Colorado Mule Deer Elk

Unit 30

Colorado Hunting Guide — Mule Deer, Elk

Unit 30 lies in Garfield and Mesa counties and covers about 866 square miles. Ground runs from 4,414 to 8,811 feet. CPW bounds it by West Salt Creek-Bitter Creek divide and Evacuation Creek-Salt Creeks divide among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 69%. Federal land covers about 75% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Colorado Hunting Guide

🏔️

75%

Public Land

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4,546–8,339 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 30

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 30 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.

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.

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 30

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 30

What CPW publishes for unit 30 is a boundary, not a mule deer 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 Garfield and Mesa counties. It runs to about 866 square miles.

The lines of the unit: West Salt Creek-Bitter Creek divide, Evacuation Creek-Salt Creeks divide and Douglas Creek-Salt Creeks divide

CPW has unit 30 bounded on the north by West Salt Creek-Bitter Creek divide, Evacuation Creek-Salt Creeks divide and Douglas Creek-Salt Creeks divide; on the east by East Salt Creek-Roan Creek divide, Big Salt Washand Little Salt Wash-Roan Creek divides and Bookcliffs; on the south by Colorado River; on the west by UT. 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: Calf Point, Long Point and Barrel Spring Point

Named high points inside the unit include Calf Point at 8,811 feet, Long Point at 8,746 feet, Barrel Spring Point at 8,598 feet, Lookout Mountain at 8,311 feet and Ross Ridge at 7,403 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Mule deer on open country use every fold and draw there is, and almost none of the flat.

Holding ground: Railroad Canyon, East Gulch and Corral Canyon

Below them sit Railroad Canyon at 6,396 feet, East Gulch at 6,274 feet, Corral Canyon at 6,265 feet, Wagon Canyon at 6,261 feet and Bitter Spring Canyon at 6,233 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: Colorado River Island SWA, Grand Junction - West Lake SWA and Loma Boat Launch SWA

CPW lists Colorado River Island SWA, Grand Junction - West Lake SWA, Loma Boat Launch SWA and Walker 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 75% of the unit on top of those.

Water: Barrel Spring

The water inside the unit line comes to 5,633 mapped stream reaches, 39 lakes and 834 stock tanks. Named sources include Barrel 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: D-11

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-11, and unit 30 is one piece of it. The rest of D-11 is unit 21. 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 30 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

4,546–8,339 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 5,639 ft ; peaks can run higher.
866.2 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.

Who owns the ground

BLM — 15%
Private / Other — 85%

Roughly 15% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

834 tanks
5,633 stream segments
39 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: Calf Point (8,811 ft), Long Point (8,746 ft), Barrel Spring Point (8,598 ft), Lookout Mountain (8,311 ft)

Holding ground: Baxter Pass (8,428 ft), Sayles Canyon (6,546 ft), Corral Canyon (6,265 ft), Colorado River Island SWA, Loma Boat Launch SWA

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 30

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 30 at archery 25% and rifle 69%. A number like that comes from few tags and a short season, not from easy hunting. The plan: glass the broken edges at first light, then sit still and keep glassing the same ground.

Glassing from Mount Garfield, Basin Butte and Garfield Mesa (not official)

Take a position on one of Mount Garfield (6,768 ft), Basin Butte (5,050 ft), Garfield Mesa (not official) (4,987 ft) and Mack Mesa (4,784 ft) and be on it before light. Work the morning with the air falling away from you, then accept that by mid-morning the wind has reversed and the plan has to change with it. A tripod is worth more here than another hour of walking. On the rut hunts, late-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.

Water against feed

There are 5,633 mapped stream reaches and 834 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 82/51°F, Oct 67/38°F and Nov 52/27°F. Warm afternoons compress the hunting into the first and last hour, and make meat care the day's real problem rather than the shot. Precipitation runs about 1.2 in. in Sep, 1.2 in. in Oct and 0.7 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: CR 201 and I 70

I 70 is the paved frame, which is also where everyone else starts. 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 30 sits inside D-11

Across D-11, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 85% in unit 21 and 55% in unit 30. Unit 30 is the lowest of them, so whatever drives success in this herd is happening somewhere else in it. If the draw lets you choose, unit 21 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 Calf Point, Long Point, Barrel Spring Point and Lookout Mountain as places to see from, and Baxter Pass, Sayles Canyon, Corral Canyon and Colorado River Island SWA as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the unit line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Walk between two of them rather than driving between four, and you will learn more in a day.

