Colorado Elk Pronghorn Mule Deer

Unit 214 (Pagosa Springs / San Juan Foothills)

Colorado Hunting Guide — Elk, Pronghorn, Mule Deer

Unit 214 lies in Routt County. CPW bounds it by Little Snake-Elk River divide and CR 129 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 42%. Most of the unit is private, so access comes before tactics. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

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Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 214

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 214 guide around your hunt: three ranked spots with morning, afternoon and evening plays, a day-by-day plan, topo maps with every pin numbered, a camp and access plan, the legal and retrieval rules for this unit, shot discipline, a meat-care and pack-out plan, and a pre-trip checklist. Every coordinate sits on land recorded as public.

Elk guide Pronghorn guide Mule Deer guide

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Elk Hunting in Unit 214

Where to Find Elk in Unit 214

CPW draws an exact line around unit 214 and says nothing about where the elk 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 Routt County.

The lines of the unit: Little Snake-Elk River divide, CR 129 and U.S. 40

CPW has unit 214 bounded on the north by Little Snake-Elk River divide; on the east by CR 129; on the south by U.S. 40; on the west by Wolf Creek, Wolf Mountain, along Elk River-Elkhead Creek divide. That is a legal description, not a habitat map. 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: Sand Mountain, Pilot Knob and Saddle Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Sand Mountain at 10,839 feet, Pilot Knob at 9,840 feet, Saddle Mountain at 9,706 feet, Anthracite Ridge at 9,612 feet and Picket Mountain at 9,205 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: Long Gulch, Georges Gulch and Hubbard Gulch

Below them sit Long Gulch at 6,984 feet, Georges Gulch at 6,902 feet, Hubbard Gulch at 6,844 feet, Dry Gulch at 6,657 feet and Meadow Gulch at 6,643 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: Fly Gulch STL and Sleeping Giant STL

CPW lists Fly Gulch STL and Sleeping Giant 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 20% of the unit on top of those.

The herd this unit belongs to: E-2

CPW does not manage elk unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit E-2, and unit 214 is one piece of it. The rest of E-2 is unit 3, unit 4, unit 5, unit 14, unit 301 and unit 441. 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.

Before you apply: who owns this unit

CPW marks this unit: landowner permission is advisable before applying. Most land is private.

Unit 214 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Sand Mountain (10,839 ft), Saddle Mountain (9,706 ft), McAlpin Mountain (9,177 ft), Elk Mountain (8,745 ft)

Holding ground: Devils Slide (8,826 ft), Trilby Flats (8,470 ft), Fly Gulch STL, Sleeping Giant 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 Elk in Unit 214

CPW's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 214 at archery 11%, muzzleloader 6% and rifle 42%. That is an ordinary spread for this country, and it rewards whoever scouted. The plan: find the feed, find the timber it backs onto, then watch the seam between them at the edges of the day.

Glassing from Buck Mountain, Elk Mountain and Round Mountain

Take a position on one of Buck Mountain (8,814 ft), Elk Mountain (8,745 ft), Round Mountain (8,685 ft) and The Sleeping Giant (8,653 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, September bugling works where you can get above a drainage and let the thermals carry sound downhill.

Getting past the roads

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 214 sits inside E-2

Across E-2, CPW's 2023 elk success runs 32% in unit 5, 32% in unit 441, 26% in unit 214, 21% in unit 4 and 9% in unit 3. That puts unit 214 behind 2 of the 6 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 5 carried the better number in the same herd — check its tag count before you read that as an easier hunt.

The way in: CR 129 and U.S. 40

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: CR 129 and U.S. 40. Those are its edges, not its interior — useful because they are where you leave the pavement, and useless for telling you what the inside is like. Park on the boundary and walk; a unit you can only enter from its rim rewards whoever is willing to leave the truck at the rim.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Sand Mountain, Saddle Mountain, McAlpin Mountain and Elk Mountain as places to see from, and Devils Slide, Trilby Flats, Fly Gulch STL and Sleeping Giant STL as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the unit line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Take the pair you can reach on one road and treat the rest as a second trip.

