Colorado Pronghorn Mule Deer Elk Moose

Unit 18 (Troublesome Creek)

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

Unit 18 lies in Grand County and covers about 647 square miles. Ground runs from 7,388 to 13,489 feet. CPW bounds it by Continental Divide and Arapaho Creek among others. CPW's harvest estimates put pronghorn success here as high as 22%. Federal land covers about 87% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Colorado Hunting Guide

🏔️

87%

Public Land

⛰️

7,844–11,595 ft

Sampled elevation

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Pronghorn guide Mule Deer guide Elk guide Moose guide

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Pronghorn Hunting in Unit 18

Where to Find Pronghorn in Unit 18

What CPW publishes for unit 18 is a boundary, not a pronghorn map. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Grand County. It runs to about 647 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Continental Divide, Arapaho Creek and Lake Granby

CPW has unit 18 bounded on the north and east by Continental Divide; on the south by Arapaho Creek, Lake Granby and Colorado River; on the west by main fork of Troublesome Creek and Poison Creek. 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: North Arapaho Peak, Apache Peak and Howard Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include North Arapaho Peak at 13,489 feet, Apache Peak at 13,431 feet, Howard Mountain at 12,777 feet, Mount Cirrus at 12,760 feet and Mount George at 12,732 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: Troublesome Pass, Pony Park and Willow Creek Pass

Below them sit Troublesome Pass at 10,044 feet, Pony Park at 9,953 feet, Willow Creek Pass at 9,649 feet, Buffalo Park at 9,328 feet and Hay Park at 8,905 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Work out which of them you can see from one position before you pick a camp.

Public ground to start from: Hot Sulphur Springs SWA, Slide Mountain STL and Troublesome Valley Ranch STL

CPW lists Hot Sulphur Springs SWA, Slide Mountain STL, Troublesome Valley Ranch STL and Willow Creek Reservoir 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 87% of the unit on top of those.

Water in this unit

The water inside the unit line comes to 4,205 mapped stream reaches, 50 lakes, 631 stock tanks and 3 springs. 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: A-37

CPW does not manage pronghorn unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit A-37, and unit 18 is one piece of it. The rest of A-37 is unit 15, unit 26, unit 27, unit 28, unit 37, unit 181, unit 231 and unit 371. 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

Our ownership read for this unit is approximate — it comes out as Private / Other 100%, 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 7,844 to 11,595 feet, and named ground inside the line runs 7,388 to 13,489 feet — take 7,388 to 13,489 as the spread, because the sample is a grid and misses both ends. With 6,101 feet between the two ends, that is a lot of vertical to cover, and it means the season you draw decides which half of the unit you hunt.

Unit 18 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

7,844–11,595 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 9,372 ft ; peaks can run higher.
646.5 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

Private / Other — 100%

Roughly 0% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

631 tanks
3 springs
4,205 stream segments
50 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: North Arapaho Peak (13,489 ft), Apache Peak (13,431 ft), Mount Nimbus (12,685 ft), Mount Achonee (12,634 ft)

Holding ground: Buchanan Pass (11,846 ft), Bowen Pass (11,456 ft), Baker Pass (11,256 ft), Hot Sulphur Springs SWA, Slide Mountain 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 Pronghorn in Unit 18

CPW's own harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 18 at 22% across all manners of take. That is an ordinary spread for this country, and it rewards whoever scouted. 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 Lead Mountain, Mount Stratus and Baker Mountain

Take a position on one of Lead Mountain (12,485 ft), Mount Stratus (12,427 ft), Baker Mountain (12,357 ft) and Hiamovi Mountain (12,350 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. Give a basin forty minutes before you decide it is empty. On the rut hunts, early-season bucks hold does and can be decoyed where the law allows it.

Water against feed

There are 4,205 mapped stream reaches and 631 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. Check the ground around it before you commit an evening to it.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Season normals here run Sep 67/34°F, Oct 55/25°F and Nov 40/16°F. By Nov the lows are around 16°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 1.5 in. in Sep, 1.1 in. in Oct and 0.9 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: CO 125 and US 34

CO 125, US 34 and US 40 are the paved frame, which is also where everyone else starts. FR 25 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. One mapped public entry point falls inside the unit, so decide which one you take before the morning you take it.

