Colorado Elk Mule Deer Moose

Unit 33 (Glenwood Springs)

Colorado Hunting Guide — Elk, Mule Deer, Moose

Unit 33 sits in Garfield and Rio Blanco counties on the western slope, framed by Colo. 13 on the west, Canyon Creek on the east and the Colorado River on the south. It runs about 416 square miles, from river bottom near 5,700 feet to ridges above 10,000. CPW publishes no per-unit elk breakdown, so we're working from terrain and access. Confirm public-land boundaries on a current map before you commit.

View Draw Odds Colorado Hunting Guide

🏔️

74%

Public Land

⛰️

5,714–10,626 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 33

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 33 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 Mule Deer guide Moose 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.

Elk Hunting in Unit 33

Elk Country Between Colo. 13, Canyon Creek and the Colorado River

CPW's own unit material gives this unit a boundary and nothing more. It's bounded on the north by the White River–Colorado River divide, on the east by Canyon Creek, on the south by the Colorado River and on the west by Colo. 13. It lists Garfield and Rio Blanco counties and puts the unit at about 416 square miles, in elk herd area E-6. There's no narrative about where the elk are. Those boundary features frame the unit and tell you where the roads come in. They don't tell you where elk stand, and we won't pretend they do.

Read the ownership before you plan

Our ownership read for this unit came back as all private or other, with no public share we'd trust. Yet the named summits, parks and gulches inside it carry public-land flags. Those two things don't agree. Pull a current land-status map and trace public ground yourself before you pick a camp. Nobody's told us how much of the unit is open to you, and you don't want to find out on opening morning.

Parks and benches: Triangle, Seaman and Lake

For holding country, start with the high flats. Triangle Park (9,466 ft), Seaman Park (9,298) and Lake Park (9,260) are the strongest-looking bench country on our terrain read. They sit on the same upper shelf as Coulter Mesa (9,289) and Clark Ridge (9,743). Open ground backed by timber is where we'd look first early in the season. Long Park (8,278) is the lower version of the same idea, and it's the step down when snow or pressure pushes animals off the top.

The gulches: Tangle, Irish, Hoover and Trappers

Below the parks, a run of gulches drops toward the river: Tangle Gulch (8,565), Irish Gulch (8,498), Hoover Gulch (8,427), Trappers Gulch (8,189), Garden Gulch (7,844), Bear Gulch (7,807) and Stump Gulch (7,720). These are the late-season and weather-push candidates. Elk drift down toward the lower, warmer ground once the high parks get cold. Skip the river-bottom end of the unit, near 5,700 feet. The mean elevation is about 7,800, and the useful country sits well above the bottom.

Getting there

Colo. 13 is paved and runs 7.3 miles along the west line. CO 325 is paved for another 4.3. CR 252 is graded gravel for about 10 miles and fine for a 2WD rig with a small trailer. The real backcountry roads are high-clearance: FR 601.1 (11.2 miles), FR 245.1 (7.3) and FR 211.1 (5.7). Silt, New Castle, Rifle and Glenwood Springs are the nearest towns for fuel and supplies.

Two high points, Spring Hill and Clinetop Mesa, top our list of glassing summits. They sit at or past the unit's high edge, so check the line before you plan around them.

Unit 33 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

5,714–10,626 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 7,792 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
415.6 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
BLM — 15%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 17%

Roughly 83% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

493 tanks
8,554 stream segments
12 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: Spring Hill (11,113 ft), Clinetop Mesa (10,670 ft), Clark Ridge (9,743 ft), Coulter Mesa (9,289 ft)

Holding ground: Triangle Park (9,466 ft), Lake Park (9,260 ft), Tangle Gulch (8,565 ft), West Rifle Creek SWA, Wheeler SWA

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

Glassing the Ridges and Working the Gulches

With no agency harvest numbers and no species narrative, the play here is built on terrain. Think of it as scouting a unit nobody's handed you a map for. That's work, but it also means the crowd that follows published hot spots isn't necessarily here.

