Colorado Elk Mule Deer Pronghorn Black Bear

Unit 10 (Blue Mountain)

Colorado Hunting Guide — Elk, Mule Deer, Pronghorn, Black Bear

Unit 10 (Blue Mountain) sits against the Utah line in Moffat and Rio Blanco Counties, roughly 832 square miles by CPW's count, and falls in elk herd E-21. It runs from the Green and Yampa rivers in the north down to the White River in the south. CPW's guide gives no elk narrative for it, so the plan has to come from the terrain.

View Draw Odds Colorado Hunting Guide

🏔️

75%

Public Land

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 10

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 10 guide around your hunt: three ranked spots with morning, afternoon and evening plays, a day-by-day plan, topo maps with every pin numbered, a camp and access plan, the legal and retrieval rules for this unit, shot discipline, a meat-care and pack-out plan, and a pre-trip checklist. Every coordinate sits on land recorded as public.

Elk guide Mule Deer guide Pronghorn guide Black Bear guide

Free accounts get one report a year with the top spot unlocked. ProHunt Pro includes unlimited reports, all three spots, the full camp plan, and GPX/KML downloads for onX and Google Earth. Prefer to see one first? Open the builder and pick any unit.

Elk Hunting in Unit 10

Where to Find Elk on Blue Mountain: High Ridges, Named Draws and the Unit's Edges

Start with what we don't have. CPW's unit material gives a boundary description for Unit 10 but no species write-up, so the agency isn't telling you where the elk sit. Nobody has handed us a harvest map or a hot-spot list either. What follows comes from the boundary and from our own terrain read. Treat it as a scouting plan, not a promise.

The frame of the unit

CPW describes the unit as bounded on the north by the Green and Yampa rivers and on the south by the White River. Utah is the west line. On the east it follows Twelvemile Gulch Rd., then U.S. 40 to mile marker 38.3, then Elk Springs Ridge to Drill Hole, Winter Valley Gulch, Coal Creek and Wolf Creek. That's a legal description of the edges, not a list of elk haunts. It does tell you which roads and drainages mark the line when you're checking where you are.

Tanks Peak, Moose Head Mountain and Buckwater Ridge

The highest glassing ground we can name is up here. Tanks Peak tops out at 8,714 feet, Moose Head Mountain at 8,488 and Buckwater Ridge at 8,305. Bear Valley Ridge (8,127) and K Point (7,874) sit a notch lower. All of them are in Moffat County. In a unit this big and this broken, you want to look into country before you walk into it, and these are the places to do that. Early in the season, when elk tend to hold higher, we'd spend the first days here.

The draws on the Moffat side

Our terrain read flags a string of draws as holding country: Serviceberry Draw (7,496 feet), Robinson Draw (7,470), Mud Springs Draw (7,175), Antelope Draw (7,108) and Spike Hollow Draw (6,962). Lower down are Marthas Draw (6,841), Badger Flat (6,886), East Bear Valley Draw (6,623), Bear Valley Draw (6,593) and Bear Canyon (6,399). Their elevations step down in a way that suggests a natural order for working them. Hit the upper draws first. Drop to the lower ones if weather pushes animals down.

The lower rims toward the river country

Skull Creek Rim (6,899), Lazy Y Point (6,678), Coal Ridge (6,257) and Baking Powder Ridge (6,204) are in Moffat County. Spooky Mountain (6,317), Mellen Hill (6,313) and Coal Oil Rim (5,843) are in Rio Blanco County. That's the lower, drier end of the unit, closer to the Yampa, Green and White. We'd keep it as a late-season option, or a backup if the high country is empty.

One gap: the agency material doesn't say how much of the unit is private. Pull a current land-ownership map and check each draw before you commit to it.

Unit 10 terrain and land status

Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Tanks Peak (8,714 ft), Moose Head Mountain (8,488 ft), Buckwater Ridge (8,305 ft), Bear Valley Ridge (8,127 ft)

Holding ground: Gunsight Gap (8,026 ft), Serviceberry Draw (7,496 ft), Robinson Draw (7,470 ft), Baking Powder Ridge STL, Buckwater Draw STL

Every one of these was tested against the unit polygon before it went on the map. They are starting points, not agency recommendations.

How to Hunt Unit 10: Glass From the Ridges, Work the Draws and Plan Around Water

This is a big, rough unit with no agency elk narrative behind it, so the play is simple. Find animals from a distance, then decide where to go. Don't burn a morning walking country you haven't looked at.

Glassing from Tanks Peak and Buckwater Ridge

Pick a high point and be on it before first light. Tanks Peak, Moose Head Mountain and Buckwater Ridge give you the elevation to look down into the draws below them. Glass the shaded edges first while it's cool, then work the heads of the draws as the sun climbs. Evening is the same routine backwards. Morning thermals generally pull air upslope as the day warms, and they flip after sunset, so plan your approach to a draw around that. If you're stalking from above, check which way the air is moving before you drop off the ridge.