Where unit 18 sits inside A-37

Across A-37, CPW's 2023 pronghorn success runs 39% in unit 37, 37% in unit 28, 30% in unit 27, 29% in unit 181 and 25% in unit 15. That puts unit 18 behind 5 of the 6 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 37 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 North Arapaho Peak, Apache Peak, Mount Nimbus and Mount Achonee as places to see from, and Buchanan Pass, Bowen Pass, Baker Pass and Hot Sulphur Springs 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 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 18

Named routes and what they need

CO 125 — 7.2 mi · Paved (all rigs)
US 34 — 6.2 mi · Paved (all rigs)
FR 25 — 3.5 mi · High-clearance
US 40 — 2.6 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CR 24 — 1.4 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CR 627 — 1.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)

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

Grand Lake — 8.2 mi · groceries
Granby — 10.1 mi · fuel, groceries
Hot Sulphur Springs — 12.8 mi · fuel
Tabernash — 17.8 mi · no services listed
Fraser — 21.3 mi · fuel, groceries, gear

Developed camps

Pioneer Park Campground/Day Use · Fee
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Lower East Inlet · Fee
East Meadow · Fee

Season weather and signal

Jan27° / 3° · 1.2" precip
Aug73° / 41° · 1.8" precip
Sep67° / 34° · 1.5" precip
Oct55° / 25° · 1.1" precip
Nov40° / 16° · 0.9" precip
Dec29° / 6° · 1.1" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 9% 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.

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 take22%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 18 at 22% — 32 animals taken by 144 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.

Pronghorn Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — 1st Season doe only (resident)	22	36	61.1%	—
Archery — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	3	4	75.0%	—
Archery — 1st Season buck only (resident)	23	72	31.9%	1
Archery — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	1	14	7.1%	2
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (resident)	41	105	39.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	2	0.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (resident)	38	105	36.2%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	1	4	25.0%	1
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (resident)	67	482	13.9%	1
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	1	7	14.3%	2
Rifle — 5th Season doe only (resident)	29	45	64.4%	—
Rifle — 5th Season doe only (nonresident)	1	2	50.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	35	554	6.3%	5
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	5	38	13.2%	6
Rifle — 5th Season buck only (resident)	29	57	50.9%	—
Rifle — 5th Season buck only (nonresident)	6	6	100.0%	—

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

AM018O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 554 applicants for 35 licences, 6.3% drawn, 5 preference points needed
AF018O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Doe Only, resident: 482 applicants for 67 licences, 13.9% drawn, 1 preference point needed
AF018O1M — Muzzleloader, 1st Season, Doe Only, resident: 105 applicants for 41 licences, 39% drawn, no preference points needed
AM018O1M — Muzzleloader, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 105 applicants for 38 licences, 36.2% 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 12 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 18

Unit 18 lies in Grand County and covers about 647 square miles. Ground runs from 7,388 to 13,489 feet. CPW bounds it by Continental Divide and Arapaho Creek among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 27%. Federal land covers about 87% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 18

CPW's material on unit 18 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 Grand County. It runs to about 647 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Continental Divide, Arapaho Creek and Lake Granby

CPW has unit 18 bounded on the north and east by Continental Divide; on the south by Arapaho Creek, Lake Granby and Colorado River; on the west by main fork of Troublesome Creek and Poison Creek. 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: Mount Nimbus, Mount Achonee and Bowen Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Mount Nimbus at 12,685 feet, Mount Achonee at 12,634 feet, Bowen Mountain at 12,500 feet, Lead Mountain at 12,485 feet and Mount Stratus at 12,427 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: Lost Gulch, Kawuneeche Valley and Long Draw

Below them sit Lost Gulch at 8,649 feet, Kawuneeche Valley at 8,628 feet, Long Draw at 8,582 feet, Hell Canyon at 8,580 feet and Sawmill Gulch at 8,477 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

