Unit 13A (Arizona Strip)

Glassing Tuweep Valley at first light

The guide gives you one specific play. Set up so the sun is at your back and glass west across Tuweep Valley in the early morning. You'll get clean light on the far side, plus views into Broad and Paradise Canyons. Use the same logic anywhere: get the sun behind you before it climbs. The unit has dozens of named knolls and points the packet tags as glassing spots, from Hancock Knolls to Lyons Point and Scotts Point. Pick one that overlooks a canyon head, not a flat.

The Hurricane Rim is worth a longer glass than usual. The recent habitat treatments opened sightlines, and the guide says so itself.

Hunting water without sitting on it

AZGFD says water availability drives archery success "drastically," because the unit is often dry during the archery hunt. Its advice is to concentrate near water holes and catchments, not necessarily on the water. We read that as hunting the feed and cover around a source, and glassing the approaches instead of camping a tank. The packet counts roughly 530 tanks and 57 springs in the unit. Named springs include Riggs, Grama, Aulson, Willow, Pine, Sand, Cottonwood, Tule, North, Big and Little, plus Twomile Seep. The packet doesn't say which are flowing, so check current conditions before you plan a morning around one.

Beating the crowd

Most hunters pile into Trumbull and Logan. Your choices are to hunt there and accept the pressure, or drop to the lower pinyon-juniper country and see fewer deer and fewer people. We'd split it. Hunt the high ground first, and if it's crowded, move to the northern mesas or the Kanab Creek rim rather than pushing harder in the same drainage.

Roads, mud and the park line

Graded gravel carries you a long way: CR 5, Navajo Trail Road, CR 237, Magles Road and Cottonwood Road all rate 2WD in the packet. But the guide warns that many roads turn extremely muddy when wet and need 4WD. Weather is unpredictable during the deer hunt.

Portions of Grand Canyon National Park sit inside the unit, and hunting there is prohibited. Know the boundary before you leave camp.

A realistic day

Success rates in the packet are 22 percent for rifle and 15 percent for archery. Expect to be up before light, glassing from a high point until the morning movement quits, then moving. Some days you won't see a deer. AZGFD says so, and also says don't give up. The unit is managed for low hunter density and older bucks, so one good look at a big deer can justify the wait.

Plan to camp self-sufficient. The nearest full-service towns are Colorado City and Fredonia on Highway 389, with gas and a store at Pipe Springs. Bring extra fuel, water, food and spare tires, plus a shelter that handles bad weather.

Glass from the knolls, then close the gap

Pronghorn country this open rewards patience with optics. Park near one of the knolls the guide names, such as Antelope, Hat, Seven Knolls or Deadman, and climb. Each is a listed summit, and each gives you a view over desert scrub and PJ edge. Glass first light, glass again late afternoon, and move only when you have a specific animal to move on.

If you've drawn a rifle tag, glass across the valleys named in the guide, like Antelope Valley or Little Clayhole, before you drive anywhere. Driving the flats just pushes animals off. Plan the stalk from a fold or a knoll shoulder, not across open ground.

Water and fences

Our data counts 530 tanks, 57 springs and 4 lakes in the unit. The packet names springs such as Riggs, Grama, Cottonwood, Tule and Big Spring, but it doesn't say where each one sits, so find them on a map before you go. The guide says the Department is working with BLM and permittees on water distribution and fence structure across the district. Treat tanks and springs as places to glass. Don't park on them or walk right in.

Fences matter too. Look for how animals cross, and plan your stalk around where they'll be when they hit the wire.

Rifle versus bow

The packet shows 82 percent success for rifle and 48 percent for archery. That gap is wide, and it tells you what you're signing up for. With a bow, we'd lean on a water source instead of chasing herds across open ground. Not every water source will have animals on it, so check from a distance first. Rifle hunters have the easier job, but the same glass-first approach still wins.

Camp like nobody's coming

The guide calls this one of the least populated parts of Arizona. Bring shelter, plenty of food and water, extra fuel and spare tires. Full-service towns are Colorado City and Fredonia, both on Highway 389, and the guide says gas and a convenience store are at Pipe Springs. Check the forecast. If it rains, the roads get slick, and you may need 4WD to get out.

A realistic day looks like this

Forget the idea that turkeys live across the Arizona Strip. They don't. AZGFD's own unit guide says turkey habitat in 13A is limited, which is why spring permits are low. The birds sit in ponderosa pine/oak woodland, and the guide names four spots: Mt. Trumbull, Mt. Logan, Slide Mountain and the Sawmill Mountains, including the Death Valley area. That's your whole map. Everything else is desert, PJ and canyon rim.