Glass from the points, hunt the gulches

The terrain read flags a string of glassing perches. Clark Ridge, Irish Ridge (9,285), Banner Ridge (9,266) and Burnt Ridge (9,219) are ridgelines. Hadley Point, Meadow Creek Point, Windy Point, Clark Point and Deep Creek Point are cliff edges. Windy Point (8,736) and Meadow Creek Point (8,988) give you the longest looks into the gulch heads. Be on a point before first light, glass the open parks and gulch mouths until the sun's on them, then drop in only when you've got an animal or a plan. Repeat that at last light.

Water: tanks and named springs

Our water read counts 478 tanks and 12 lakes, which is a lot of stock water for dry ridge country. It also shows plenty of drainage. The named springs include Joe Hill Spring, Clark Cabin Spring, Irish Spring, Bear Spring, Bearwallow Spring, Cold Spring and Mud Spring. Bearwallow and Mud are the kind of names that suggest wet, shaded ground. Treat them as places to check, not promises. Walk to one on a scouting trip and look for fresh sign before you build a hunt around it.

Beating the other hunters

The high-clearance roads (FR 601.1, FR 245.1 and FR 211.1) are your filter. Most hunters stop where the gravel does. Park, then hike a mile or two past the last truck and you'll be in country that's quieter. Wind matters in the gulches. Morning thermals pull uphill and evening air drains down, so approach a gulch bottom from above and keep your scent from running into the animals' bedding. Sort out your pack-out plan before you shoot. We don't have CPW's motorised-retrieval or access rules for this unit, so check the current regulations brochure and any travel-management signing on the roads.

A realistic day

Expect to cover ground. Glass early from a point, move through a gulch or across a park mid-morning if you've spotted sign, and be back on a perch for the evening. Check which weapon season you drew and what the regulations allow in the unit, because we can't give you dates or weapon-specific numbers here.

Getting in and staying out: unit 33

Named routes and what they need

FR 601.1 — 11.2 mi · High-clearance
CR 252 — 10.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CO 13 — 7.3 mi · Paved (all rigs)
FR 245.1 — 7.3 mi · High-clearance
FR 211.1 — 5.7 mi · High-clearance
CO 325 — 4.3 mi · Paved (all rigs)

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

Nearest services

Silt — 9.7 mi · groceries
New Castle — 9.9 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
Rifle — 13.1 mi · fuel, gear
Glenwood Springs — 19.5 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging, gear
Cattle Creek — 25.7 mi · no services listed

Developed camps

Rifle Mountain Park
Elk Creek Campground
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Lakeview Campground

Season weather and signal

Jan37° / 11° · 0.9" precip
Aug87° / 51° · 1.2" precip
Sep79° / 43° · 1.4" precip
Oct65° / 31° · 1.4" precip
Nov50° / 22° · 0.7" precip
Dec37° / 13° · 0.7" precip

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

Colorado rules that decide your day

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

Legal shooting hours

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

Motorized retrieval

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

Tagging

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

Leaving meat

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

Where you may not shoot

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

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.

Pro Members Only

Unlock elk hunting tactics for Unit 33

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Elk Success Rates

All manners of take11%

Archery10%

Muzzleloader16%

Rifle11%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 33 at 11% — 249 animals taken by 2,351 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 — 10% success, 42 taken by 438 hunters
Muzzleloader — 16% success, 14 taken by 90 hunters
Rifle — 11% success, 193 taken by 1,823 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
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	451	784	57.5%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	160	994	16.1%	3
Muzzleloader — 1st Season either sex (resident)	65	251	25.9%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	25	162	15.4%	6
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (resident)	53	153	34.6%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	38	70	54.3%	—
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (resident)	2	6	33.3%	—
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (nonresident)	6	22	27.3%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident)	86	133	64.7%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident)	44	65	67.7%	—
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (resident)	34	50	68.0%	—
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (nonresident)	14	14	100.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (resident)	16	37	43.2%	—
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (nonresident)	24	35	68.6%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	73	117	62.4%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	29	67	43.3%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	18	42	42.9%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident)	5	12	41.7%	—