Public ground to start from: Hot Sulphur Springs SWA, Slide Mountain STL and Troublesome Valley Ranch STL

Water in this unit

The herd this unit belongs to: D-9

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-9, and unit 18 is one piece of it. The rest of D-9 is unit 27, unit 28, unit 37, unit 181 and unit 371. 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

Unit 18 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

7,844–11,595 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 9,372 ft ; peaks can run higher.
646.5 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

Private / Other — 100%

Roughly 0% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

631 tanks
3 springs
4,205 stream segments
50 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: North Arapaho Peak (13,489 ft), Apache Peak (13,431 ft), Mount Nimbus (12,685 ft), Mount Achonee (12,634 ft)

Holding ground: Buchanan Pass (11,846 ft), Bowen Pass (11,456 ft), Baker Pass (11,256 ft), Hot Sulphur Springs SWA, Slide Mountain 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 18

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 18 at archery 1% and rifle 27%. 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 Cascade Mountain, Parkview Mountain and Rabbit Ears Range

Take a position on one of Cascade Mountain (12,294 ft), Parkview Mountain (12,291 ft), Rabbit Ears Range (12,291 ft) and Cooper Peak (12,260 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, late-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.

Water against feed

There are 4,205 mapped stream reaches and 631 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: CO 125 and US 34

Where unit 18 sits inside D-9

Across D-9, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 23% in unit 18, 21% in unit 37, 15% in unit 27, 15% in unit 28 and 14% in unit 371. Unit 18 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

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 18

Named routes and what they need

CO 125 — 7.2 mi · Paved (all rigs)
US 34 — 6.2 mi · Paved (all rigs)
FR 25 — 3.5 mi · High-clearance
US 40 — 2.6 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CR 24 — 1.4 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CR 627 — 1.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)

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

Grand Lake — 8.2 mi · groceries
Granby — 10.1 mi · fuel, groceries
Hot Sulphur Springs — 12.8 mi · fuel
Tabernash — 17.8 mi · no services listed
Fraser — 21.3 mi · fuel, groceries, gear

Developed camps

Pioneer Park Campground/Day Use · Fee
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Lower East Inlet · Fee
East Meadow · Fee

Season weather and signal

Jan27° / 3° · 1.2" precip
Aug73° / 41° · 1.8" precip
Sep67° / 34° · 1.5" precip
Oct55° / 25° · 1.1" precip
Nov40° / 16° · 0.9" precip
Dec29° / 6° · 1.1" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 9% 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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Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Mule Deer Success Rates

All manners of take23%

Archery1%

Rifle27%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 18 at 23% — 344 animals taken by 1,470 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 — 1% success, 2 taken by 129 hunters
Rifle — 27% success, 317 taken by 1,154 hunters

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	404	988	40.9%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	47	159	29.6%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season either sex (resident)	56	134	41.8%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season either sex (nonresident)	12	35	34.3%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (resident)	77	1,097	7.0%	2
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (nonresident)	1	27	3.7%	2
Rifle — 3rd Season doe only (resident)	75	851	8.8%	1
Rifle — 3rd Season doe only (nonresident)	0	25	0.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	622	1,844	33.7%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	224	513	43.7%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident)	495	628	78.8%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident)	175	366	47.8%	—
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (resident)	87	268	32.5%	1
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (nonresident)	26	101	25.7%	2
Rifle — 3rd Season either sex (resident)	29	122	23.8%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season either sex (nonresident)	7	33	21.2%	1
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (resident)	38	364	10.4%	1
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	14	0.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (resident)	319	544	58.6%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	74	113	65.5%	—

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

DM018O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, resident: 1,844 applicants for 622 licences, 33.7% drawn, no preference points needed
DF018O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Doe Only, resident: 1,097 applicants for 77 licences, 7% drawn, 2 preference points needed
DE018O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 988 applicants for 404 licences, 40.9% drawn, no preference points needed
DF018O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Doe Only, resident: 851 applicants for 75 licences, 8.8% 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 14 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 18

