That's pretty cool, Hunter - just to be able to say, "I live in the Roaring Fork Valley." It has a certain sound to it!

I never realized that there were places that had more elk than deer - that's the Midwesterner in me, I guess. I always kind of thought that they were the gravy on top of the animal herds. Lately I have been seeing a commercial for elk hunting in Colorado where they mention "unlimited over the counter elk tags". Is that for all of the hunting units, or just certain ones. Again, I though that most, if not all elk licenses were drawn in lotteries.

I sure hope that they are able to get some control of the dogs that are harassing the animals. I know it's a large area, but I would think that especially around the communities where they are close to elk habitat that they would have some pretty strict ordinances in place.

Thanks for this report on your home area. It definitely sounds like a great place to live and hunt.

Yup!! Nearly all of the units are OTC for bulls with just a handful reserved for trophy management. Like I've said I have applied for 17 years for one of them and others here have nearly as many points as I do or even more. In many areas like where I live here you can have two elk licenses as long as only one is good for a bull or either sex. So you could take one of each or two cows however it worked out for you. I got nothing this last year and my dad killed the two cows so that was a good year for us as we mostly hunt deer and consider the elk a bonus if they show up.

It's still a great place to live but it hurts to see the hay fields slowly turning into subdivisions. the economy has slowed things almost to a standstill the last two years but the houses were going up nonstop before that.