Denver Area Bow Wood?

[Onebowonder]

Is there anybody on the forum from the Denver Colorado area that would know a good Bowwood to harvest up here?  I'm visiting for the weekend and planning to do a hike. Some friends may be able to help me find a place to cut some wood, but I don't know what I should be looking for here. Any suggestions?

OneBow

[blackhawk]

Rocky Mountain Juniper n dats about it. Aint much for bow wood natively...you have much better woods at home in misery!!! 

[Limbit]

Just get some crab apple! That's what I did when I lived in Boulder. Crabapple is everywhere and it is a good bow wood. Most people just let it grow crazy, so you can convince just about anyone to prune a limb or two. You can also talk to some apple or plumb orchards and see if they have some cuttings that you could billet. Check craigslist for people selling plum, apple or walnut firewood and you can probably get some billets if you dig through a pile. I went up outside the mountains around Lyons (Jamestown if I remember right) to get Rocky Mountain Juniper.  You can just talk to some folks if it is alright to cut one or take some limbs off an old one if you find one. It is great wood and really beautiful and rewarding to work with. There is Black Locust there, but where I am not certain. Also, you could try looking for some compression pine if you know how to work with sinew to back it. Rocky Mountain Specialty Gear sells staves also...not cheap, but at least you can inspect them first.

[Knoll]

Hope ya have a great time ... and stay warm!

[kid bow]

There's decent bow wood up in the mountains. Old pockets of yew that haven't been touched in forever. Went to one that was on the property of my family and it was beautiful

[Limbit]

Yew in Colorado? I think not 

[Limbit]

Here is distribution of wood in Colorado.http://www.westernexplorers.us/ColoradoTrees.html . There seems to be Chokecherry, Mountain Mahogany, Locust, Ash, Hawthorn and wild plum that you could possible locate after a bit of research and a few day hikes.

[kid bow]

Yew in Colorado? I think not 

I think I'm thinking of something else...... tooo dang tired

[Onebowonder]

Plum sounds good...  Searching...  OneBow

[Springbuck]

Here is distribution of wood in Colorado.http://www.westernexplorers.us/ColoradoTrees.html . There seems to be Chokecherry, Mountain Mahogany, Locust, Ash, Hawthorn and wild plum that you could possible locate after a bit of research and a few day hikes.

All good stuff, similar to Utah, except locust is introduced.   Wild plum is EVERYWHERE in some more open foothill regions of Colorado. Scrub oak makes a pretty decent bow, but you'll look a LONG time for a stave.  Does serviceberry grow in Colorado?  Juniper is good stuff if you can find a big old tree with horizontal spreading branches, you can often take a stave with few or no knots off the shaded top of the branch.  We have this stuff called canyon maple that is a small, very hard native maple, that often grows close together down in canyons near streams.  I remember the same stuff or similar in Colorado. It's usually crooked, but if you look long enough you can find like a straight 4" dia tree with two staves in it.  Chokecherry of course, and don't forget that domestic trees creep out at the edges of civilization and around old homesteads, etc...Elm, mulberry, stuff like that is often found just wherever...

[smoke]

If you head east a short distance you should be able to get into some osage.  I've seen hackberry in eastern Colorado too.  Good luck!

[Selfbowman]

I suggest hickory for that climate. Osage will get too dry. 

[Bkingston216]

I live here in Denver and Juniper, apple, plum. Black Walnut grows in residences.