What a day here costs you

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

Colorado rules that decide your day

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

Legal shooting hours

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

Motorized retrieval

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

Tagging

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

Leaving meat

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

Where you may not shoot

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

Elk: where to put the shot

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

Shots to refuse

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

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

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

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Elk Success Rates

All manners of take26%

Archery11%

Muzzleloader6%

Rifle42%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 214 at 26% — 306 animals taken by 1,159 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 — 11% success, 60 taken by 525 hunters
Muzzleloader — 6% success, 3 taken by 57 hunters
Rifle — 42% success, 243 taken by 577 hunters

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

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (resident)	7	76	9.2%	10
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season either sex (resident)	13	108	12.0%	5
Rifle — 2nd Season either sex (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident)	18	44	40.9%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident)	19	33	57.6%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident)	11	35	31.4%	1
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident)	37	101	36.6%	1
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	10	44	22.7%	2
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	36	77	46.8%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (resident)	11	39	28.2%	2
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season bull only (resident)	19	52	36.5%	—
Rifle — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	41	62	66.1%	—
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (resident)	1	10	10.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (nonresident)	5	8	62.5%	—
Rifle — 6th Season cow only (resident)	9	66	13.6%	2
Rifle — 6th Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	9	24	37.5%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	4	5	80.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	2	17	11.8%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident)	4	11	36.4%	—
Rifle — General cow only (resident)	9	33	27.3%	—
Rifle — General cow 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 elk in unit 214, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

EE214W2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Either Sex, resident: 108 applicants for 13 licences, 12% drawn, 5 preference points needed
EF214W2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Cow Only, resident: 101 applicants for 37 licences, 36.6% drawn, 1 preference point needed
EF214W4R — Rifle, 4th Season, Cow Only, resident: 77 applicants for 36 licences, 46.8% drawn, no preference points needed
EE214W1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 76 applicants for 7 licences, 9.2% drawn, 10 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 13 further code-and-residency combinations in the recap for this unit. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Pronghorn Hunting in Unit 214

Unit 214 lies in Routt County. CPW bounds it by Little Snake-Elk River divide and CR 129 among others. CPW publishes no per-unit pronghorn success figure we can verify for this unit. Most of the unit is private, so access comes before tactics. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Pronghorn in Unit 214

What CPW publishes for unit 214 is a boundary, not a pronghorn map. 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 Routt County.

The lines of the unit: Little Snake-Elk River divide, CR 129 and U.S. 40

CPW has unit 214 bounded on the north by Little Snake-Elk River divide; on the east by CR 129; on the south by U.S. 40; on the west by Wolf Creek, Wolf Mountain, along Elk River-Elkhead Creek divide. That is a legal description, not a habitat map. 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: McAlpin Mountain, Wolf Mountain and Rim Rocks

Named high points inside the unit include McAlpin Mountain at 9,177 feet, Wolf Mountain at 9,172 feet, Rim Rocks at 9,004 feet, Buck Mountain at 8,814 feet and Elk Mountain at 8,745 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: Little Cheney Gulch, De Cora Gulch and McCrosky Gulch

Below them sit Little Cheney Gulch at 6,562 feet, De Cora Gulch at 6,542 feet, McCrosky Gulch at 6,501 feet, Little Butcherknife Gulch at 6,461 feet and Devils Slide at 8,826 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: Fly Gulch STL and Sleeping Giant STL

The herd this unit belongs to: A-9

CPW does not manage pronghorn unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit A-9, and unit 214 is one piece of it. The rest of A-9 is unit 3, unit 4, unit 5, unit 13, unit 14, unit 131, unit 301 and unit 441. 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.

Before you apply: who owns this unit

CPW marks this unit: landowner permission is advisable before applying. Most land is private.

Unit 214 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Sand Mountain (10,839 ft), Saddle Mountain (9,706 ft), McAlpin Mountain (9,177 ft), Elk Mountain (8,745 ft)

Holding ground: Devils Slide (8,826 ft), Trilby Flats (8,470 ft), Fly Gulch STL, Sleeping Giant 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 214

CPW publishes no pronghorn success figure for unit 214 that we can tie to this unit alone, so we won't quote one. 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 Slippery Sides Mountain, Sand Mountain and Deer Mountain

Take a position on one of Slippery Sides Mountain (8,608 ft), Sand Mountain (8,248 ft), Deer Mountain (7,415 ft) and Rattlesnake Butte (7,375 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. 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.

