Was unsuccessful in the muzzleloader elk season this year in southern Colorado, but did see a ton of excellent antelope heads as we drove up through New Mexico. But the most surprising thing was once we were at our elk hunting destination in the San Juans we were surprised to see an animal skylighted on a ridge several hundred yards above us. Whipped out the binos and discovered an excellent Pronghorn buck. Later saw two Pronghorn does nearby. WTF? This area is all above 10,000 feet and treed with aspen, fir, and spruce.

yep.
they go up there.

some of the best antelope Bucks I have seen are up in the pine trees hangin out where you'd expect to see a mule deer.

Oryx are starting to go high as well.

The San Juans are my ol' stomping grounds. Where about were you?

Once saw a nice antelope buck near Black Butte in the Gravelly Range south-west of Ennis, Montana. 9000+ elevation. There are some large open rolling prairies up there so I guess you could say it was typical antelope country except for the elevation. I also ran into a whitetail buck at over 8000 just north of Yellowstone Park once. And this year I hunted a herd of rutting elk a couple of hundred yards from the Shields River in open ag country. Fun stuff, I guess animals don't read books on where they're supposed to be.

I see prairie goats at around 9k feet in the Sangre de Christos all the time.

Hard to get a tag for those areas though.


BH63

I killed an antelope at over 9k feet last weekend in the pines.

Interesting. Never seem them above 7000 feet before. I'll have to start paying attention!

quote:

The San Juans are my ol' stomping grounds. Where about were you?

Between Chama and Antonito. I had visited the same place a couple of summers ago and seen an antelope around 8500-9000 feet, but it was the middle of summer, so I just thought he had come up there for some cool air and a little greener grass.

Interestingly, there is a small colony of mountain horny toads (horned lizards) only steps from where we saw the Pronghorn at 10,300 feet. A herpetologist we talked to said they had never seen that species that high.

I don't have a ton of antelope hunting time in (considering I was born in Wyoming) but I have noticed the bigger ones do often tend to hang around areas with some trees.

Interestingly most hunters never think to look there.

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:
Between Chama and Antonito.

OK, as you were. That's quite a distance away from where I spent my time in the San Juans around Durango. I did hunt elk with a gun in NM just north of Chama and also did a bow hunt just across the border in CO with astronaut Joe Engle and his son, Jon.

My Brother spotted a "Horny Toad" two weeks ago on the Conejos and the elevation there should have been roughly 8400-8600 asl.