Coyotes at Higher Elevations

CalCoyote

CalCoyote

Member
Out here in California you can get to higher elevation easier than some states. I remember backpacking into a lake in mid November for a few days of fishing and solitude. There was snow covering about 50% of the ground but the temps had been very mild that year. I was at 8100 elevation and still about 3 miles from the lake when out pops this coyote in front of me. I left the trail I was hiking on and followed him through the snow until he disappeared in the tree line. I hiked on into the lake and had a glorious couple of days fishing. Later, when I hiked out I found where he had doubled back behind me and followed me the entire 3 miles to the lake! There was even a spot in the snow 60 yards from my camp where he had sat and watched me. I had no idea that he had been "stalking" me.

I would love to go up there this summer and try and call in one of those guys. There are not a lot of them up there but they are there. Do coyotes at high elevations respond to distress calls same as low elevation yotes?
 
I guess turnabout's fair play, huh?

I've called them as high as 11,000 and it's pretty much business as usual.

Sounds like you had a good trip.
 
hello,i think you will find coyotes where they find food,how many coyotes are there depends on the food supply.in the high desert in our area it seems there are more rabbits between 3000-5000 ft in elevation than above.at least thats where we see most of them.i think until proven otherwise i believe a coyote will go for a rabbit or another rodent 1st for a source of food...just my observations....
 
Yep they do, I called in my first coyote by myself in the mountains 3 miles from deer camp 5 days before deer season. 3 days ago me and dad went back up there to see if there was still coyotes in the same area. I howled a few times waited a few minutes then started on rabbit distress calls, the mountains lit up with yippin coyotes. I bet I could have called one in and let dad get his first coyote but it aint time yet. Gonna wait till late August to go back and try for dads first coyote.

t/c223encore.
 
I live at 8500' and yes there are plenty of coyotes here that act just like ones from down low. Just down the road a coyote has kicked out a fox and kits out of it's den and taken over...usually it's the coyotes that loose this battle. I have at least 6 coyote dens within a mile that I know of.

I have seen coyotes over 10,000' and they act the same as coyotes at lower altitude...just a slightly different diet.

I have never had a coyote that I spotted not respond to a distress call at any altitude. They are creatures of opportunity.
 
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CalCoyote, Welcome to PM! Where about in CA do you do your backpacking?



I really like the John Muir Wilderness. Red Mountain Basin is one of my favorite places on earth. I like the off trail lakes. They don't have many people.

The story about the coyote following me is up at Iron Lakes. This is about 28 miles from the highway on a dirt road. I had to hike the last few miles of the road due to snow. The coyote had followed me into Bare Island lake which is located about a mile behind Iron Lakes. That area gets little to no visitors after Oct 15th due to the chilly temps at night. That year I was able to get in there on Nov 20 after a storm had dumped 2ft of snow (much of which had melted). I will never know what the coyote was eating up that high that late in the year. There were no rodents or squirrels.

Cal
 
CalCoyote,

Your real close to my stompin grounds. I do most of my bacpacking in the Muir Wilderness as well. Most of it is a little south of the red mtn basin. I have always wanted to go into the red mtn basin area, my dad used to go in there with horses. Told me the fishing was great at Indian Lakes.

I had actually planned on taking our horses into that area this year and find some secluded bowls to do some deer hunting, but we will be moving to CO so we are selling our horses.

Also do some backpacking in the dinkey lakes wilderness and hike out of edison lake as well.
 
You're moving to Colorado and you're going to sell your horses /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif
 
Jason,

You owe it to yourself to visit Red Mountain Basin before you move to Colorado. I have done a lot of stomping around in the Sierras and RMB is hard to beat. I have also done my fair share of packing in west Colorado and I still am sold on RMB. If you like to fish/hunt get away from people and see some great views it can't be beat. The only other that comes close is the copper creek trail in Kings Canyon (but this is no hunting allowed).

When it comes to hunting elk and mule deer, Colorado is hard to beat, but you will not find anything as beautiful as RMB and the copper creek trail in KCNP.

Cal
 
Don't think California does not have some Mountians with lots of snow and a few glaciers, because it does.

Don't think you can't call in a coyote at over 10,000' in California, because you can.

Don't think Colorado has higher mountians then California, because it don't lol.

I've taken a few coyotes at high elevations before, you just won't get the same type action as you'd get at lower elevations. The coyote population seems to thin out the higher you go, so does the people population lol.
 
CalCoyote,

I have camped at the back end of Edison Lake every year for over 40 years now. The back of the lake and Mono Creek are some of the best fishing for big trout in the state. That being said, if you don't know how to fish it, you would be lucky to catch a fish in two weeks of fishing.

There used to be a ton of coyotes up there (8400 ft.) Packs would howl all night up until about 15 years ago. Now we only hear one or two occasionally, sometimes not at all.

They used to come right up to the edge of camp at night, so close you could hear them walking around in the brush. To bad that was before I became a coyote hunter.

I got to agree with you, there arn't a lot of places pretter than that with the possible exception of of Alaska.

I had the pleasure of having dinner last week with Bill Hanna owner of the Muir Hanna winery in Napa. Bill is the great grandson of John Muir and he backpacks in the area frequently.

Truckeedan
 
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