Colorado Moose Pronghorn Mule Deer Elk

Unit 16 (Steamboat Springs / Elk River)

Colorado Hunting Guide — Moose, Pronghorn, Mule Deer, Elk

Unit 16 lies in Jackson County and covers about 320 square miles. Ground runs from 8,049 to 11,931 feet. CPW bounds it by Lone Pine Creek and CR 16 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put Shiras moose success here as high as 76%. Federal land covers about 45% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Colorado Hunting Guide

🏔️

45%

Public Land

⛰️

8,049–10,810 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 16

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 16 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.

Moose guide Pronghorn guide Mule Deer guide Elk 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.

Moose Hunting in Unit 16

Where to Find Shiras Moose in Unit 16

CPW draws an exact line around unit 16 and says nothing about where the Shiras moose stand inside it. So the ground below is the unit's own and the read on where to start is ours, labelled as such. The unit lies in Jackson County. It runs to about 320 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Lone Pine Creek, CR 16 and Colo. 14

CPW has unit 16 bounded on the north by Lone Pine Creek, CRs 16 & 12W; on the east by Colo. 14; on the south by U.S. 40; on the west by Continental Divide. Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. Those features are what you will check against the map all week, and the divides among them are the ones that matter.

High ground inside the line: Lost Ranger Peak, Mount Ethel and Rabbit Ears Peak

Named high points inside the unit include Lost Ranger Peak at 11,931 feet, Mount Ethel at 11,892 feet, Rabbit Ears Peak at 10,557 feet, Round Mountain at 10,553 feet and Mexican Ridge at 9,291 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Moose want willow, water and shade, and they rarely leave the drainage that has all three.

Holding ground: Red Canyon, Cloverleaf Valley and Burns Draw

Below them sit Red Canyon at 8,503 feet, Cloverleaf Valley at 8,479 feet, Burns Draw at 8,471 feet, Ed Van Draw at 8,282 feet and Anderson Draw at 8,186 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Reaching the edge of one before light beats reaching its middle at noon.

Public ground to start from: Delaney Butte Lakes SWA, East Delaney Butte Lake STL and Manville SWA

CPW lists Delaney Butte Lakes SWA, East Delaney Butte Lake STL, Manville SWA, Rabbit Ears STL and Red Canyon 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 45% of the unit on top of those.

Water: Green Spring

The water inside the unit line comes to 126 mapped stream reaches, 33 lakes and 111 stock tanks. Named sources include Green Spring. On ground with that many tanks, knowing which two or three hold water in your season is the most useful thing a scouting trip can tell you.

The herd this unit belongs to: M-1

CPW does not manage Shiras moose unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit M-1, and unit 16 is one piece of it. The rest of M-1 is unit 6, unit 17, unit 161 and unit 171. So the objective behind your tag was written for that whole area, and a neighbouring unit in the same herd is a fairer comparison than the statewide figure.

Unit 16 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

8,049–10,810 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 8,771 ft ; peaks can run higher.
319.6 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 32%

Roughly 68% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

111 tanks
126 stream segments
33 lakes

Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Lost Ranger Peak (11,931 ft), Mount Ethel (11,892 ft), Rabbit Ears Peak (10,557 ft), Round Mountain (10,553 ft)

Holding ground: White Slide (9,367 ft), Bear Park (9,222 ft), Newcomb Park (8,774 ft), Delaney Butte Lakes SWA, East Delaney Butte Lake STL

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

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How to Hunt Shiras Moose in Unit 16

CPW's own harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 16 at 76% across all manners of take. A number like that comes from few tags and a short season, not from easy hunting. The plan: walk the willow bottoms slowly at first and last light and look for fresh browse before you look for the animal.

Glassing from Pitchpine Mountain, Peterson Ridge and Lost Ranger Peak

Take a position on one of Pitchpine Mountain (8,765 ft), Peterson Ridge (8,590 ft), Lost Ranger Peak (11,931 ft) and Mount Ethel (11,892 ft) and be on it before light. In the dark the air runs downhill. Pick an approach that doesn't send it into the country you want to see, and plan to move once the slope warms. Work the glass in strips and go back over ground you already covered — animals appear in country you looked at ten minutes ago. On the rut hunts, late September bulls answer a cow call near water.

