Unit 133 (Wet Mountains East)

CPW's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 133 at archery 0%, muzzleloader 0% and rifle 45%. That is an ordinary spread for this country, and it rewards whoever scouted. The plan: find the feed, find the timber it backs onto, then watch the seam between them at the edges of the day.

Glassing from Black Bluff, Brushy Knob and Gobblers Knob

Take a position on one of Black Bluff (5,707 ft), Brushy Knob (5,686 ft), Gobblers Knob (5,674 ft) and Sanford Hills (5,407 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. Glass the edges first, then the shaded timber, then the edges again as the light goes. On the rut hunts, September bugling works where you can get above a drainage and let the thermals carry sound downhill.

Where unit 133 sits inside E-53

Across E-53, CPW's 2023 elk success runs 43% in unit 141, 42% in unit 134, 29% in unit 133, 26% in unit 142 and 12% in unit 135. That puts unit 133 behind 2 of the 4 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 141 carried the better number in the same herd — check its tag count before you read that as an easier hunt.

The way in: Colo. 10 and I-25

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: Colo. 10 and I-25. Those are its edges, not its interior — useful because they are where you leave the pavement, and useless for telling you what the inside is like. Pick the edge nearest the country you mean to hunt and work in from it on foot, rather than driving the perimeter looking for a way through.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Flattop Butte, Gobblers Knob and Berry Point as places to see from, and Bustos Flat, Almagre Canyon, Apishapa North STL and Apishapa SWA as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the unit line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Take the pair you can reach on one road and treat the rest as a second trip.

What a day here costs you

576 square miles is more country than a week will cover, so pick one drainage and learn it rather than driving the unit. The ground is gentle enough that the pack-out is a distance problem rather than a climbing one. Decide the night before where you will be at first light, and go there in the dark.

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.

CPW draws an exact line around unit 133 and says nothing about where the mule deer stand inside it. Every place named below sits inside the unit line. Which of them holds animals in your season is for you to find out. The unit lies in Huerfano, Pueblo and Las Animas counties.

The lines of the unit: Colo. 10, Colo. Interstate Gas Pipeline Rd and Apishapa River

CPW has unit 133 bounded on the north by Colo. 10; on the east by Colo. Interstate Gas Pipeline Rd.; on the south by Apishapa River; on the west by I-25. It tells you the shape of the unit and nothing about its inhabitants. What it does give you is the way in: the rivers and highways you cross, and the divides that decide which drainage you end up in.

High ground inside the line: Blue Hill, Mica Butte and Black Bluff

Named high points inside the unit include Blue Hill at 5,753 feet, Mica Butte at 5,742 feet, Black Bluff at 5,707 feet, Brushy Knob at 5,686 feet and Gobblers Knob at 5,674 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Mule deer on open country use every fold and draw there is, and almost none of the flat.

Holding ground: Almagre Canyon, Woods Canyon and Orr Canyon

Below them sit Almagre Canyon at 5,114 feet, Woods Canyon at 5,040 feet, Orr Canyon at 5,008 feet, Hudson Canyon at 4,965 feet and Bruenellie Canyon at 4,956 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Two you can watch from a single knob is worth more than five you have to drive between.

Public ground to start from: Apishapa North STL, Apishapa SWA and Bustos Flat STL

CPW lists Apishapa North STL, Apishapa SWA, Bustos Flat STL and The Hogback STL inside this unit as ground open to public hunting. Each property sets its own restrictions, and the agency's page for it is where they are written down. Federal land covers about 0% of the unit on top of those.

The herd this unit belongs to: D-45

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-45, and unit 133 is one piece of it. The rest of D-45 is unit 128, unit 134, unit 135, unit 136, unit 141, unit 142 and unit 147. That matters twice over: the population objective and the licence numbers are set for the whole area, and the animals move across unit lines inside it without noticing them.

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 133 at rifle 37%. 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 Iron Ridge, Berry Point and Cordova Mesa

Take a position on one of Iron Ridge (5,338 ft), Berry Point (5,049 ft), Cordova Mesa (6,512 ft) and The Hogback (6,480 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.

Where unit 133 sits inside D-45

Across D-45, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 64% in unit 142, 63% in unit 141, 53% in unit 134, 48% in unit 147 and 47% in unit 136. That puts unit 133 behind 6 of the 7 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 142 carried the better number in the same herd — check its tag count before you read that as an easier hunt.

The way in: Colo. 10 and I-25

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: Colo. 10 and I-25. Those are its edges, not its interior — useful because they are where you leave the pavement, and useless for telling you what the inside is like. Check each of them on a current motor-vehicle-use map before you count on it, because a line on a boundary description is not a promise of public access.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Flattop Butte, Gobblers Knob and Berry Point as places to see from, and Bustos Flat, Almagre Canyon, Apishapa North STL and Apishapa SWA as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the unit line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Join two of them into a morning: be on the first before light, move to the second once the thermals turn.

What a day here costs you

576 square miles is more country than a week will cover, so pick one drainage and learn it rather than driving the unit. The ground is gentle enough that the pack-out is a distance problem rather than a climbing one. Leave the truck earlier than you want to and you will hunt the best half-hour of the 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.