Mount Trumbull and Mount Logan

We'd start here. Mount Trumbull tops out at 8,004 feet and Mount Logan at 7,865, and the guide puts turkeys on and around both. These are the highest pine ground in the unit, so they hold the habitat the birds need. The birds came from a 1961 transplant, with later augmentations from the North Kaibab. Mount Emma (7,701) sits in the same high country and is worth a look on your map, though the guide doesn't name it for turkeys.

Plan on ongoing habitat work here. AZGFD and BLM are running restoration around Mt. Trumbull, Mt. Logan and Death Valley, including chainsaw crews and controlled burns. Check what's active before you commit to a drainage.

Slide Mountain and the Sawmill Mountains

Slide Mountain (7,556 feet) and the Sawmill Mountains (7,090) are the other two named turkey areas. The Sawmills include the Death Valley area, which is also under restoration. The guide doesn't rank these against Trumbull and Logan, and it doesn't say where birds are early versus late. We won't pretend to know. If your first area is crowded with work crews, these are the logical second and third options. Petty Knoll (7,508) and Craigs Knoll (7,189) are high points in the unit too, but the guide doesn't tie them to turkeys. Treat them as map-scouting targets, not proven spots.

Country to skip, and how you get in

The guide's Kanab Creek drainage, Hack Canyon, Sunshine Point and the Kanab Creek rim are listed for chukar and Gambel's quail, not turkeys. Don't burn a hunt down there.

For access, the data shows graded gravel good for 2WD in dry conditions: CR 5/BLM 1069 (18.2 miles), Navajo Trail Road (15.5), CR 237 (3), Magles Road (2.9) and Cottonwood Road (1.1). The packet doesn't say which of them reach the turkey woodlands, so match them to the mountains on your own maps. Entry points include AZ 389, CR 5/BLM 1069 and CR 237 at the unit boundary. The ownership breakdown we have shows 60 percent National Forest, 15 percent BLM, 8 percent State Trust and 17 percent private or other. Confirm that 17 percent before you cross a fence line.

This is a low-permit hunt in a unit with limited turkey habitat. The shotgun success rate in our data is 35 percent. That's a hunt you can win, but only if you're in the right pine. Most of your work is picking the right mountain and staying flexible.

Work around the restoration crews

The agency's warning is plain: chainsaws, controlled burns and large crews are active near Mt. Trumbull, Mt. Logan and Death Valley. AZGFD asks hunters to be flexible and change their game plan. We'd take that literally. Have a fallback ready in the Slide Mountain or Sawmill Mountains country, so a burn or a crew doesn't end your trip. Noise and smoke will move birds, and you won't know where they went.

Use the high ground, then hunt the pine

The unit is full of knolls the data tags for glassing, but turkeys live in timber. Use the high points to read the country. Look for where the ponderosa and oak patches sit, where openings break the woodland, and where roads cut through. Then drop in and work the timber. Listen from ridges and benches in the first light and move toward any bird you hear. Don't expect long glassing sessions to find a turkey the way they'd find a deer.

Water is a variable we can't pin down. The unit data counts 57 springs and 530 tanks, and it lists names like Pine Spring, Cottonwood Spring, Big Spring, Little Spring, Aulson Spring and Riggs Spring. The packet doesn't say where they sit relative to the turkey woodlands. Plot them on a map, then check which ones fall inside pine/oak country near Trumbull, Logan, Slide or the Sawmills. Those are worth a look. The rest aren't.

Mud, tires and a self-supported camp

The guide says roads in the turkey areas get extremely muddy and slippery when wet, and 4WD may be required. Graded gravel that's fine in a dry week can turn bad fast. Plan for it.

The guide also says this is one of the least populated parts of Arizona. Camp remote with no services. Bring shelter, plenty of food and water, extra fuel and spare tires, plural. The nearest full-service towns are Colorado City and Fredonia, both on Highway 389. Hildale, Centennial Park and Kaibab are also nearby, but we'd still fuel up and stock before heading in. The packet lists no campgrounds, so you're dispersed camping.

What a realistic day looks like

Expect long drives on gravel before you ever hear a bird. Get to your mountain the evening before, sort out which roads are passable, and be on foot at first light. If the area is quiet or crews are working, move to the next named mountain rather than grinding it out. Cover ground by road, hunt hard by foot, and don't spend a day where there's no pine.