Working the draws one at a time

Serviceberry, Robinson, Mud Springs and Antelope Draws are close in elevation, between roughly 7,100 and 7,500 feet. They could make a workable circuit if you can get between them. Look at each one on a map before you go. The east-west spacing and how they open onto the ridges matter more than any single name on the list. Take the quiet ones. If one has a trail through it, assume other hunters know about it too.

Water as a pattern

Our terrain read lists springs in the unit, including Bearwater Spring, Bobcat Springs, Mud Spring, Bill White Spring, Mantle Spring, and Blue Mountain Springs Numbers 1, 2 and 4. We can't tell you how reliable any of them is, or whether elk use them. Check each against a current map and plan to scout. Water on a dry mesa can concentrate animals, but verify that on the ground.

A realistic day

Be on a ridge or peak at first light and glass until the animals bed.
Use midday to move on a spotted animal, or to reposition to another viewpoint.
Return to the glassing spot for the evening.
Keep an exit plan. This is canyon country, and a late pack-out in the dark is a bad day.

Expect to work for it. We can't hand you a success rate, because CPW's material gives none for this unit. Check the current brochure for season dates, weapon rules and access restrictions before you go. Those change, and we won't guess at them.

Colorado rules that decide your day

Summarised from CPW regulations. They change — read the current regulations and your permit-tag before you hunt.

Legal shooting hours

Big game may be taken from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset.

Motorized retrieval

Colorado has no general off-road retrieval allowance. Travel stays on designated routes, so plan to pack every animal out on your back or with stock. Check the forest or BLM travel map for the roads that are actually open in hunting season.

Tagging

Validate and attach your carcass tag before the animal is moved, and keep evidence of sex attached until the carcass reaches your home or a processor.

Leaving meat

Abandoning edible meat is illegal. CPW counts the four quarters and the loins.

Where you may not shoot

Occupied structures — No discharging a firearm within 50 yards of a developed campsite, and never toward an occupied building.
Roads — No shooting from or across a public road, and no shooting from a motor vehicle.

Elk: where to put the shot

Broadside or quartering away, on the back edge of the front leg about a third of the way up the body. That is lungs, and on a quartering-away angle it picks up the far shoulder.

Shots to refuse

No straight-on and no straight-away shots. An elk's chest is deep and the margin is small.
Nothing standing behind or overlapping the animal you picked. A pass-through kills the elk behind it too.
Your maximum range is the farthest you have put three shots in a paper plate off the sticks you are actually carrying. Not the farthest you have ever hit anything.
Scope on 3–4x. A herd fills a 12x field of view and you lose the animal you picked.

Identification:On an antlerless tag, legal means no antler of any kind through the skin. A spike looks exactly like a cow until it turns its head. If you can't see the head, don't shoot.

Plan the carry: roughly 150– 220 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — two to four large coolers, plus bagged ice from town. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

Pro Members Only

Unlock elk hunting tactics for Unit 10

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Elk Success Rates

All manners of take49%

Archery70%

Muzzleloader40%

Rifle49%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 10 at 49% — 127 animals taken by 258 hunters. The hunter count is large enough for the percentage to mean something and small enough that a good or bad year still moves it.

Archery — 70% success, 9 taken by 13 hunters
Muzzleloader — 40% success, 4 taken by 10 hunters
Rifle — 49% success, 114 taken by 235 hunters

These are the agency's own printed figures for this unit, not a modelled estimate and not a state average. They describe one season, so check CPW's current harvest estimates before you read a trend into them.

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (resident)	21	1,223	1.7%	26
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	5	872	0.6%	33
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (resident)	1	105	1.0%	32
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident)	6	357	1.7%	5
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	0	65	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident)	39	148	26.4%	1
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	10	35	28.6%	2
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident)	40	131	30.5%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident)	7	28	25.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	23	144	16.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	8	58	13.8%	1
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	51	298	17.1%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident)	12	61	19.7%	—
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (resident)	70	94	74.5%	—
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (nonresident)	3	8	37.5%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident)	15	78	19.2%	4
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	11	389	2.8%	24
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	2	378	0.5%	32
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (resident)	2	27	7.4%	1
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	0	10	0.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season bull only (resident)	4	124	3.2%	25
Muzzleloader — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	1	178	0.6%	33

Data from 2026 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number.