Water against feed

There are 126 mapped stream reaches and 111 tanks inside the unit, so water is rarely the limiting factor. Where water is everywhere, feed is what concentrates animals, so hunt the feed and treat water as a convenience. Sitting water works where you can see fresh tracks going in, and nowhere else.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Season normals here run Sep 69/34°F, Oct 56/24°F and Nov 40/15°F. By Nov the lows are around 15°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 1.8 in. in Sep, 1.3 in. in Oct and 1.2 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: CR 24 / FR 60.1 and CO 14

CO 14 and US 40 are the paved frame, which is also where everyone else starts. CR 24 / FR 60.1 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. 3 mapped public entry points fall inside the unit, so decide which one you take before the morning you take it.

Where unit 16 sits inside M-1

Across M-1, CPW's 2023 Shiras moose success runs 77% in unit 17, 77% in unit 161, 76% in unit 16, 69% in unit 6 and 67% in unit 171. That puts unit 16 behind 2 of the 4 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 17 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 Lost Ranger Peak, Mount Ethel, Rabbit Ears Peak and Round Mountain as places to see from, and White Slide, Bear Park, Newcomb Park and Delaney Butte Lakes 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.

Getting in and staying out: unit 16

Named routes and what they need

CR 24;FR 60.1 — 13 mi · High-clearance
CO 14 — 12.5 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CR 12 W — 4.3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CR 26 — 3.4 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CR 5 — 3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
US 40 — 1.7 mi · Paved (all rigs)

Ratings come from road data, not from a drive this season. Check current conditions with the managing office before you commit a trailer.

Nearest services

Walden — 16.7 mi · groceries
Steamboat Springs — 16.9 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging, gear
Oak Creek — 30.9 mi · no services listed
Phippsburg — 32.6 mi · no services listed
Yampa — 35.8 mi · fuel

Developed camps

Unnamed camp site · reservable
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
GRIZZLY CREEK GUARD STATION · reservable

Season weather and signal

Jan28° / 6° · 1.2" precip
Aug77° / 40° · 1.4" precip
Sep69° / 34° · 1.8" precip
Oct56° / 24° · 1.3" precip
Nov40° / 15° · 1.2" precip
Dec29° / 7° · 1.1" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 15% of the unit. Plan on being out of contact and tell someone your route.

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.

Moose: where to put the shot

Broadside, behind the shoulder and a third up. Moose look slow to react — the first shot has to count.

Shots to refuse

Where it falls decides your next two days. Avoid shots that drop a moose in water or a bog.
A .30-06 class cartridge minimum, with a bullet built for heavy bone.

Plan the carry: roughly 350– 500 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — four or more large coolers, or a processor. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Moose Success Rates

All manners of take76%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 16 at 76% — 28 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.

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.

Moose Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — 1st Season cow only (resident)	18	171	10.5%	3
Archery — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull only (resident)	14	695	2.0%	3
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull 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 Shiras moose in unit 16, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

MM016O1X — Any Legal Method, 1st Season, Bull Only, resident: 695 applicants for 14 licences, 2% drawn, 3 preference points needed
MF016O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Cow Only, resident: 171 applicants for 18 licences, 10.5% drawn, 3 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.

