Unit 12BE (Paria Plateau and the Vermilion Cliffs)

One note before the areas. Almost everything specific about this hunt comes from AZGFD's GMU 12B guide, dated April 17, 2024, and from our own landform data. Confirm your unit boundary against the current regulations map before you spend money on fuel — 12BE is the eastern half of a split unit, and the line matters.

Paria Canyon: where the density is

AZGFD's guide says most of the desert bighorn here live inside the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness. The highest densities are in Paria Canyon itself. The agency puts the population at around 300 sheep, descended from 52 animals transplanted in 1984 and 1985. Average Boone and Crockett score over the last five years is in the mid-150s. Rifle success in our data is 75 percent. That's high, but don't read it as a gift. The guide spends more words on recovery problems than on finding sheep.

The Paria Plateau rim: Bush Head, Powell's Monument, Fisher Point

The guide names these three as the places bighorn have typically been taken along the plateau rim. Our landform data puts Powells Monument at 6,629 feet and Bush Head at 6,048. The packet gives no elevation for Fisher Point. The plateau has few roads. The only access AZGFD names is BLM road 1065 on the west side, and it's soft sand that needs four-wheel drive. There are no services on top.

Vermilion Cliffs springs and the December talus

Some sheep have come off the north rim of Paria Canyon and from near spring sources along the Vermilion Cliffs. In December, the guide says, sheep generally sit lower, on the talus slopes below the steep cliff faces. The springs are best reached on horseback or on foot, two or three miles from Highway 89A to the cliff base. The north rim of Paria Canyon is reached from Big Water, Utah, and also needs four-wheel drive in the sand.

The mapping data lists springs called Quickwater, Johnson, Coyote, Lowrey and Badger, plus several Four Springs entries. It doesn't say which sit under the cliffs. Don't assume. Match them to your map before you plan a water sit.

High points worth a look

None of the guide's named areas comes with a glassing recommendation, so treat these as map-based options only. The highest are White Knolls (7,268 feet) and One Toe Ridge (7,096). Pinnacle Ridge, Horse Ridge and Buckskin Mountain run roughly 6,500 to 6,800. Lower down, Pigeon Point, Gunsight Point and Crowbar Point are listed as cliffs, between about 5,000 and 5,400 feet. Cedar Mountain and Wolf Knoll fall in Kane County.

Country to skip

If you're hunting December, skip the high knolls. The guide puts sheep low on the talus below the cliffs, and that's where we'd spend our time.