I have friends that are talking about elk hunting with an outfitter called Wild Kakwa Outfitters. I believe they are out of Grande Prairie, Alberta. Does anyone know anything about them, good or bad?

Kensco..........no I do not personally know this outfitter, but I have heard of him and I have not heard anything negative.

I use to live in that area (moved from there 3 years ago). There are some good places to hunt elk in that country and there are some fairly big bulls taken once and a while.

There is also heavy resident pressure. It is an open bull elk season for residents, which means over the counter tags. There are also some access problems due to all the oil and gas exploration, gas pipelines, seismic lines, logging roads, etc.

Make sure your friend researches this carefully.
If you or your friend wants any further info PM me.

I live in the area and I have heard and had a few buisness dealings with them. Can't say anything bad about them. You can check them out through I believe www.apos.com You will have to find them in there as this lists almost all outfitters here in Alberta. As Skyline said there are some nice bulls here and a fair amount of resident hunters. One of which will be me.

That would be www.apos.ab.ca

Frans

Ooops!!!

Thanks Frans.

Kensco,
The kakwa was up until two years ago my go to place in my home province of Alberta for moose. Elk are also in there. The profusion of new road systems as a result of oil/gas exploration has put an end to that. The chances of an animal living to full trophy potential age has been reduced greatly and its a shame. The outfitter you refer to is as far as I know very credible and may get you into the last few honey holes left up there.

bwest..........the summer before I moved from Alberta my wife and I took our horses and packed into the Kakwa area. I was horrified!

There were pack outfits everywhere.......no grass left. Camp sites up the yingyang.......we left after two days. You couldn't be alone, there were people everywhere.

Sad.

Thats what happens when an area booms, oil & forestry opening up areas, and has a large population growth quickly, and people with lots of money. I use to go into Kakwa atv & sledding all the time for years when barely anyone there. You could leave your camp with no problems. Now I hear horror stories. My group of friends started and named the area "BORDER TOWN", now its probably BORDER CITY. I see this name posted on SledWest forum site all the time.


Same with the summer Horse OUTFITS doing summer bible camps. I have no problems with that, but we sledders & atv guys got blamed for alot of the problems of garbage in the area. From what I come across many times was garbage from horse riding people that they did not pack out.
Anyhow I could get into it, but that will just piss me off for the rest of the weekend.

As to the big game outfitter, he has been in the Kakwa area a long time, and knows the area the best out of anyone and would probably be far away from the rest of the resident hunters. I will say that most of the resident hunters will be only on cutlines with access for quads only. A person willing to get into the hard access areas, usually will succeed in getting great chances at the trophy game.

I wouldnt be surprised to see the provincial govt. open up the Kakwa Falls area so that the access to oil/gas and forestry be so big there, and eventually see a high grade road right thru to McBride......I better stop now!


Not trying to scare you Kensco, Wild Kakwa Outfitters would probably give you the hunt you are looking for.

Might Peace

I hear ya. I just spent a week of holidays in the kakwa area. It's so sad as to what is happening up there. There are 2 major pipelines going in along with all of the forestry that is happening.