Pronghorn Hunting in Unit 16

Unit 16 lies in Jackson County and covers about 320 square miles. Ground runs from 8,049 to 11,931 feet. CPW bounds it by Lone Pine Creek and CR 16 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put pronghorn success here as high as 53%. Federal land covers about 45% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Pronghorn in Unit 16

CPW's material on unit 16 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its pronghorn live. So the ground below is the unit's own and the read on where to start is ours, labelled as such. The unit lies in Jackson County. It runs to about 320 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Lone Pine Creek, CR 16 and Colo. 14

CPW has unit 16 bounded on the north by Lone Pine Creek, CRs 16 & 12W; on the east by Colo. 14; on the south by U.S. 40; on the west by Continental Divide. 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: Delaney Butte, Pole Mountain and Harrison Hump

Named high points inside the unit include Delaney Butte at 9,271 feet, Pole Mountain at 9,226 feet, Harrison Hump at 9,152 feet, Pitchpine Mountain at 8,765 feet and Peterson Ridge at 8,590 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Pronghorn stay on the open rolling ground and leave the timber alone.

Holding ground: Spring Gulch, Morley Draw and Baker Draw

Below them sit Spring Gulch at 8,130 feet, Morley Draw at 8,098 feet, Baker Draw at 8,044 feet, Manville Draw at 8,041 feet and White Slide at 9,367 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Reaching the edge of one before light beats reaching its middle at noon.

Public ground to start from: Ridge Road STL, Delaney Butte Lakes SWA and East Delaney Butte Lake STL

CPW lists Ridge Road STL, Delaney Butte Lakes SWA, East Delaney Butte Lake STL, Manville SWA and Rabbit Ears 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 45% of the unit on top of those.

Water: Green Spring

The herd this unit belongs to: A-3

CPW does not manage pronghorn unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit A-3, and unit 16 is one piece of it. The rest of A-3 is unit 6, unit 17, unit 161 and unit 171. Read a neighbour in the same herd before you read the state average — the herd, not the unit line, is what the agency is steering.

Reading the land status

Our ownership read for this unit is approximate — it comes out as National Forest 60%, Private / Other 32% and State Trust 8%, so treat it as a starting point and check a current land-status layer before you plan a route. A grid sample of the unit reads 8,049 to 10,810 feet, and named ground inside the line runs 8,041 to 11,931 feet — take 8,049 to 11,931 as the spread, because the sample is a grid and walks past summits. With 3,882 feet between the two ends, there is enough relief to separate summer range from winter range.

Unit 16 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

8,049–10,810 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 8,771 ft ; peaks can run higher.
319.6 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 32%

Roughly 68% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

111 tanks
126 stream segments
33 lakes

Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Lost Ranger Peak (11,931 ft), Mount Ethel (11,892 ft), Rabbit Ears Peak (10,557 ft), Round Mountain (10,553 ft)

Holding ground: White Slide (9,367 ft), Bear Park (9,222 ft), Newcomb Park (8,774 ft), Delaney Butte Lakes SWA, East Delaney Butte Lake STL

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

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How to Hunt Pronghorn in Unit 16

CPW's own harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 16 at 53% across all manners of take. A number like that comes from few tags and a short season, not from easy hunting. The plan: spot from a vehicle or a rise at distance, then plan a stalk that uses the only cover there is — the curve of the ground.

Glassing from Rabbit Ears Peak, Round Mountain and Mexican Ridge

Take a position on one of Rabbit Ears Peak (10,557 ft), Round Mountain (10,553 ft), Mexican Ridge (9,291 ft) and Delaney Butte (9,271 ft) and be on it before light. In the dark the air runs downhill. Pick an approach that doesn't send it into the country you want to see, and plan to move once the slope warms. Work the glass in strips and go back over ground you already covered — animals appear in country you looked at ten minutes ago. On the rut hunts, early-season bucks hold does and can be decoyed where the law allows it.

Water against feed

There are 126 mapped stream reaches and 111 tanks inside the unit, so water is rarely the limiting factor. Where water is everywhere, feed is what concentrates animals, so hunt the feed and treat water as a convenience. A tank with no tracks is a tank with no reason to sit on it.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Getting past the roads: CR 24 / FR 60.1 and CO 14

Where unit 16 sits inside A-3

Across A-3, CPW's 2023 pronghorn success runs 66% in unit 6, 64% in unit 161, 57% in unit 171, 53% in unit 16 and 52% in unit 17. That puts unit 16 behind 3 of the 4 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 6 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

Getting in and staying out: unit 16

Named routes and what they need

CR 24;FR 60.1 — 13 mi · High-clearance
CO 14 — 12.5 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CR 12 W — 4.3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CR 26 — 3.4 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CR 5 — 3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
US 40 — 1.7 mi · Paved (all rigs)

Ratings come from road data, not from a drive this season. Check current conditions with the managing office before you commit a trailer.