Open in Draw Odds Engine

CPW's 2026 draw recap for elk in unit 10, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

EE010E1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 1,223 applicants for 21 licences, 1.7% drawn, 26 preference points needed
EE010E1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Either Sex, nonresident: 872 applicants for 5 licences, 0.6% drawn, 33 preference points needed
EE010O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 389 applicants for 11 licences, 2.8% drawn, 24 preference points needed
EE010O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, nonresident: 378 applicants for 2 licences, 0.5% drawn, 32 preference points needed

Colorado runs a pure preference-point draw, so the point figure above is the requirement the agency published for that code in that year, not a forecast for the next one. There are 18 further code-and-residency combinations in the recap for this unit. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 10

Unit 10 is Blue Mountain country in the northwest corner of Colorado, against the Utah line, in Moffat and Rio Blanco Counties. It covers 832 square miles between the Green and Yampa rivers to the north and the White River to the south. CPW's unit material doesn't break out mule deer, so you're working from terrain: glassing summits, high draws, and named springs. Scouting decides this hunt.

Where to Find Mule Deer on Blue Mountain

CPW's unit material gives a boundary description and a herd designation (D-6) for Unit 10, but no mule deer narrative. Nobody at the agency has told us where the deer sit here, and we won't pretend otherwise. What follows is our terrain read: the draws, benches and high points that fit mule deer country, with the elevations we can stand behind.

The frame: rivers, Utah and U.S. 40

The legal edges are the Green and Yampa rivers on the north, the White River on the south, and the Utah line on the west. The east side runs along Twelvemile Gulch Rd., then U.S. 40 to mile marker 38.3, then Elk Springs Ridge to Drill Hole, Winter Valley Gulch, Coal Creek and Wolf Creek. That description marks the edges. It doesn't say deer are on them. But it does tell you that if you're coming in off U.S. 40 or Twelvemile Gulch Rd., you're entering on the east line and heading west into the bulk of the unit.

Serviceberry, Robinson and Mud Springs Draws

Our terrain read flags the higher draws as the best holding country. Serviceberry Draw (about 7,496 ft), Robinson Draw (7,470) and Mud Springs Draw (7,175) are all in Moffat County, all on public ground, and sit in the upper-middle part of the unit's elevation range. Antelope Draw (7,108) and Spike Hollow Draw (6,962) step down from there. Start here early in the season. Draws at this height should hold cover and browse.

Bear Valley and the lower benches

Bear Valley Draw (6,593), East Bear Valley Draw (6,623) and Bear Canyon (6,399) form a cluster worth treating as one drainage system. Badger Flat (6,886) and Marthas Draw (6,841) round out the mid-elevation country. These lower pieces are where we'd look when weather pushes deer off the high ground. We can't tell you what the cover looks like in each draw. Boots-on-ground scouting will.

High points that let you cover it

Tanks Peak (8,714) is the highest named summit we have, followed by Moose Head Mountain (8,488), Buckwater Ridge (8,305) and Bear Valley Ridge (8,127). Those four overlook the upper draws. Farther down, K Point (7,874), Lone Mountain (7,699), Petes Post (7,120) and M F Mountain (7,080) give mid-level vantage. Skull Creek Rim (6,899) and Lazy Y Point (6,678) are cliff edges that should show you the breaks below.

Toward the south end of the unit, Spooky Mountain (6,317), Mellen Hill (6,313) and Coal Oil Rim (5,843) are in Rio Blanco County. Coal Ridge (6,257) and Baking Powder Ridge (6,204) sit lower in Moffat County. That's the unit's low country and the likeliest place for deer after the high ground gets hard weather.

Unit 10 terrain and land status

Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Tanks Peak (8,714 ft), Moose Head Mountain (8,488 ft), Buckwater Ridge (8,305 ft), Bear Valley Ridge (8,127 ft)

Holding ground: Gunsight Gap (8,026 ft), Serviceberry Draw (7,496 ft), Robinson Draw (7,470 ft), Baking Powder Ridge STL, Buckwater Draw STL

Every one of these was tested against the unit polygon before it went on the map. They are starting points, not agency recommendations.

How to Hunt Blue Mountain's Draws and Ridges

With no agency harvest numbers and no species write-up to lean on, this is a glass-first, walk-second unit. Your edge is picking the right vantage and committing to it.

Glass from Tanks Peak and Buckwater Ridge

Pick a high point that looks down on a named draw and sit there for the first and last hours of light. Tanks Peak (8,714) and Buckwater Ridge (8,305) are the obvious options over the upper draws. Moose Head Mountain (8,488) and Bear Valley Ridge (8,127) cover the Bear Valley system. Let the morning thermals settle before you move, and keep the wind in your face when you drop in. Draws funnel air, so a quiet approach on a rim can turn into a blown stalk fifty yards down.

Work Serviceberry and Robinson Draws from above

Don't walk the bottoms. Glass Serviceberry Draw (7,496) and Robinson Draw (7,470) from the rim, then plan a stalk that lets you drop in above the deer. Antelope Draw and Spike Hollow Draw follow the same logic. If you spot nothing by mid-morning, move one drainage over rather than pushing through the same one.