Unit 18 lies in Grand County and covers about 647 square miles. Ground runs from 7,388 to 13,489 feet. CPW bounds it by Continental Divide and Arapaho Creek among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 13%. Federal land covers about 87% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Elk in Unit 18

CPW's material on unit 18 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its elk live. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Grand County. It runs to about 647 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Continental Divide, Arapaho Creek and Lake Granby

CPW has unit 18 bounded on the north and east by Continental Divide; on the south by Arapaho Creek, Lake Granby and Colorado River; on the west by main fork of Troublesome Creek and Poison Creek. Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. 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: Baker Mountain, Hiamovi Mountain and Cascade Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Baker Mountain at 12,357 feet, Hiamovi Mountain at 12,350 feet, Cascade Mountain at 12,294 feet, Parkview Mountain at 12,291 feet and Rabbit Ears Range at 12,291 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: Paradise Gulch, Cliff Gulch and Windy Gap

Below them sit Paradise Gulch at 8,452 feet, Cliff Gulch at 8,154 feet, Windy Gap at 7,972 feet, Round Gulch at 7,706 feet and Dry Gulch at 7,684 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

Public ground to start from: Hot Sulphur Springs SWA, Slide Mountain STL and Troublesome Valley Ranch STL

Water in this unit

The herd this unit belongs to: E-8

CPW does not manage elk unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit E-8, and unit 18 is one piece of it. The rest of E-8 is unit 181. 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 18 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

7,844–11,595 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 9,372 ft ; peaks can run higher.
646.5 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

Private / Other — 100%

Roughly 0% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

631 tanks
3 springs
4,205 stream segments
50 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: North Arapaho Peak (13,489 ft), Apache Peak (13,431 ft), Mount Nimbus (12,685 ft), Mount Achonee (12,634 ft)

Holding ground: Buchanan Pass (11,846 ft), Bowen Pass (11,456 ft), Baker Pass (11,256 ft), Hot Sulphur Springs SWA, Slide Mountain 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 18

CPW's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 18 at archery 4%, muzzleloader 11% and rifle 13%. 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 Lone Eagle Peak, Marten Peak and Ruby Mountain

Take a position on one of Lone Eagle Peak (11,985 ft), Marten Peak (11,984 ft), Ruby Mountain (11,982 ft) and Thunderbolt Peak (11,920 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, September bugling works where you can get above a drainage and let the thermals carry sound downhill.

Water against feed

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Getting past the roads: CO 125 and US 34

Where unit 18 sits inside E-8

Across E-8, CPW's 2023 elk success runs 10% in unit 18 and 6% in unit 181. Unit 18 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

The map above marks North Arapaho Peak, Apache Peak, Mount Nimbus and Mount Achonee as places to see from, and Buchanan Pass, Bowen Pass, Baker Pass and Hot Sulphur Springs 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 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 18

Named routes and what they need

CO 125 — 7.2 mi · Paved (all rigs)
US 34 — 6.2 mi · Paved (all rigs)
FR 25 — 3.5 mi · High-clearance
US 40 — 2.6 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CR 24 — 1.4 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CR 627 — 1.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)

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

Grand Lake — 8.2 mi · groceries
Granby — 10.1 mi · fuel, groceries
Hot Sulphur Springs — 12.8 mi · fuel
Tabernash — 17.8 mi · no services listed
Fraser — 21.3 mi · fuel, groceries, gear

Developed camps

Pioneer Park Campground/Day Use · Fee
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Lower East Inlet · Fee
East Meadow · Fee

Season weather and signal

Jan27° / 3° · 1.2" precip
Aug73° / 41° · 1.8" precip
Sep67° / 34° · 1.5" precip
Oct55° / 25° · 1.1" precip
Nov40° / 16° · 0.9" precip
Dec29° / 6° · 1.1" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 9% 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.

