Unit 12 (White River)

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 12 at archery 20% and rifle 33%. That is an ordinary spread for this country, and it rewards whoever scouted. The plan: glass the broken edges at first light, then sit still and keep glassing the same ground.

Glassing from Horse Mountain, Upper Sugarloaf Mountain and Iles Mountain

Take a position on one of Horse Mountain (9,222 ft), Upper Sugarloaf Mountain (9,123 ft), Iles Mountain (8,970 ft) and Big Sugarloaf Mountain (8,742 ft) and be on it before light. Work the morning with the air falling away from you, then accept that by mid-morning the wind has reversed and the plan has to change with it. A tripod is worth more here than another hour of walking. On the rut hunts, late-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.

Water decides where you sit

With 332 tanks and only 27 mapped stream reaches, this is ground where standing water is made rather than found. Find the two or three holding water near a glassing position and you have found the only appointment the animals keep. Check the ground around it before you commit an evening to it.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Season normals here run Sep 76/39°F, Oct 61/28°F and Nov 46/18°F. By Nov the lows are around 18°F, and the first hard storm after that moves animals off the high ground — a late tag is a bet on that storm arriving. Precipitation runs about 1.7 in. in Sep, 1.7 in. in Oct and 1.3 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: CR 8 and CO 13

CO 13 and CO 317 / CR 29 are the paved frame, which is also where everyone else starts. FR 290.1 needs clearance, and that is usually where the boot tracks thin out. There is little true four-wheel-drive road here, so distance from the gravel is the only thing separating you from the next hunter.

Where unit 12 sits inside D-7

Across D-7, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 67% in unit 22, 51% in unit 211, 47% in unit 13, 44% in unit 11 and 30% in unit 12. That puts unit 12 behind 4 of the 7 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 22 carried the better number in the same herd — check its tag count before you read that as an easier hunt.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Devils Causeway, Pyramid Peak, Pagoda Peak and Sand Peak as places to see from, and Ripple Creek Pass, Lost Sheepherder Gulch, Yellowjacket Pass and Iles Grove STL as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the unit line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Walk between two of them rather than driving between four, and you will learn more in a day.

What we can't tell you

Some of the ground named above carries no land-status flag we trust, so check ownership on a current layer before you hunt it.

Moose hunting here is a search problem. With no agency moose numbers to lean on, the work is cutting the country down quickly and glassing the parts that look right.

Glass from the high points

Our terrain read marks several summits as glassing spots on public ground: Baldy Mountain (about 10,140 feet), Horse Ridge (about 9,860), Burro Mountain (about 9,840), Harp Point (about 9,490) and Wilson Mesa (about 9,380). Use them to look down on the parks and drainages below. Be on the glass before first light and again for the last hour of daylight. Between those windows, move and check the next opening.

Work the wet ground on foot

Once you've picked a basin or a gulch, stay out of the willows until you know what's in them. Glass the edges first. Sit where you can see the water and timber together, and let the animal show itself. Moose don't flush the way elk do, and walking through the bottoms usually tells you nothing you couldn't have seen from the edge.

Wind and thermals

Morning air flows downhill and evening air flows up. Approach a park from below in the evening and from above in the morning, so the wind carries your scent away from the animals. In steep gulches like Lost Sheepherder, thermals can swirl. Check the wind with a puffer bottle often.

Roads and access

CR 8 (about 13.6 miles), CR 15 (about 8.7) and CR 29 (about 4.8) are graded gravel that a 2WD rig and a small trailer can handle. Colo. 13 and Colo. 317 are paved. FR 290.1 is about 4 miles and needs high clearance. We don't have road status for the rest of the unit, so confirm USFS closures before you go. Elk pressure in this unit is heavy, so expect company on the forest roads in elk season. Pick your hunt dates with that in mind, and check the CPW brochure for your season and weapon rules.

Plan the pack-out before you shoot

A moose is a huge load, and the best country we've pointed to is a long way from a paved road. Before you leave the truck, know how you'd get quarters out of Salt Park or Bunker Basin. Bring help, game bags and a plan for the first 24 hours. The hardest part of this hunt starts after the animal is down.

CPW's unit material gives a legal boundary for Unit 12 but no narrative about where bears live. We won't pretend otherwise. What follows comes from the boundary, the elevation spread, land ownership and our own terrain read, so treat it as a scouting plan, not a tip sheet.

Reading the Boundary: Colo. 13 and the Divides

CPW bounds the unit on the west by Colo. 13, on the north by Colo. 317, Routt CRs 29 and 55 and Rio Blanco CRs 10 and 8, on the east by the Williams Fork-Yampa River divide, and on the south by the Williams Fork-White River divide, USFS 250 and Rio Blanco CRs 48, 15 and 30. Those are the unit's edges, not bear lines. They do tell you how you'll get in. Colo. 13 is paved and takes any rig. CR 8, CR 15 and CR 29 are graded gravel that a 2WD and a small trailer can handle. FR 290.1 runs about four miles and needs clearance.