Springs: use them as a scouting clue, not a promise

Named springs in the unit include Bearwater Spring, Bobcat Springs, Mud Spring, Bill White Spring, Mantle Spring, and Blue Mountain Springs Numbers 1, 2 and 4. We don't have flow data or exact positions to give you. Mark them on your map, then check which ones are running before the season. Mud Spring and Mud Springs Draw share a name, which may be a lead worth checking. Dry springs in a dry fall tell you as much as wet ones.

A realistic day

Get to your glassing point before light. Sit until the deer feed back toward cover, then make your move. Midday, check the next draw from a secondary point such as K Point or Lone Mountain. Evening, back on glass. Packing out is the real cost on a unit this size, so shoot where you can reach the animal without a long drag. We can't speak to vehicle restrictions or any season-specific rules here. Check CPW's current brochure and the travel management map for the roads you plan to use before you leave.

Colorado rules that decide your day

Summarised from CPW regulations. They change — read the current regulations and your permit-tag before you hunt.

Legal shooting hours

Big game may be taken from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset.

Motorized retrieval

Tagging

Validate and attach your carcass tag before the animal is moved, and keep evidence of sex attached until the carcass reaches your home or a processor.

Leaving meat

Abandoning edible meat is illegal. CPW counts the four quarters and the loins.

Where you may not shoot

Occupied structures — No discharging a firearm within 50 yards of a developed campsite, and never toward an occupied building.
Roads — No shooting from or across a public road, and no shooting from a motor vehicle.

Mule Deer: where to put the shot

Broadside or quartering away, on the back edge of the front leg about a third of the way up the body.

Shots to refuse

Nothing behind or overlapping the animal you picked.
Your maximum range is the farthest you have shot a three-shot group into a paper plate from the rest you are carrying.
Pass the shot you are talking yourself into.

Plan the carry: roughly 40– 120 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — two large coolers. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

Pro Members Only

Unlock mule deer hunting tactics for Unit 10

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Mule Deer Success Rates

All manners of take78%

Archery20%

Rifle93%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 10 at 78% — 29 animals taken by 37 hunters. The hunter count is large enough for the percentage to mean something and small enough that a good or bad year still moves it.

Archery — 20% success, 1 taken by 5 hunters
Rifle — 93% success, 25 taken by 27 hunters

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — 1st Season buck only (resident)	11	59	18.6%	4
Archery — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	2	95	2.1%	25
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (resident)	11	51	21.6%	7
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	2	42	4.8%	24
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	19	258	7.4%	14
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	4	254	1.6%	26
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident)	13	326	4.0%	19
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident)	3	408	0.7%	29
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	1	34	2.9%	27
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—

Data from 2026 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number.

Open in Draw Odds Engine

CPW's 2026 draw recap for mule deer in unit 10, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

DM010O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 408 applicants for 3 licences, 0.7% drawn, 29 preference points needed
DM010O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, resident: 326 applicants for 13 licences, 4% drawn, 19 preference points needed
DM010O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, resident: 258 applicants for 19 licences, 7.4% drawn, 14 preference points needed
DM010O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 254 applicants for 4 licences, 1.6% drawn, 26 preference points needed

Colorado runs a pure preference-point draw, so the point figure above is the requirement the agency published for that code in that year, not a forecast for the next one. There are 5 further code-and-residency combinations in the recap for this unit. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Pronghorn Hunting in Unit 10

Unit 10 (Blue Mountain) sits in the northwest corner of Colorado against the Utah line, across Moffat and Rio Blanco Counties. CPW puts it at 832 square miles between the Green and Yampa rivers to the north and the White River to the south. The agency's unit material doesn't break out pronghorn by area. You'll be scouting from terrain, not a published herd map, and the tag is worth chasing only if you'll put in the glassing time.

Finding Pronghorn Across 832 Square Miles of Blue Mountain Country

CPW's unit material gives this one as a boundary and not much else: no pronghorn narrative, no list of areas where the herd concentrates. So we're working from the frame the agency draws and from what the terrain says. Treat everything below as a scouting plan. Nobody has counted the animals for us.

The Frame: Rivers, Highway and the Utah Line

The unit is bounded on the north by the Green and Yampa rivers and on the south by the White River. The Utah line is the west edge. On the east, CPW's description follows Twelvemile Gulch Rd. and U.S. 40 to mile marker 38.3, then Elk Springs Ridge, Drill Hole, Winter Valley Gulch, Coal Creek and Wolf Creek. A hunter coming in on U.S. 40 is on the unit's east line. Those are the edges of the unit. They don't tell you where animals stand.