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Elk Success Rates

All manners of take10%

Archery4%

Muzzleloader11%

Rifle13%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 18 at 10% — 572 animals taken by 5,500 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 — 4% success, 58 taken by 1,356 hunters
Muzzleloader — 11% success, 44 taken by 387 hunters
Rifle — 13% success, 471 taken by 3,756 hunters

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Muzzleloader — 1st Season either sex (resident)	143	319	44.8%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	100	254	39.4%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (resident)	45	213	21.1%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	1	25	4.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (resident)	270	638	42.3%	—
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	98	363	27.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (resident)	149	336	44.3%	—
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (nonresident)	45	72	62.5%	—
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (resident)	9	12	75.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	13	18	72.2%	—
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (resident)	1	4	25.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (nonresident)	0	1	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident)	8	194	4.1%	2
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	0	5	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident)	66	401	16.5%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	5	78	6.4%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident)	208	581	35.8%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident)	24	55	43.6%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	168	600	28.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	17	47	36.2%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	48	231	20.8%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident)	1	8	12.5%	—
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (resident)	8	118	6.8%	1
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (nonresident)	0	2	0.0%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	262	536	48.9%	—
Archery — 1st Season cow only (resident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Archery — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	3	17	17.6%	—

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

EE018O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 638 applicants for 270 licences, 42.3% drawn, no preference points needed
EF018O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Cow Only, resident: 600 applicants for 168 licences, 28% drawn, no preference points needed
EF018O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Cow Only, resident: 581 applicants for 208 licences, 35.8% drawn, no preference points needed
EE018V1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, nonresident: 536 applicants for 262 licences, 48.9% 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 22 further code-and-residency combinations in the recap for this unit. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Moose Hunting in Unit 18

Unit 18 lies in Grand County and covers about 647 square miles. Ground runs from 7,388 to 13,489 feet. CPW bounds it by Continental Divide and Arapaho Creek among others. CPW's harvest estimates put Shiras moose success here as high as 93%. Federal land covers about 87% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Shiras Moose in Unit 18

CPW draws an exact line around unit 18 and says nothing about where the Shiras moose 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 Grand County. It runs to about 647 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Continental Divide, Arapaho Creek and Lake Granby

CPW has unit 18 bounded on the north and east by Continental Divide; on the south by Arapaho Creek, Lake Granby and Colorado River; on the west by main fork of Troublesome Creek and Poison Creek. Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. 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: Cooper Peak, Lone Eagle Peak and Marten Peak

Named high points inside the unit include Cooper Peak at 12,260 feet, Lone Eagle Peak at 11,985 feet, Marten Peak at 11,984 feet, Ruby Mountain at 11,982 feet and Thunderbolt Peak at 11,920 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: Pete Gulch, Sulphur Gulch and Buchanan Pass

Below them sit Pete Gulch at 7,614 feet, Sulphur Gulch at 7,388 feet, Buchanan Pass at 11,846 feet, Bowen Pass at 11,456 feet and Baker Pass at 11,256 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Work out which of them you can see from one position before you pick a camp.

Public ground to start from: Hot Sulphur Springs SWA, Slide Mountain STL and Troublesome Valley Ranch STL

Water in this unit

The herd this unit belongs to: M-3

CPW does not manage Shiras moose unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit M-3, and unit 18 is one piece of it. The rest of M-3 is unit 15, unit 27, unit 28, unit 36, unit 37, unit 181, unit 361 and unit 371. 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.

Unit 18 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

7,844–11,595 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 9,372 ft ; peaks can run higher.
646.5 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

Private / Other — 100%

Roughly 0% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

631 tanks
3 springs
4,205 stream segments
50 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: North Arapaho Peak (13,489 ft), Apache Peak (13,431 ft), Mount Nimbus (12,685 ft), Mount Achonee (12,634 ft)

Holding ground: Buchanan Pass (11,846 ft), Bowen Pass (11,456 ft), Baker Pass (11,256 ft), Hot Sulphur Springs SWA, Slide Mountain 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 Shiras Moose in Unit 18

CPW's own harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 18 at 93% 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 Gravel Mountain, Mount Irving Hale and Blue Ridge

Take a position on one of Gravel Mountain (11,769 ft), Mount Irving Hale (11,727 ft), Blue Ridge (11,688 ft) and Little Gravel Mountain (11,511 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. 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 4,205 mapped stream reaches and 631 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: CO 125 and US 34