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

EE033O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, nonresident: 994 applicants for 160 licences, 16.1% drawn, 3 preference points needed
EE033O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 784 applicants for 451 licences, 57.5% drawn, no preference points needed
EE033O1M — Muzzleloader, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 251 applicants for 65 licences, 25.9% drawn, no preference points needed
EE033O1M — Muzzleloader, 1st Season, Either Sex, nonresident: 162 applicants for 25 licences, 15.4% drawn, 6 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 14 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 33

Unit 33 is a big Garfield and Rio Blanco county unit of about 416 square miles around Rifle and Silt, running from roughly 5,700 feet along the Colorado River to over 10,000 feet on the ridges. CPW's brochure doesn't break out where the mule deer are, so we work from terrain and access. Confirm parcel lines before you commit to any drainage.

Where the deer should be in Unit 33

CPW's unit material gives a boundary for 33 and nothing on where mule deer sit inside it. Nobody has handed us a harvest map. What follows is our terrain read, built from named country and elevation. Treat it as a starting plan and not a promise.

The frame: the White River-Colorado River divide on the north, Canyon Creek on the east, the Colorado River on the south, and Colo. 13 on the west. Those are edges, not deer locations. The unit drops to about 5,700 feet and tops out near 10,600, with a mean around 7,800. That's a lot of vertical for one herd, listed by CPW as D-42.

High parks and ridges: Triangle, Seaman, Lake, Clark Ridge

Start high. Triangle Park (about 9,470 feet), Seaman Park (9,300) and Lake Park (9,260) are the open benches in the upper country. Clark Ridge (9,740) and Irish Ridge (9,285) give you glassing above them. Early season, before snow pushes anything off, bucks should be up here. Broken ground, benches and edges are where we'd look first.

Mid-elevation gulches: Tangle, Irish, Hoover, Trappers

Tangle Gulch (8,565), Irish Gulch (8,498), Hoover Gulch (8,427) and Trappers Gulch (8,189) sit in the middle band. Long Park (8,278) is the flat to check alongside them. When the high country gets cold and wet, deer slide into this band. It's also the easiest country to hunt on foot from a road.

Low gulches: Garden, Bear, Stump

Garden Gulch (7,844), Bear Gulch (7,807) and Stump Gulch (7,720) are the low end of the named holding country. Late-season deer will push toward elevations like these. They're also the likeliest spots to run into fences and parcel lines. The country below them toward the river is a different story, and we'd check ownership closely before hunting it.

Getting there

Colo. 13 is paved and forms the unit's west line. CO 325 is paved too. CR 252 is graded gravel that a 2WD rig and a small trailer can handle. The Forest roads, FR 601.1 (11.2 miles), FR 245.1 (7.3) and FR 211.1 (5.7), are high-clearance. Rifle, Silt, New Castle and Glenwood Springs are your supply towns.

One caution. Our ownership read comes back as all private or other, which we don't believe on a unit this size, since the named ridges and parks all look like public ground. Don't take either answer on faith. Check parcel lines with a mapping app before you walk in.

Unit 33 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

5,714–10,626 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 7,792 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
415.6 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
BLM — 15%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 17%

Roughly 83% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

493 tanks
8,554 stream segments
12 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: Spring Hill (11,113 ft), Clinetop Mesa (10,670 ft), Clark Ridge (9,743 ft), Coulter Mesa (9,289 ft)

Holding ground: Triangle Park (9,466 ft), Lake Park (9,260 ft), Tangle Gulch (8,565 ft), West Rifle Creek SWA, Wheeler 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 33

With no agency breakdown and no success numbers, you'll scout your own way in. The unit's size works for you. So does the number of named glassing points.