Nearest services

Walden — 16.7 mi · groceries
Steamboat Springs — 16.9 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging, gear
Oak Creek — 30.9 mi · no services listed
Phippsburg — 32.6 mi · no services listed
Yampa — 35.8 mi · fuel

Developed camps

Unnamed camp site · reservable
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
GRIZZLY CREEK GUARD STATION · reservable

Season weather and signal

Jan28° / 6° · 1.2" precip
Aug77° / 40° · 1.4" precip
Sep69° / 34° · 1.8" precip
Oct56° / 24° · 1.3" precip
Nov40° / 15° · 1.2" precip
Dec29° / 7° · 1.1" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 15% of the unit. Plan on being out of contact and tell someone your route.

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.

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Pronghorn Success Rates

All manners of take53%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 16 at 53% — 42 animals taken by 79 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.

Pronghorn Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (resident)	22	229	9.6%	3
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	1	6	16.7%	3
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	28	638	4.4%	17
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	4	130	3.1%	21

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 16, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

AM016O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 638 applicants for 28 licences, 4.4% drawn, 17 preference points needed
AF016O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Doe Only, resident: 229 applicants for 22 licences, 9.6% drawn, 3 preference points needed
AM016O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 130 applicants for 4 licences, 3.1% drawn, 21 preference points needed
AF016O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Doe Only, nonresident: 6 applicants for 1 licences, 16.7% drawn, 3 preference points needed

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 16

Unit 16 lies in Jackson County and covers about 320 square miles. Ground runs from 8,049 to 11,931 feet. CPW bounds it by Lone Pine Creek and CR 16 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 24%. Federal land covers about 45% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 16

CPW's material on unit 16 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its mule deer live. So the ground below is the unit's own and the read on where to start is ours, labelled as such. The unit lies in Jackson County. It runs to about 320 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Lone Pine Creek, CR 16 and Colo. 14

CPW has unit 16 bounded on the north by Lone Pine Creek, CRs 16 & 12W; on the east by Colo. 14; on the south by U.S. 40; on the west by Continental Divide. It tells you the shape of the unit and nothing about its inhabitants. Its value is practical — those are the features you will navigate by, and the ridges that separate one day's country from another's.

High ground inside the line: Lost Ranger Peak, Mount Ethel and Rabbit Ears Peak

Named high points inside the unit include Lost Ranger Peak at 11,931 feet, Mount Ethel at 11,892 feet, Rabbit Ears Peak at 10,557 feet, Round Mountain at 10,553 feet and Mexican Ridge at 9,291 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Mule deer bed on broken ground with a view and feed on the brush below it.

Holding ground: Bear Park, Willow Park and Newcomb Park

Below them sit Bear Park at 9,222 feet, Willow Park at 8,965 feet, Newcomb Park at 8,774 feet, Livingston Park at 8,659 feet and Red Canyon at 8,503 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

Public ground to start from: Red Canyon STL, Ridge Road STL and Delaney Butte Lakes SWA

CPW lists Red Canyon STL, Ridge Road STL, Delaney Butte Lakes SWA, East Delaney Butte Lake STL and Manville SWA 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 45% of the unit on top of those.

Water: Green Spring

The herd this unit belongs to: D-3

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-3, and unit 16 is one piece of it. The rest of D-3 is unit 6, unit 17, unit 161 and unit 171. 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.

