Overland Trail, Wyoming
Sometimes the most difficult part of elk hunting is just finding a way to get there, especially if landownership patterns simply don’t allow public access to quality elk country.
That was the case in southeast Wyoming.
But elk hunting prospects took a detour for the better when the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Wyoming Game and Fish Department teamed up with a conservation-minded family.
It happened in 2022 and 2023 about 35 miles northwest of Laramie next to the Snowy Mountain Range.
The family entered an RMEF voluntary conservation agreement over their property.
Doing so protected the wildlife values of their land, which is home to critical winter and calving range for elk and year-round range for moose, mule deer, pronghorn antelope and Greater-sage grouse.
But the family stepped up even more by extending an existing five-year access agreement to 20 years, allowing public hunters to cross their property on a road to reach adjacent land managed by the state of Wyoming, Bureau of Land Management and Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest.
Not only is that a boon for public hunter access but it allows biologists to better manage elk and other wildlife to reach population objectives.
Creating and improving public access is a long-time focus of RMEF’s mission.
Since 1984 – RMEF has opened or improved public access to more than 1.5 million acres.
To view the sites and boundaries of RMEF land conservation and access projects, turn on the RMEF layer and use the code RMEF when you sign up for your onX subscription to receive a 20% discount.