Badger Flat and the Draw Country

Our terrain read for open-country animals starts with Badger Flat, at about 6,886 feet in Moffat County. Flats are where you'd expect to find pronghorn on a unit this rough. Around it sit a string of named draws: Serviceberry Draw (7,496 ft), Robinson Draw (7,470), Mud Springs Draw (7,175), Antelope Draw (7,108), Spike Hollow Draw (6,962) and Marthas Draw (6,841). That's a lot of country in a 700-foot band of elevation. Start in the 6,800 to 7,200 foot range and work outward. Antelope Draw has the obvious name, but a name doesn't prove animals. Look first.

Bear Valley and Bear Canyon

Lower down are Bear Valley Draw (6,593 ft), East Bear Valley Draw (6,623) and Bear Canyon (6,399), all in Moffat County. Bear Valley Ridge (8,127 ft) shares the name, so confirm on a map whether the ridge overlooks the draws before you plan a glassing spot around it. If it does, you've got a high perch over low country.

Where to Sit and Look

The named high points are your optics platforms. Tanks Peak (8,714 ft), Moose Head Mountain (8,488), Buckwater Ridge (8,305) and K Point (7,874) are all in Moffat County. Lone Mountain (7,699) and Petes Post (7,120) are lower options. Skull Creek Rim (6,899) and Lazy Y Point (6,678) are cliff edges that should let you look down into the lower country. In Rio Blanco County, Spooky Mountain and Mellen Hill both top out near 6,300 feet.

Water is named on the map, though we can't tell you which sources hold on a dry fall. Bearwater Spring, Bobcat Springs, Mud Spring, Bill White Spring, Mantle Spring and Blue Mountain Springs 1, 2 and 4 are all worth plotting. Check each one before you commit a day to it.

The terrain layer shows the named features above as public land. Cross-check every parcel against a current ownership map before you cross a fence line.

Unit 10 terrain and land status

Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Tanks Peak (8,714 ft), Moose Head Mountain (8,488 ft), Buckwater Ridge (8,305 ft), Bear Valley Ridge (8,127 ft)

Holding ground: Gunsight Gap (8,026 ft), Serviceberry Draw (7,496 ft), Robinson Draw (7,470 ft), Baking Powder Ridge STL, Buckwater Draw STL

Every one of these was tested against the unit polygon before it went on the map. They are starting points, not agency recommendations.

Hunting Pronghorn on Blue Mountain: Glass First, Then Close the Gap

This unit is big and broken, and the agency doesn't tell you where the pronghorn are. That makes the first day or two all about looking. Don't plan on covering ground in the truck.

Glass From the High Points, Then Drop

Pick a high point and be on it at first light. Tanks Peak, Buckwater Ridge or K Point give you the elevation to scan the draws below. Pronghorn are easy to spot on open ground and easy to lose in the folds. Work the country in a grid, one draw at a time, and then go back over it. Glass Badger Flat and the heads of Serviceberry and Robinson draws first, since our read puts the best open ground there. If you've found nothing by mid-morning, move to the next ridge and don't sit on empty country.

Use the Draws and the Wind

The named draws are your approach routes. Pronghorn watch the skyline, and a hunter walking a ridge crest gets spotted from a long way off. Drop into a draw like Mud Springs or Spike Hollow, keep the wind in your face and let the ground hide you. Morning thermals typically pull downslope and afternoon thermals upslope, so plan stalks around that. Range everything before you move. Distance fools you out here.

Consider Water, Especially With a Bow

We'd plot the springs before the season and visit them. Bearwater Spring, Bobcat Springs, Bill White Spring and the Blue Mountain springs are all names to check. A dry spring means a wasted day, so look at sign (tracks, droppings, bedding) before you build a plan on one. If you carry a bow, a ground blind near a working water source is probably your best shot at close range. Rifle hunters can do more with the high-point glassing approach.

What a Realistic Day Looks Like

Up before light, on a glassing point at first light. Glass until the animals settle, then plan the stalk. Expect to burn the middle of the day walking between ridges. You'll be back on the glass in the evening. Chances are you'll see more country than animals.

Before you go, pull CPW's current travel management information for road closures, since the unit's roads and access points aren't described in the material we have. Carry paper maps. This is 832 square miles with Utah on the west edge, and it's easy to lose your bearings.

Colorado rules that decide your day

Summarised from CPW regulations. They change — read the current regulations and your permit-tag before you hunt.

Legal shooting hours

Big game may be taken from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset.

Motorized retrieval

Tagging

Validate and attach your carcass tag before the animal is moved, and keep evidence of sex attached until the carcass reaches your home or a processor.

Leaving meat

Abandoning edible meat is illegal. CPW counts the four quarters and the loins.

Where you may not shoot

Occupied structures — No discharging a firearm within 50 yards of a developed campsite, and never toward an occupied building.
Roads — No shooting from or across a public road, and no shooting from a motor vehicle.