Reading the land status

Unit 16 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

8,049–10,810 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 8,771 ft ; peaks can run higher.
319.6 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 32%

Roughly 68% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

111 tanks
126 stream segments
33 lakes

Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Lost Ranger Peak (11,931 ft), Mount Ethel (11,892 ft), Rabbit Ears Peak (10,557 ft), Round Mountain (10,553 ft)

Holding ground: White Slide (9,367 ft), Bear Park (9,222 ft), Newcomb Park (8,774 ft), Delaney Butte Lakes SWA, East Delaney Butte Lake 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 Mule Deer in Unit 16

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 16 at archery 14% and rifle 24%. 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 Pole Mountain, Harrison Hump and Pitchpine Mountain

Take a position on one of Pole Mountain (9,226 ft), Harrison Hump (9,152 ft), Pitchpine Mountain (8,765 ft) and Peterson Ridge (8,590 ft) and be on it before light. Cold air slides downhill in the dark, so keep your scent out of the bowl you mean to watch; expect the thermals to turn uphill an hour after the sun reaches the slope. 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 against feed

There are 126 mapped stream reaches and 111 tanks inside the unit, so water is rarely the limiting factor. Where water is everywhere, feed is what concentrates animals, so hunt the feed and treat water as a convenience. A tank with no tracks is a tank with no reason to sit on it.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Getting past the roads: CR 24 / FR 60.1 and CO 14

Where unit 16 sits inside D-3

Across D-3, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 41% in unit 6, 34% in unit 161, 19% in unit 16, 15% in unit 171 and 9% in unit 17. That puts unit 16 behind 2 of the 4 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 6 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

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.

Getting in and staying out: unit 16

Named routes and what they need

CR 24;FR 60.1 — 13 mi · High-clearance
CO 14 — 12.5 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CR 12 W — 4.3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CR 26 — 3.4 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CR 5 — 3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
US 40 — 1.7 mi · Paved (all rigs)

Ratings come from road data, not from a drive this season. Check current conditions with the managing office before you commit a trailer.

Nearest services

Walden — 16.7 mi · groceries
Steamboat Springs — 16.9 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging, gear
Oak Creek — 30.9 mi · no services listed
Phippsburg — 32.6 mi · no services listed
Yampa — 35.8 mi · fuel

Developed camps

Unnamed camp site · reservable
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
GRIZZLY CREEK GUARD STATION · reservable

Season weather and signal

Jan28° / 6° · 1.2" precip
Aug77° / 40° · 1.4" precip
Sep69° / 34° · 1.8" precip
Oct56° / 24° · 1.3" precip
Nov40° / 15° · 1.2" precip
Dec29° / 7° · 1.1" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 15% of the unit. Plan on being out of contact and tell someone your route.

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.

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Mule Deer Success Rates

All manners of take19%

Archery14%

Rifle24%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 16 at 19% — 26 animals taken by 140 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 — 14% success, 4 taken by 28 hunters
Rifle — 24% success, 22 taken by 94 hunters

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	27	80	33.8%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	6	45	13.3%	1
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	20	69	29.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	12	39	30.8%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident)	12	41	29.3%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident)	1	9	11.1%	1
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	10	68	14.7%	1
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	2	17	11.8%	1

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 16, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

DM016E1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 80 applicants for 27 licences, 33.8% drawn, no preference points needed
DM016O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, resident: 69 applicants for 20 licences, 29% drawn, no preference points needed
DM016O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 68 applicants for 10 licences, 14.7% drawn, 1 preference point needed
DM016E1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 45 applicants for 6 licences, 13.3% drawn, 1 preference point 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 4 further code-and-residency combinations in the recap for this unit. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Elk Hunting in Unit 16

Unit 16 lies in Jackson County and covers about 320 square miles. Ground runs from 8,049 to 11,931 feet. CPW bounds it by Lone Pine Creek and CR 16 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 17%. Federal land covers about 45% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Elk in Unit 16

What CPW publishes for unit 16 is a boundary, not a elk map. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Jackson County. It runs to about 320 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Lone Pine Creek, CR 16 and Colo. 14

CPW has unit 16 bounded on the north by Lone Pine Creek, CRs 16 & 12W; on the east by Colo. 14; on the south by U.S. 40; on the west by Continental Divide. That is a legal description, not a habitat map. Those features are what you will check against the map all week, and the divides among them are the ones that matter.