Getting past the roads

The way in: CR 129 and U.S. 40

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: CR 129 and U.S. 40. Those are its edges, not its interior — useful because they are where you leave the pavement, and useless for telling you what the inside is like. Pick the edge nearest the country you mean to hunt and work in from it on foot, rather than driving the perimeter looking for a way through.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Sand Mountain, Saddle Mountain, McAlpin Mountain and Elk Mountain as places to see from, and Devils Slide, Trilby Flats, Fly Gulch STL and Sleeping Giant STL as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the unit line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Join two of them into a morning: be on the first before light, move to the second once the thermals turn.

What a day here costs you

What we can't tell you

CPW marks this unit: landowner permission is advisable before applying. Most land is private. Settle access before the season rather than during it. Some of the ground named above carries no land-status flag we trust, so check ownership on a current layer before you hunt it. We have no pronghorn success figure for this unit that survives checking against CPW's own harvest and hunter counts, and we would rather say so than print a statewide average as though it were measured here.

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

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates carry no pronghorn row for unit 214 that we can read back to this unit on its own. Where the agency reports a unit inside a grouping, or prints a table our parser cannot resolve to a single column, we leave the number out rather than publish a statewide average as though it had been measured here. CPW's current harvest estimates are the place to check before you apply.

Pronghorn Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — 1st Season doe only (resident)	6	6	100.0%	—
Archery — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	1	1	100.0%	—
Archery — 1st Season buck only (resident)	6	24	25.0%	1
Archery — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	2	2	100.0%	2
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (resident)	6	61	9.8%	1
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	4	0.0%	—
Rifle — 5th Season doe only (resident)	7	45	15.6%	—
Rifle — 5th Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (resident)	1	45	2.2%	7
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	7	91	7.7%	4
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	0	7	0.0%	—
Rifle — 5th Season buck only (resident)	6	58	10.3%	3
Rifle — 5th Season buck only (nonresident)	1	8	12.5%	8
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	1	96	1.0%	25
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season doe only (resident)	1	23	4.3%	4
Rifle — 4th Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (resident)	6	18	33.3%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	2	7	28.6%	1
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (resident)	5	10	50.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	1	0.0%	—

Data from 2023 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 214, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

AM214W2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, resident: 96 applicants for 1 licences, 1% drawn, 25 preference points needed
AM214O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 91 applicants for 7 licences, 7.7% drawn, 4 preference points needed
AM214P5R — Rifle, 5th Season, Buck Only, resident: 58 applicants for 6 licences, 10.3% drawn, 3 preference points needed
AM214O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 24 applicants for 6 licences, 25% 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 5 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 214

Unit 214 lies in Routt County. CPW bounds it by Little Snake-Elk River divide and CR 129 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 22%. Most of the unit is private, so access comes before tactics. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 214

CPW draws an exact line around unit 214 and says nothing about where the mule deer stand inside it. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Routt County.

The lines of the unit: Little Snake-Elk River divide, CR 129 and U.S. 40

CPW has unit 214 bounded on the north by Little Snake-Elk River divide; on the east by CR 129; on the south by U.S. 40; on the west by Wolf Creek, Wolf Mountain, along Elk River-Elkhead Creek 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: Round Mountain, The Sleeping Giant and Slippery Sides Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Round Mountain at 8,685 feet, The Sleeping Giant at 8,653 feet, Slippery Sides Mountain at 8,608 feet, Sand Mountain at 8,248 feet and Deer Mountain at 7,415 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: Trilby Flats, Ways Gulch and Cottonwood Gulch

Below them sit Trilby Flats at 8,470 feet, Ways Gulch at 7,952 feet, Cottonwood Gulch at 7,228 feet, Dutch Gulch at 7,047 feet and Long Gulch at 6,984 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Two you can watch from a single knob is worth more than five you have to drive between.

