GMU Alkali/371 Elk

[Phishead]

Just picked up my YTC access. I'd like to head over to fill my MH Cow tag this year. Anyone hunt 371?  I have till the end of jan, when's the best time to hunt this area?  any idea where the elk hang out there? any info is greatly appreciated.

[DeerThug]

I know a little about the YTC, but not tons.  The best elk is on the extream east south/east part of the YTC.  Any of the canyons along Yakima ridge that are above the private ag lands above the Silver Dollar are areas to concentrate on.  With the new alfalfa fields in the Moxee valley we have been seeing lots of elk from the dairy to the Silver Dollar.  They don't move far from the Fidel's.\

One thing to be cautious of is the later you wait the YTC can get foggy.  I have heard of buck tags that did not get filled because it was a  fog prone year.

I also heard today that the YTC is all but closed right now with only 2 units open - they must be doing training.  I know a bull tag holder that has not been Abe to hunt yet because of this.

[Bigtine96]

Ytc is closed for training except for 2 units.

[pods8]

I've been in a couple times earlier in the year but didn't connect with anything.

I will say though, may sure you have a decent vehicle for cruising around there, the secondary unimproved roads can vary substantially.  Some guys that were heading in on the same day that I was were heading in with a 15' flat bed trailer with their coolers on it, I don't think they had been on those roads before... 

[spookgus]

Bring extra spare tires and your best tire changing equipment. Some of the roads in there will sipe your tires for you, but good. Check in early because you might have to drive awhile to get to the areas that are open. Depending on what areas are open it might be easier to enter though one of the gates on the perimeter after checking in.

[pods8]

Bring extra spare tires and your best tire changing equipment. Some of the roads in there will sipe your tires for you, but good. Check in early because you might have to drive awhile to get to the areas that are open. Depending on what areas are open it might be easier to enter though one of the gates on the perimeter after checking in.

Do they still allow you to go out and around?  Some of the area it definitely would save some travel time.  Some of those roads can be pretty slow going.

I'm running heavier ply tires and didn't have any issue while I was there but I could see how some of the gravel could chew things up.  The big thing I noticed is in the open country roads don't nearly look as bad as you'd think from a distance...

[spookgus]

The last time I was in there was about 3 years ago and you could get the combination to the exterior gates. Still had to check in and out at the main entrance.

[rotty33]

I was in there 2 weeks ago. The roads were no problem. Very cool area, almost too big. Only saw a few fresh tracks though.

[pods8]

I was in there 2 weeks ago. The roads were no problem. Very cool area, almost too big. Only saw a few fresh tracks though.

Just really depends where you go, the main routes are fine.  Its the side shoots that can be fine or get interesting...  In general if you have some clearance and go slow its pretty much all good.

[trophyhunt]

My good friends went in there bird hunting about a month ago, chucker and quail.  We have drawn that tag for deer a couple times, it was incredible hunting.  It went from 75,70 to now 5 permits for deer, i know this is an elk forum but it covers the subject anyway.  The alkali has been hit hard the last couple years by the tribes, anyway back to my friends being there. At the gate they were asked to see their orange which they showed, this was just as an indian guy walked past them w/out his orange. They asked about the fact he didn't have any, the guard said he didn't need it and they could pretty much do what they want in here. He even mentioned sarcastically that if they wanted to they could kill an eagle and get away with it. So this is probably the reason why the permits have dropped like they have and not so much the hair loss disease like the state bio told me.  No more alkali apps for us, they saw 3 small bucks in 3 days with no does seen at all. Sucks for us all non-natives.

[b23]

I used to go out there with my dad back in 80's.  It's a VERY big area and it's pretty much all wide open.  Lots of little fingers and draws.  I haven't hunted it in a very long time but back when we did we saw most of the game on the east end and more often than not the animals we saw were in the fingers above the river.  Not sure if there still is or not but there was alot of orchard down along the river in what I would call the NE corner of YTC and alot of times you would find game hanging out in those fingers above those orchards.  Mark Thomas out of Yakima got a HUGE mulie out of the YTC few years ago.  I saw pictures of it somewhere but don't remember where it was.

It's often VERY dry out there with little to no shade so usually where you found water you found game. 

Didn't know that about the tribes hammering the YTC but hey, why not, they get everything else so why not the YTC too. 

[pods8]

The alkali has been hit hard the last couple years by the tribes, anyway back to my friends being there. At the gate they were asked to see their orange which they showed, this was just as an indian guy walked past them w/out his orange.

No idea what they do number-wise but this likely solves the one query I had once when a private party truck (non-military) passed me out there with three folks in non-orange going out hunting.