Where unit 18 sits inside M-3

Across M-3, CPW's 2023 Shiras moose success runs 100% in unit 181, 100% in unit 371, 93% in unit 18, 88% in unit 28 and 77% in unit 37. That puts unit 18 behind 2 of the 7 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 181 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 18

Named routes and what they need

CO 125 — 7.2 mi · Paved (all rigs)
US 34 — 6.2 mi · Paved (all rigs)
FR 25 — 3.5 mi · High-clearance
US 40 — 2.6 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CR 24 — 1.4 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CR 627 — 1.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)

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

Grand Lake — 8.2 mi · groceries
Granby — 10.1 mi · fuel, groceries
Hot Sulphur Springs — 12.8 mi · fuel
Tabernash — 17.8 mi · no services listed
Fraser — 21.3 mi · fuel, groceries, gear

Developed camps

Pioneer Park Campground/Day Use · Fee
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Lower East Inlet · Fee
East Meadow · Fee

Season weather and signal

Jan27° / 3° · 1.2" precip
Aug73° / 41° · 1.8" precip
Sep67° / 34° · 1.5" precip
Oct55° / 25° · 1.1" precip
Nov40° / 16° · 0.9" precip
Dec29° / 6° · 1.1" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 9% 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.

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 take93%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 18 at 93% — 27 animals taken by 29 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.

Moose Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — 1st Season cow only (resident)	9	408	2.2%	3
Archery — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	1	28	3.6%	3
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull only (resident)	11	1,137	1.0%	3
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	1	436	0.2%	3
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull only (resident)	1	118	0.8%	3
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident)	9	254	3.5%	3
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	1	12	8.3%	3

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

MM018O1X — Any Legal Method, 1st Season, Bull Only, resident: 1,137 applicants for 11 licences, 1% drawn, 3 preference points needed
MM018O1X — Any Legal Method, 1st Season, Bull Only, nonresident: 436 applicants for 1 licences, 0.2% drawn, 3 preference points needed
MF018O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Cow Only, resident: 408 applicants for 9 licences, 2.2% drawn, 3 preference points needed
MF018L1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Cow Only, resident: 254 applicants for 9 licences, 3.5% 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. There are 3 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

61 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit, including Pioneer Park Campground/Day Use, Lower East Inlet and East Meadow.

🛣️

Road Conditions

CO 125, US 34 and FR 25 are the named routes in the unit. Roughly 16 mi paved, 5 mi gravel and 0 mi four-wheel-drive.

🥾

Terrain Difficulty

7,844–11,595 ft, averaging 9,372. 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 67/34°F, 1.5 in.; Oct 55/25°F, 1.1 in.; Nov 40/16°F, 0.9 in..

📱

Cell Service

Verizon 9%, AT&T 6%, T-Mobile 3% of the unit area — modelled coverage, not measured. Assume no signal off the paved road.

🏘️

Nearest Town

Grand Lake (8 mi), Granby (10 mi), Hot Sulphur Springs (13 mi)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 18?

Unit 18 lies in Grand County, and CPW has it bounded on the north and east by Continental Divide; on the south by Arapaho Creek, Lake Granby and Colorado River; on the west by main fork of Troublesome Creek and Poison Creek. It covers about 647 square miles.

What is the pronghorn success rate in unit 18?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 18 at 22% 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 18 hunt?

The nearest services our logistics pipeline finds for unit 18 are at Grand Lake, about 8 miles from the unit's centre, with Granby at about 10 miles. There are also 61 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 18?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 18 at 23% across all manners of take, and archery 1% and rifle 27% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the elk success rate in unit 18?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 18 at 10% across all manners of take, and archery 4%, muzzleloader 11% and rifle 13% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the Shiras moose success rate in unit 18?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 18 at 93% across all manners of take. 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 Pronghorn Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for pronghorn in unit 18, 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 18, 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 18, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22
2023 Colorado Moose Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for Shiras moose in unit 18, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22