{"id":116574,"date":"2014-11-12T18:07:58","date_gmt":"2014-11-13T01:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hunting-paradise-gets-richer-2\/"},"modified":"2014-11-12T18:07:58","modified_gmt":"2014-11-13T01:07:58","slug":"hunting-paradise-gets-richer-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hunting-paradise-gets-richer-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunting paradise gets richer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Scott
Scott McDaniel poses with his elk harvested from Lone Mesa State Park this year. The park north of Dolores is becoming a popular hunting destination.<\/span>Courtesy photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Wildlife is taking a liking to Lone Mesa State Park north of Dolores.<\/p>\n

Partly because the park is closed to the public, except for a limited public hunting season. And partly because of excellent forage conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite a low winter, a wet September really improved the range at the park and brought on a lot of forage,\u201d said park superintendent Scot Elder.<\/p>\n

Elk herds are sticking around to graze in the mild weather, he said. And the acorn, choke cherry, and service berry are feeding the bears well for hibernation, he said.<\/p>\n

This year, the park issued 105 permits across six seasons to hunt big game, including deer, elk, and bear.<\/p>\n

Hunters say it\u2019s a good experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s less pressure from other hunters, and it\u2019s really nice country,\u201d said Terry Armine, who had a successful hunt this year with his 14-year old son, Bradley.<\/p>\n

Armine tries to hunt there every year and usually has success if he draws a tag. This year he bagged a five-point bull and Bradley shot a six-pointer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was his first time elk hunting so he was pretty excited to take down such a large bull,\u201d Armine said. \u201cHe almost got run over, but shot him at close range.\u201d<\/p>\n

The park has additional hunting permits available for the fourth rifle season, Elder said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing some larger elk,\u201d he said. \u201cThe later season opens up for more permits because people are less likely to take a chance on the weather.\u201d<\/p>\n

The unique hunting experience in the game park has been popular with non-resident hunters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had hunters from as far away as Pennsylvania drawing tags here and traveling out,\u201d Elder said. \u201cWe have a bit higher success rate than the state average.\u201d<\/p>\n

Max Rahimzadeh, of Orange County, CA., has been traveling to hunt at Lone Mesa for seven seasons, usually with his daughter Ameneh, 31.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have about a 50 percent success rate when we draw at the park,\u201d he said. \u201cWe love it. It is very safe, family orientated, and the elk taste great. Everyone should get the chance to hunt there at least once.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rahimzadeh says he stays in Dolores motels when he hunts Lone Mesa and processes his game in Cortez.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the next best thing to a private hunting experience, and more affordable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In 2012, the latest numbers available, out of 104 permits issued to hunt Lone Mesa, 59 were Colorado residents and 45 were non-residents. For that year, of the 97 with elk tags, 19 hunters had harvests, 14 of which were bulls and 5 that were cows.<\/p>\n

For black bear that year, 15 licenses were issued, and two bears were harvested.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this mild weather and good forage, it will take a lot to get the elk herds to move out of the park,\u201d Elder said.<\/p>\n

For more information on a late-season hunting permit call 882-2213.<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

sticking around Lone Mesa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":116575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6363],"tags":[188,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-116574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ds-news","tag-dolores-star","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116574"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=116574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}