Public ground to start from: Fly Gulch STL and Sleeping Giant STL

The herd this unit belongs to: D-2

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-2, and unit 214 is one piece of it. The rest of D-2 is unit 3, unit 4, unit 5, unit 14, unit 301 and unit 441. 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.

Before you apply: who owns this unit

CPW marks this unit: landowner permission is advisable before applying. Most land is private.

Unit 214 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Sand Mountain (10,839 ft), Saddle Mountain (9,706 ft), McAlpin Mountain (9,177 ft), Elk Mountain (8,745 ft)

Holding ground: Devils Slide (8,826 ft), Trilby Flats (8,470 ft), Fly Gulch STL, Sleeping Giant 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 214

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 214 at archery 22% and rifle 22%. 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 Sand Mountain, Pilot Knob and Saddle Mountain

Take a position on one of Sand Mountain (10,839 ft), Pilot Knob (9,840 ft), Saddle Mountain (9,706 ft) and Anthracite Ridge (9,612 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.

Getting past the roads

Where unit 214 sits inside D-2

Across D-2, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 47% in unit 4, 45% in unit 301, 39% in unit 3, 38% in unit 5 and 36% in unit 441. That puts unit 214 behind 5 of the 6 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 4 carried the better number in the same herd — check its tag count before you read that as an easier hunt.

The way in: CR 129 and U.S. 40

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: CR 129 and U.S. 40. Those are its edges, not its interior — useful because they are where you leave the pavement, and useless for telling you what the inside is like. Pick the edge nearest the country you mean to hunt and work in from it on foot, rather than driving the perimeter looking for a way through.

A first plan from the pins on this page

What a day here costs you

What we can't tell you

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 take20%

Archery22%

Rifle22%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 214 at 20% — 25 animals taken by 123 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 — 22% success, 16 taken by 75 hunters
Rifle — 22% success, 8 taken by 37 hunters

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 2nd Season either sex (resident)	2	57	3.5%	15
Rifle — 2nd Season either sex (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (resident)	1	13	7.7%	4
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season doe only (resident)	1	14	7.1%	3
Rifle — 4th Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—

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

Open in Draw Odds Engine

CPW's 2026 draw recap for mule deer in unit 214, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

DE214W2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Either Sex, resident: 57 applicants for 2 licences, 3.5% drawn, 15 preference points needed
DF214W4R — Rifle, 4th Season, Doe Only, resident: 14 applicants for 1 licences, 7.1% drawn, 3 preference points needed
DF214W2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Doe Only, resident: 13 applicants for 1 licences, 7.7% drawn, 4 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.

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

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Terrain Difficulty

Moderate — mid-elevation ponderosa, oakbrush, and aspen terrain

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Hunting Pressure

Moderate — accessible from Pagosa Springs on major highways

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Nearest Town

Pagosa Springs (approx. 10–20 mi depending on access road)

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Permit Notes

Mix of OTC and limited-draw hunt codes — verify current license types at CPW; OTC elk licenses for some seasons; limited-draw needed for others

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 214?

Unit 214 lies in Routt County, and CPW has it bounded on the north by Little Snake-Elk River divide; on the east by CR 129; on the south by U.S. 40; on the west by Wolf Creek, Wolf Mountain, along Elk River-Elkhead Creek divide.

What is the elk success rate in unit 214?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 214 at 26% across all manners of take, and archery 11%, muzzleloader 6% and rifle 42% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

Can you hunt unit 214 on public land?

CPW marks this unit: landowner permission is advisable before applying. Most land is private. Settle access before you apply rather than after you draw.

What is the pronghorn success rate in unit 214?

CPW publishes no pronghorn success figure we can tie to unit 214 on its own — the 2023 harvest tables either omit the unit or report it in a grouping we could not read back to it reliably. Rather than quote a statewide average as though it were measured here, we say so. Check CPW's current harvest estimates before you apply.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 214?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 214 at 20% across all manners of take, and archery 22% and rifle 22% 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, CPW's private-land note for the unit · accessed 2026-10-22
2023 Colorado Elk Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for elk in unit 214, 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 214, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22