the history of that place. Kind of amazing really to be that old and to have regular patrons back in the day like Billy the Kid, etc. The food was a bit overpriced, but to experience that atmosphere and history was totally worth it! We downed our $15 buffalo burgers in no time:


Snapped a couple pics because this place was just like eating back in the old time westerns. Lots and lots of really old memorabilia:




There were tons of motels in that historic old mining town in the heart of gold country and we finally settled on one along the banks of some pretty sweet little river. It was about 10 pm by the time we reached the Argo Inn and Suites and it took me 10 minutes to talk the reception lady into giving us a discount for the room for the night. Jared walking in with his Marines shirt on sealed the deal! Here is a pic of the Bear that was guarding our room all night:


I slept great! Just plopped into bed and fell asleep right away with What About Bob playing on TV in the background. We were only in the Hotel about 8 hours and then off towards Paonia....