What we can't tell you

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

Getting in and staying out: unit 30

Named routes and what they need

CR 201 — 5.8 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
I 70 — 5.7 mi · Paved (all rigs)
BLM 238 — 2.9 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CR 256;BLM C122 — 2 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CR 269 — 1.9 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
BLM 729 — 1.8 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

Mack — 9.1 mi · no services listed
Loma — 9.8 mi · no services listed
Fruita — 12.2 mi · groceries, gear
Grand Junction — 21.4 mi · groceries, gear
Fruitvale — 22.8 mi · groceries, gear

Developed camps

Knowles Overlook
Knowles Overlook
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan39° / 17° · 0.7" precip
Aug91° / 60° · 0.9" precip
Sep82° / 51° · 1.2" precip
Oct67° / 38° · 1.2" precip
Nov52° / 27° · 0.7" precip
Dec40° / 18° · 0.7" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 21% 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.

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 take55%

Archery25%

Rifle69%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 30 at 55% — 136 animals taken by 247 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 — 25% success, 17 taken by 70 hunters
Rifle — 69% success, 114 taken by 165 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.

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — 5th Season either sex (resident)	18	30	60.0%	—
Archery — 5th Season either sex (nonresident)	4	7	57.1%	—
Archery — 5th Season doe only (resident)	3	13	23.1%	—
Archery — 5th Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (resident)	6	181	3.3%	1
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (nonresident)	0	3	0.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season doe only (resident)	5	178	2.8%	1
Rifle — 3rd Season doe only (nonresident)	0	4	0.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	52	171	30.4%	2
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	20	105	19.0%	6
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident)	54	203	26.6%	2
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident)	20	137	14.6%	11
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (resident)	16	179	8.9%	5
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (nonresident)	5	58	8.6%	17

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

DM030O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, resident: 203 applicants for 54 licences, 26.6% drawn, 2 preference points needed
DF030O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Doe Only, resident: 181 applicants for 6 licences, 3.3% drawn, 1 preference point needed
DM030O4R — Rifle, 4th Season, Buck Only, resident: 179 applicants for 16 licences, 8.9% drawn, 5 preference points needed
DF030O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Doe Only, resident: 178 applicants for 5 licences, 2.8% 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 9 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 30

Unit 30 lies in Garfield and Mesa counties and covers about 866 square miles. Ground runs from 4,414 to 8,811 feet. CPW bounds it by West Salt Creek-Bitter Creek divide and Evacuation Creek-Salt Creeks divide among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 13%. Federal land covers about 75% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Elk in Unit 30

CPW's material on unit 30 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its elk live. 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 Garfield and Mesa counties. It runs to about 866 square miles.

The lines of the unit: West Salt Creek-Bitter Creek divide, Evacuation Creek-Salt Creeks divide and Douglas Creek-Salt Creeks divide

CPW has unit 30 bounded on the north by West Salt Creek-Bitter Creek divide, Evacuation Creek-Salt Creeks divide and Douglas Creek-Salt Creeks divide; on the east by East Salt Creek-Roan Creek divide, Big Salt Washand Little Salt Wash-Roan Creek divides and Bookcliffs; on the south by Colorado River; on the west by UT. It tells you the shape of the unit and nothing about its inhabitants. 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: Garfield Mesa, Corcoran Point and Grassy Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Garfield Mesa at 7,276 feet, Corcoran Point at 7,212 feet, Grassy Mountain at 6,901 feet, Mount Garfield at 6,768 feet and Basin Butte at 5,050 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Elk on low, open country live on distance and visibility, so they see you first.

Holding ground: West Fork West Canyon, Compton Canyon and Hells Hole Canyon

Below them sit West Fork West Canyon at 6,207 feet, Compton Canyon at 6,197 feet, Hells Hole Canyon at 6,172 feet, Calf Canyon at 6,171 feet and Hells Hole Canyon at 6,147 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: Colorado River Island SWA, Grand Junction - West Lake SWA and Loma Boat Launch SWA

Water: Barrel Spring

The herd this unit belongs to: E-10

CPW does not manage elk unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit E-10, and unit 30 is one piece of it. The rest of E-10 is unit 21, unit 22, unit 31 and unit 32. 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 30 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

4,546–8,339 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 5,639 ft ; peaks can run higher.
866.2 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.