Pronghorn: where to put the shot

Broadside, straight up the front leg, a third of the way into the body. Pronghorn are shallow-chested and the lungs sit forward.

Shots to refuse

Range it, then range it again. Open country makes 400 yards look like 250.
Wait for the buck to stop. Nobody kills a running pronghorn cleanly on purpose.
Mind the backdrop. A miss carries a long way across a flat.

Plan the carry: roughly 30– 45 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — one large cooler with ice already in it. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

Pro Members Only

Unlock pronghorn hunting tactics for Unit 10

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Pronghorn Success Rates

All manners of take100%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 10 at 100% — 10 animals taken by 10 hunters. On a sample that small the percentage moves several points with one animal, so read the hunter count beside it.

Pronghorn Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	4	322	1.2%	24
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	1	163	0.6%	26
Rifle — 5th Season buck only (resident)	5	18	27.8%	5
Rifle — 5th Season buck only (nonresident)	0	16	0.0%	—

Data from 2026 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number.

Open in Draw Odds Engine

CPW's 2026 draw recap for pronghorn in unit 10, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

AM010O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 322 applicants for 4 licences, 1.2% drawn, 24 preference points needed
AM010O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 163 applicants for 1 licences, 0.6% drawn, 26 preference points needed
AM010P5R — Rifle, 5th Season, Buck Only, resident: 18 applicants for 5 licences, 27.8% drawn, 5 preference points needed
AM010P5R — Rifle, 5th Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 16 applicants for 0 licences, 0% drawn, no preference points needed

Colorado runs a pure preference-point draw, so the point figure above is the requirement the agency published for that code in that year, not a forecast for the next one. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Black Bear Hunting in Unit 10

Unit 10 sits in the northwest corner of Colorado against the Utah line, covering Moffat and Rio Blanco Counties between the Green and Yampa rivers to the north and the White River to the south. CPW covers it in roughly 832 square miles of canyon, ridge and draw country. The agency publishes no per-unit bear breakdown, so you're hunting off terrain, not a managers' map. Scouting those draws and ridges decides the hunt.

Where to Find Black Bear in Unit 10: Draws Below the Blue Mountain Ridges

CPW's unit material gives no bear narrative for Unit 10. It doesn't say where bears concentrate, and nobody has counted them for us. What the agency does give is the frame: bounded on the north by the Green and Yampa rivers, on the south by the White River, and on the west by Utah. The east line runs Twelvemile Gulch Rd., U.S. 40 to mile marker 38.3, Elk Springs Ridge to Drill Hole, then Winter Valley Gulch, Coal Creek and Wolf Creek. That's a legal boundary, not a map of bears. Everything below is our terrain read.

The Bear Valley and Bear Canyon cluster

The names alone make this the first place we'd put boots. Bear Valley Draw sits near 6,593 feet, East Bear Valley Draw near 6,623, and Bear Canyon near 6,399. Bear Valley Ridge (8,127 feet) overlooks the country. Names aren't proof of bears, so treat it as a starting hypothesis and confirm it with sign.

Serviceberry, Robinson and Mud Springs draws

Serviceberry Draw (7,496 feet) and Robinson Draw (7,470) are the highest draws our terrain read flags as holding country. Mud Springs Draw (7,175), Antelope Draw (7,108) and Spike Hollow Draw (6,962) step down from there. Bears chase food, and the serviceberry name hints at a berry crop. Walk it and see before you commit a week to it.

Lower, Badger Flat (6,886) and Marthas Draw (6,841) round out the list. Our read tags all of these as public.

Glassing points over the draws

High, in Moffat County: Tanks Peak (8,714), Moose Head Mountain (8,488) and Buckwater Ridge (8,305).
Mid-elevation: K Point (7,874), Lone Mountain (7,699), Petes Post (7,120) and M F Mountain (7,080).
Low rims: Skull Creek Rim (6,899) and Lazy Y Point (6,678).
Rio Blanco side: Spooky Mountain (6,317), Mellen Hill (6,313) and Coal Oil Rim (5,843).

Water

Named springs include Bearwater Spring, Bobcat Springs, Mud Spring, Bill White Spring, Mantle Spring and Blue Mountain Springs Numbers 1, 2 and 4. We can't pin down where each one sits or whether it flows in your season. Mark them as leads and check them on foot.

What to skip

Skip the river-bottom edges on the north and south lines until you've worked the draws. Nothing we have puts bears there. Entering from U.S. 40 puts you on the unit's east line, and the western draws are a long way from that road.