Know the Ownership Before You Commit

The unit runs roughly 60% National Forest, 8% State Trust and 32% private or other. The elevation runs from about 6,500 feet to a high point near 10,400, with a mean around 8,165. Most of the public ground is the higher timber. Much of the lower country is where private land clusters, so check each parcel on your onX or BLM/USFS maps before you walk.

Parks and Basins: Salt Park, Cyclone Park, Bunker Basin

Our terrain read flags a string of open flats and basins in Rio Blanco County as holding country: Salt Park (about 9,280 feet), Cyclone Park (about 9,000), Bunker Basin (about 8,970) and Lost Park (about 8,420). Nobody has counted bears there for us. We like them because they're public-land openings with timber edges, and openings are where you can actually see an animal. Start there.

Low Draws and the High Fringe

Elk Draw (about 7,800 feet, Rio Blanco) and Seeping Spring Gulch (about 6,300, Moffat) are the low-country holding spots on our list. On the high side, Lost Sheepherder Gulch (about 10,170, Garfield) and Ripple Creek Pass (about 10,350, Garfield) mark the upper end of the unit's range. Expect the draws to be the place to look early and the high ground to matter later, but that's our reasoning from elevation, not CPW data. Water helps you narrow it down, too. Our terrain read counts 27 streams, 13 lakes and 332 tanks, and the tanks are worth marking before you leave home.

With no agency bear narrative to lean on, you'll build your own plan. Keep it simple. Find openings, sit above them, and let the wind decide where you go.

Glass From the Summits Above the Parks

Our terrain read tags several Rio Blanco County high points as glassing stations: Baldy Mountain (about 10,136 feet), Horse Ridge (about 9,857), Burro Mountain (about 9,836) and a second Baldy Mountain (about 9,706). Pick one that overlooks a park or basin, such as Salt Park or Bunker Basin. Be on the glass at first light and stay through the first couple of hours. Come back for the last two hours of daylight. A bear in an opening is a gift. Midday, move or eat.

Wind, Thermals and Quiet Walking

Morning air drops downslope and evening air climbs. Set up so both are in your face when you're above an opening, and don't plan a stalk that crosses your own scent. In timber, slow way down. A bear that's winded you is gone before you see it. Dry leaves and brittle brush are loud, so choose soft routes along drainage bottoms where you can.

Use the Roads, Then Leave Them

CR 8, CR 15 and CR 29 are easy enough to reach the unit's edges, and so is Colo. 13 on the west. Other hunters will use them, too. Park and walk a mile or two off the gravel, and you'll leave most of the truck traffic behind. FR 290.1 is high-clearance, which may thin the crowd a little. Don't count on it. Check the current CPW brochure for the bear regulations and any travel restrictions before you go. Nothing we have tells us what's posted on a given road.

Water Is a Tool, Not a Guarantee

With 332 mapped tanks and 27 streams, you've got places to check for sign. Walk a tank, look for tracks and droppings, and judge whether anything's using it. If it is, sit it downwind. If not, move on within an hour. We'd rather burn a morning checking three tanks than sit a fourth that's empty of sign.

A Realistic Day

Up before light, on a summit by first shade. Glass until the thermals turn. Then drop down, check a tank or a draw, and eat lunch near water. Back on the glass by mid-afternoon. Expect to see few bears. The reward is staying disciplined for several days in a row, on public ground you've already checked against the 32% that isn't.

With no agency pronghorn data for this unit, finding animals is the hunt. Plan on a scouting trip before the season, or a first day given entirely to glassing.

Glass from the low hills first

Start on Harper Hill and Monument Butte, both on public land in Moffat County. Get up before first light, find a rise with a long view, and sit. Pronghorn spot movement at huge distances, so you glass; you don't walk. Cover the low country in grids and mark every group. If you see nothing by mid-morning, move to the next vantage rather than hiking into empty ground.

Work the access roads

CR 8 runs about 13.6 miles of graded gravel, and CR 15 about 8.7, both fine for a 2WD truck. CR 29 adds 4.8 more miles of graded gravel. CO 13 is pavement all the way. FR 290.1 is a 4-mile high-clearance road, so don't take a car on it. Drive slowly, stop often and glass from the truck at pullouts. Then park and walk the last mile. Count on other hunters using those same roads.

Water and wind

Our terrain read counts 332 stock tanks, 27 streams and 13 lakes, but no mapped springs. Nobody has counted pronghorn at those tanks for us. If you find antelope near a tank in dry weather, sit that water at the edge of daylight. Don't assume any given tank is used. In open country, wind decides every stalk. Keep it in your face, use draws and the folds of the sage, and don't skyline yourself on the hill you glassed from.

Realistic expectations

Expect a lot of driving, a lot of glassing and few animals. We don't have season dates, weapon splits or success rates here, so check CPW's current brochure for those. If your scouting turns up nothing on public land, spend your time on a different unit. Don't force a hunt into timber that holds elk but not antelope.