High ground inside the line: Delaney Butte, Pole Mountain and Harrison Hump

Named high points inside the unit include Delaney Butte at 9,271 feet, Pole Mountain at 9,226 feet, Harrison Hump at 9,152 feet, Pitchpine Mountain at 8,765 feet and Peterson Ridge at 8,590 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Elk want timber to bed in and open ground to feed on, within a short walk of each other.

Holding ground: Cloverleaf Valley, Burns Draw and Ed Van Draw

Below them sit Cloverleaf Valley at 8,479 feet, Burns Draw at 8,471 feet, Ed Van Draw at 8,282 feet, Anderson Draw at 8,186 feet and Spring Gulch at 8,130 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

Public ground to start from: Rabbit Ears STL, Red Canyon STL and Ridge Road STL

CPW lists Rabbit Ears STL, Red Canyon STL, Ridge Road STL, Delaney Butte Lakes SWA and East Delaney Butte Lake 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 45% of the unit on top of those.

Water: Green Spring

The herd this unit belongs to: E-3

CPW does not manage elk unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit E-3, and unit 16 is one piece of it. The rest of E-3 is unit 6, unit 17, unit 161 and unit 171. So the objective behind your tag was written for that whole area, and a neighbouring unit in the same herd is a fairer comparison than the statewide figure.

Reading the land status

Unit 16 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

8,049–10,810 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 8,771 ft ; peaks can run higher.
319.6 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 32%

Roughly 68% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

111 tanks
126 stream segments
33 lakes

Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Lost Ranger Peak (11,931 ft), Mount Ethel (11,892 ft), Rabbit Ears Peak (10,557 ft), Round Mountain (10,553 ft)

Holding ground: White Slide (9,367 ft), Bear Park (9,222 ft), Newcomb Park (8,774 ft), Delaney Butte Lakes SWA, East Delaney Butte Lake 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 Elk in Unit 16

CPW's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 16 at archery 7%, muzzleloader 13% and rifle 17%. A number that low means most hunters here go home empty, and the ones who don't put the days in first. 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 Lost Ranger Peak, Mount Ethel and Rabbit Ears Peak

Take a position on one of Lost Ranger Peak (11,931 ft), Mount Ethel (11,892 ft), Rabbit Ears Peak (10,557 ft) and Round Mountain (10,553 ft) and be on it before light. Cold air slides downhill in the dark, so keep your scent out of the bowl you mean to watch; expect the thermals to turn uphill an hour after the sun reaches the slope. 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.

Water against feed

There are 126 mapped stream reaches and 111 tanks inside the unit, so water is rarely the limiting factor. Where water is everywhere, feed is what concentrates animals, so hunt the feed and treat water as a convenience. A tank with no tracks is a tank with no reason to sit on it.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Getting past the roads: CR 24 / FR 60.1 and CO 14

Where unit 16 sits inside E-3

Across E-3, CPW's 2023 elk success runs 12% in unit 16, 9% in unit 6, 7% in unit 17, 5% in unit 161 and 3% in unit 171. Unit 16 is the best of them on that measure, which usually means fewer tags rather than more animals. Success inside one herd moves with tag numbers and season length as much as with animals, so read the licence count alongside it.

A first plan from the pins on this page

Getting in and staying out: unit 16

Named routes and what they need

CR 24;FR 60.1 — 13 mi · High-clearance
CO 14 — 12.5 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CR 12 W — 4.3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CR 26 — 3.4 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CR 5 — 3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
US 40 — 1.7 mi · Paved (all rigs)

Ratings come from road data, not from a drive this season. Check current conditions with the managing office before you commit a trailer.