Who owns the ground

BLM — 15%
Private / Other — 85%

Roughly 15% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

834 tanks
5,633 stream segments
39 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: Calf Point (8,811 ft), Long Point (8,746 ft), Barrel Spring Point (8,598 ft), Lookout Mountain (8,311 ft)

Holding ground: Baxter Pass (8,428 ft), Sayles Canyon (6,546 ft), Corral Canyon (6,265 ft), Colorado River Island SWA, Loma Boat Launch SWA

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 30

CPW's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 30 at archery 12%, muzzleloader 0% 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 Castle Rocks, Calf Point and Long Point

Take a position on one of Castle Rocks (4,539 ft), Calf Point (8,811 ft), Long Point (8,746 ft) and Barrel Spring Point (8,598 ft) and be on it before light. Work the morning with the air falling away from you, then accept that by mid-morning the wind has reversed and the plan has to change with it. Glass the edges first, then the shaded timber, then the edges again as the light goes. On the rut hunts, September bugling works where you can get above a drainage and let the thermals carry sound downhill.

Water against feed

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Getting past the roads: CR 201 and I 70

Where unit 30 sits inside E-10

Across E-10, CPW's 2023 elk success runs 24% in unit 31, 19% in unit 21, 18% in unit 22 and 12% in unit 30. Unit 30 is the lowest of them, so whatever drives success in this herd is happening somewhere else in it. If the draw lets you choose, unit 31 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 Calf Point, Long Point, Barrel Spring Point and Lookout Mountain as places to see from, and Baxter Pass, Sayles Canyon, Corral Canyon and Colorado River Island 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 30

Named routes and what they need

CR 201 — 5.8 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
I 70 — 5.7 mi · Paved (all rigs)
BLM 238 — 2.9 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CR 256;BLM C122 — 2 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CR 269 — 1.9 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
BLM 729 — 1.8 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

Mack — 9.1 mi · no services listed
Loma — 9.8 mi · no services listed
Fruita — 12.2 mi · groceries, gear
Grand Junction — 21.4 mi · groceries, gear
Fruitvale — 22.8 mi · groceries, gear

Developed camps

Knowles Overlook
Knowles Overlook
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan39° / 17° · 0.7" precip
Aug91° / 60° · 0.9" precip
Sep82° / 51° · 1.2" precip
Oct67° / 38° · 1.2" precip
Nov52° / 27° · 0.7" precip
Dec40° / 18° · 0.7" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 21% 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 take12%

Archery12%

Muzzleloader0%

Rifle13%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 30 at 12% — 139 animals taken by 1,126 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 — 12% success, 27 taken by 225 hunters
Muzzleloader — 0% success, 0 taken by 52 hunters
Rifle — 13% success, 112 taken by 849 hunters

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident)	177	637	27.8%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	3	11	27.3%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	158	263	60.1%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	45	67	67.2%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	96	216	44.4%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident)	4	16	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 30, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

EF030L1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Cow Only, resident: 637 applicants for 177 licences, 27.8% drawn, no preference points needed
EF030O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Cow Only, resident: 263 applicants for 158 licences, 60.1% drawn, no preference points needed
EF030O4R — Rifle, 4th Season, Cow Only, resident: 216 applicants for 96 licences, 44.4% drawn, no preference points needed
EF030O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Cow Only, nonresident: 67 applicants for 45 licences, 67.2% 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 2 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

24 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit, including Knowles Overlook, Knowles Overlook and Beaver Tail 2.

🛣️

Road Conditions

CR 201, I 70 and BLM 238 are the named routes in the unit. Roughly 9 mi paved, 11 mi gravel and 2 mi four-wheel-drive.

🥾

Terrain Difficulty

4,546–8,339 ft, averaging 5,639. 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 82/51°F, 1.2 in.; Oct 67/38°F, 1.2 in.; Nov 52/27°F, 0.7 in..

📱

Cell Service

Verizon 21%, AT&T 14%, T-Mobile 7% of the unit area — modelled coverage, not measured. Assume no signal off the paved road.

🏘️

Nearest Town

Mack (9 mi), Loma (10 mi), Fruita (12 mi)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 30?

Unit 30 lies in Garfield and Mesa counties, and CPW has it bounded on the north by West Salt Creek-Bitter Creek divide, Evacuation Creek-Salt Creeks divide and Douglas Creek-Salt Creeks divide; on the east by East Salt Creek-Roan Creek divide, Big Salt Washand Little Salt Wash-Roan Creek divides and Bookcliffs; on the south by Colorado River; on the west by UT. It covers about 866 square miles.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 30?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 30 at 55% across all manners of take, and archery 25% and rifle 69% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

Where do you stay and resupply for a unit 30 hunt?

The nearest services our logistics pipeline finds for unit 30 are at Mack, about 9 miles from the unit's centre, with Loma at about 10 miles. There are also 24 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit.

What is the elk success rate in unit 30?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 30 at 12% across all manners of take, and archery 12%, muzzleloader 0% and rifle 13% 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 Deer Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for mule deer in unit 30, 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 Elk Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for elk in unit 30, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22