Unit 10 terrain and land status

Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Tanks Peak (8,714 ft), Moose Head Mountain (8,488 ft), Buckwater Ridge (8,305 ft), Bear Valley Ridge (8,127 ft)

Holding ground: Gunsight Gap (8,026 ft), Serviceberry Draw (7,496 ft), Robinson Draw (7,470 ft), Baking Powder Ridge STL, Buckwater Draw STL

Every one of these was tested against the unit polygon before it went on the map. They are starting points, not agency recommendations.

Pro Members Only

Unlock Unit 10 bear locations

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

How to Hunt Black Bear in Unit 10: Glass the Ridges, Walk the Draws

With no agency harvest numbers or species narrative for this unit, you're building your own picture. We'd rather say that than sell you a pattern we can't support. Confirm season dates, licence type and any weapon restrictions in CPW's current brochure before you go. We won't guess at them.

Glass from Buckwater Ridge or K Point

Get up high before first light and stay through the first hours of sun. Buckwater Ridge (8,305 feet) and K Point (7,874) look over the mid-elevation draws. Moose Head Mountain (8,488) and Tanks Peak (8,714) give you more reach if the lower ridges don't show you anything. Scan edges where brush meets open ground, then come back to those spots in the last two hours of light.

Work the draws with the wind

Morning thermals pull down-canyon and evening air drifts uphill. Plan every approach into Serviceberry, Robinson or Bear Valley Draw so the wind stays in your face. A bear that catches you in a deep draw has a hundred ways out. Move slowly and stop often to look ahead. Fresh scat, torn-up logs and turned rocks tell you more than a glassing session does.

Use the springs as checkpoints

On a dry September hillside, a flowing spring draws every animal around. We can't promise which ones are running, so treat Bearwater Spring, Mud Spring and the rest as stops on a loop. Look for tracks, then back off and glass from a distance rather than sitting on top of the water.

Beating other hunters

Unit 10 is big country, and the Utah line pushes most pressure toward the east edge along U.S. 40. Getting into the western draws takes a long walk, and most hunters won't make it. Mid-week and early morning give you the best odds of having a draw to yourself.

A realistic day

Up early, in position on a ridge before light. Glass until the sun is well up, then drop into a draw and still-hunt it slowly with the wind in your face. Eat lunch near a spring, check it for sign, and nap if you're sitting. Be back on a glassing point by mid-afternoon. A pack-out from one of these canyons is real work, so don't shoot a bear you can't get out. Carry what you need to quarter it and bring it back on your back.

Colorado rules that decide your day

Summarised from CPW regulations. They change — read the current regulations and your permit-tag before you hunt.

Legal shooting hours

Big game may be taken from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset.

Motorized retrieval

Tagging

Validate and attach your carcass tag before the animal is moved, and keep evidence of sex attached until the carcass reaches your home or a processor.

Leaving meat

Abandoning edible meat is illegal. CPW counts the four quarters and the loins.

Where you may not shoot

Occupied structures — No discharging a firearm within 50 yards of a developed campsite, and never toward an occupied building.
Roads — No shooting from or across a public road, and no shooting from a motor vehicle.

Black Bear: where to put the shot

Broadside or quartering away, on the back edge of the front leg about a third of the way up the body.

Shots to refuse

Nothing behind or overlapping the animal you picked.
Your maximum range is the farthest you have shot a three-shot group into a paper plate from the rest you are carrying.
Pass the shot you are talking yourself into.

Plan the carry: roughly 40– 120 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — two large coolers. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

Pro Members Only

Unlock Unit 10 bear tactics

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Black Bear Success Rates

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates carry no black bear row for unit 10 that we can read back to this unit on its own. Where the agency reports a unit inside a grouping, or prints a table our parser cannot resolve to a single column, we leave the number out rather than publish a statewide average as though it had been measured here. CPW's current harvest estimates are the place to check before you apply.

Black Bear Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	1	2	50.0%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	1	1	100.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season either sex (resident)	2	2	100.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (resident)	5	26	19.2%	1
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	0	3	0.0%	—
Rifle — 5th Season either sex (resident)	2	3	66.7%	—
Rifle — 5th Season either sex (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—

Data from 2026 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number.

Open in Draw Odds Engine

CPW's 2026 draw recap for black bear in unit 10, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

BE010O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 26 applicants for 5 licences, 19.2% drawn, 1 preference point needed
BE010O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Either Sex, nonresident: 3 applicants for 0 licences, 0% drawn, no preference points needed
BE010O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 2 applicants for 1 licences, 50% drawn, no preference points needed
BE010O1M — Muzzleloader, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 2 applicants for 2 licences, 100% drawn, no preference points needed

Colorado runs a pure preference-point draw, so the point figure above is the requirement the agency published for that code in that year, not a forecast for the next one. There are 1 further code-and-residency combinations in the recap for this unit. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

🚐

RV Sites

Very limited. Dispersed pull-offs on BLM roads. Rangely and Dinosaur have basic services.