Nearest services

Walden — 16.7 mi · groceries
Steamboat Springs — 16.9 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging, gear
Oak Creek — 30.9 mi · no services listed
Phippsburg — 32.6 mi · no services listed
Yampa — 35.8 mi · fuel

Developed camps

Unnamed camp site · reservable
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
GRIZZLY CREEK GUARD STATION · reservable

Season weather and signal

Jan28° / 6° · 1.2" precip
Aug77° / 40° · 1.4" precip
Sep69° / 34° · 1.8" precip
Oct56° / 24° · 1.3" precip
Nov40° / 15° · 1.2" precip
Dec29° / 7° · 1.1" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 15% of the unit. Plan on being out of contact and tell someone your route.

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.

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.

Elk Success Rates

All manners of take12%

Archery7%

Muzzleloader13%

Rifle17%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 16 at 12% — 230 animals taken by 1,838 hunters. That is a lot of hunters in one unit, and the percentage is what it looks like after all of them have been through it.

Archery — 7% success, 50 taken by 744 hunters
Muzzleloader — 13% success, 9 taken by 71 hunters
Rifle — 17% success, 171 taken by 1,023 hunters

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (resident)	18	42	42.9%	—
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (nonresident)	1	2	50.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	24	47	51.1%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	11	12	91.7%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	6	17	35.3%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	0	2	0.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	1	4	25.0%	—

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 elk in unit 16, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

EF016O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Cow Only, resident: 47 applicants for 24 licences, 51.1% drawn, no preference points needed
EE016O4R — Rifle, 4th Season, Either Sex, resident: 42 applicants for 18 licences, 42.9% drawn, no preference points needed
EF016O4R — Rifle, 4th Season, Cow Only, resident: 17 applicants for 6 licences, 35.3% drawn, no preference points needed
EF016O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Cow Only, nonresident: 12 applicants for 11 licences, 91.7% drawn, no preference points needed

No preference points were needed for the codes above in that year, which can change the moment applicant numbers do. 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

⛺

Camp Sites

5 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit, including Grizzly Creek Guard Station.

🛣️

Road Conditions

CR 24 / FR 60.1, CO 14 and CR 12 W are the named routes in the unit. Roughly 19 mi paved, 23 mi gravel and 0 mi four-wheel-drive.

🥾

Terrain Difficulty

8,049–10,810 ft, averaging 8,771. Enough relief to separate summer from winter range.

👥

Hunting Pressure

Our land-status read for this unit is approximate, so treat any pressure estimate from it with suspicion and check a current ownership layer.

🌦️

Weather

Season normals: Sep 69/34°F, 1.8 in.; Oct 56/24°F, 1.3 in.; Nov 40/15°F, 1.2 in..

📱

Cell Service

Verizon 15%, AT&T 10%, T-Mobile 5% of the unit area — modelled coverage, not measured. Assume no signal off the paved road.

🏘️

Nearest Town

Walden (17 mi), Steamboat Springs (17 mi), Oak Creek (31 mi)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 16?

Unit 16 lies in Jackson County, and CPW has it bounded on the north by Lone Pine Creek, CRs 16 & 12W; on the east by Colo. 14; on the south by U.S. 40; on the west by Continental Divide. It covers about 320 square miles.

What is the Shiras moose success rate in unit 16?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 16 at 76% across all manners of take. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

Where do you stay and resupply for a unit 16 hunt?

The nearest services our logistics pipeline finds for unit 16 are at Walden, about 17 miles from the unit's centre, with Steamboat Springs at about 17 miles. There are also 5 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit.

What is the pronghorn success rate in unit 16?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 16 at 53% across all manners of take. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 16?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 16 at 19% across all manners of take, and archery 14% and rifle 24% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the elk success rate in unit 16?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 16 at 12% across all manners of take, and archery 7%, muzzleloader 13% and rifle 17% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

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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 Moose Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for Shiras moose in unit 16, 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 Pronghorn Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for pronghorn in unit 16, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22
2023 Colorado Deer Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for mule deer in unit 16, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22
2023 Colorado Elk Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for elk in unit 16, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22