⛺

Camp Sites

Dispersed camping on BLM land throughout. No developed campgrounds in the unit interior.

🛻

Trailer Access

Short trailers only. BLM roads are rough and narrow.

💧

Water

Green River, Yampa River, and scattered springs. Always filter or treat.

🛣️

Road Conditions

BLM roads seasonally maintained. 4WD required for most spur roads. Impassable when wet.

🥾

Terrain Difficulty

Strenuous. Elevation 5,000-9,000 feet across canyon terrain, pinyon-juniper mesas, and steep draws.

👥

Hunting Pressure

Low to moderate. The rugged terrain limits access and pressure.

🌦️

Weather

Expect 15-55F during rifle season. Canyon winds can be fierce. Early snow possible October.

📱

Cell Service

None in backcountry. Spotty near Rangely. Satellite communicator essential.

🏘️

Nearest Town

Rangely

Pro Members Only

Unlock logistics for Unit 10

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 10?

Unit 10 lies in Moffat and Rio Blanco counties, and CPW has it bounded on the north by Green and Yampa rivers; on the east by Twelvemile Gulch Rd., U.S. 40 to mile marker 38.3 to Elk Springs Ridge to Drill Hole, Winter Valley Gulch, Coal Creek and Wolf Creek; on the south by White River; on the west by UT.

What is the elk success rate in unit 10?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 10 at 49% across all manners of take, and archery 70%, muzzleloader 40% and rifle 49% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 10?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 10 at 78% across all manners of take, and archery 20% and rifle 93% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the pronghorn success rate in unit 10?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 10 at 100% across all manners of take. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the black bear success rate in unit 10?

CPW publishes no black bear success figure we can tie to unit 10 on its own — the 2023 harvest tables either omit the unit or report it in a grouping we could not read back to it reliably. Rather than quote a statewide average as though it were measured here, we say so. Check CPW's current harvest estimates before you apply.

Free Hunt Planning Tools

🎰 Colorado Draw Odds Unit-level tag success rates 📅 Application Timeline Deadlines for all 9 states 🦌 Rut Forecast Peak rut timing by species 💰 Hunt Cost Calculator Budget your entire hunt

Plan Your Hunt with ProHunt Pro

Unlock advanced tactics, the Tag-to-Trail Planner, AI hunt strategy assistant, and personalized camp and trip execution plans.

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Sources & Verification

Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-10-23.

Colorado Big Game Hunting Brochure — Game Management Unit (GMU) Descriptions (pp. 79-80-81-82) — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: GMU boundary description, Counties the unit lies in, Data analysis unit (DAU) the unit belongs to · accessed 2026-10-22
2023 Colorado Elk Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for elk in unit 10, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22
CPW CPWAdminData feature service — GMU and sheep/goat unit boundaries — Colorado Parks and Wildlife GIS Unit · supports: Mapped extent of the unit, Which named ground falls inside the unit line · accessed 2026-10-22
2023 Colorado Deer Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for mule deer in unit 10, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22
2023 Colorado Pronghorn Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for pronghorn in unit 10, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22

Unit 10 (Blue Mountain)

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 10

Elk Hunting in Unit 10

Where to Find Elk on Blue Mountain: High Ridges, Named Draws and the Unit's Edges

The frame of the unit

Tanks Peak, Moose Head Mountain and Buckwater Ridge

The draws on the Moffat side

The lower rims toward the river country

Unit 10 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt Unit 10: Glass From the Ridges, Work the Draws and Plan Around Water

Elk Success Rates

Elk Draw Odds

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 10

Where to Find Mule Deer on Blue Mountain

The frame: rivers, Utah and U.S. 40

Serviceberry, Robinson and Mud Springs Draws

Bear Valley and the lower benches

High points that let you cover it

Unit 10 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt Blue Mountain's Draws and Ridges

Mule Deer Success Rates

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Pronghorn Hunting in Unit 10

Finding Pronghorn Across 832 Square Miles of Blue Mountain Country

The Frame: Rivers, Highway and the Utah Line

Badger Flat and the Draw Country

Bear Valley and Bear Canyon

Where to Sit and Look

Unit 10 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

Hunting Pronghorn on Blue Mountain: Glass First, Then Close the Gap

Pronghorn Success Rates

Pronghorn Draw Odds

Black Bear Hunting in Unit 10

Where to Find Black Bear in Unit 10: Draws Below the Blue Mountain Ridges

How to Hunt Black Bear in Unit 10: Glass the Ridges, Walk the Draws

Black Bear Success Rates

Black Bear Draw Odds

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Explore Related Units

Unit 40 — Elk

Unit 12 — Elk

Unit 10 — Mule Deer

Frequently Asked Questions

Free Hunt Planning Tools

Plan Your Hunt with ProHunt Pro

Sources & Verification