Glass from the points

The unit is full of named high points: Clark Ridge, Irish Ridge, Banner Ridge, Burnt Ridge, Coulter Mesa, Little Hill and Joe Hill. Cliff points like Windy Point, Meadow Creek Point, Clark Point and Deep Creek Point look down on the lower gulches. Be on one before first light. Glass the gulch heads and bench edges while deer are still feeding, then again in the last hour. Mid-day, look for bedded deer in shaded pockets rather than moving ones.

Water and feed

Our terrain read counts 478 tanks and 12 lakes, plus a lot of stream mileage, so water alone won't pin deer down. The agency doesn't put numbers on springs, but named ones include Joe Hill Spring, Clark Cabin Spring, Irish Spring, Cold Spring, Bear Spring and Mud Spring. We'd glass the country around them. Use the names as a lead, not a guarantee of location or flow. Dry years will concentrate deer more than wet ones.

Beating the pressure

FR 601.1, FR 245.1 and FR 211.1 are rough, and that's the point. Most hunters won't push far past the gravel. Park, then walk a mile or two beyond the last pullout and glass the next bench. Wind matters in the gulches. Morning air generally drifts downhill and afternoon thermals climb, so plan your stalks along the slope.

A realistic day

Expect to cover ground. Up early to a ridge, glass until the light is full, then drop to the nearest gulch head if nothing shows. Come back to a different point in the evening. Before you go, read CPW's current brochure for season dates, legal hunting hours and any retrieval or travel limits. We can't verify those for you here.

Getting in and staying out: unit 33

Named routes and what they need

FR 601.1 — 11.2 mi · High-clearance
CR 252 — 10.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CO 13 — 7.3 mi · Paved (all rigs)
FR 245.1 — 7.3 mi · High-clearance
FR 211.1 — 5.7 mi · High-clearance
CO 325 — 4.3 mi · Paved (all rigs)

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

Nearest services

Silt — 9.7 mi · groceries
New Castle — 9.9 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
Rifle — 13.1 mi · fuel, gear
Glenwood Springs — 19.5 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging, gear
Cattle Creek — 25.7 mi · no services listed

Developed camps

Rifle Mountain Park
Elk Creek Campground
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Lakeview Campground

Season weather and signal

Jan37° / 11° · 0.9" precip
Aug87° / 51° · 1.2" precip
Sep79° / 43° · 1.4" precip
Oct65° / 31° · 1.4" precip
Nov50° / 22° · 0.7" precip
Dec37° / 13° · 0.7" precip

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

Colorado rules that decide your day

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

Legal shooting hours

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

Motorized retrieval

Tagging

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

Leaving meat

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

Where you may not shoot

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

Mule Deer: where to put the shot

Broadside or quartering away, on the back edge of the front leg about a third of the way up the body.

Shots to refuse

Nothing behind or overlapping the animal you picked.
Your maximum range is the farthest you have shot a three-shot group into a paper plate from the rest you are carrying.
Pass the shot you are talking yourself into.

Plan the carry: roughly 40– 120 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — two large coolers. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

Pro Members Only

Unlock mule deer hunting tactics for Unit 33

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Mule Deer Success Rates

All manners of take31%

Archery7%

Rifle36%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 33 at 31% — 361 animals taken by 1,152 hunters. That is a lot of hunters in one unit, and the percentage is what it looks like after all of them have been through it.

Archery — 7% success, 9 taken by 124 hunters
Rifle — 36% success, 323 taken by 908 hunters

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	110	188	58.5%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	30	74	40.5%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (resident)	6	87	6.9%	1
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	4	0.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (resident)	87	143	60.8%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	32	38	84.2%	—
Rifle — 5th Season doe only (resident)	8	22	36.4%	—
Rifle — 5th Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 6th Season doe only (resident)	8	20	40.0%	—
Rifle — 6th Season doe only (nonresident)	1	2	50.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	143	365	39.2%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	179	410	43.7%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident)	143	409	35.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident)	171	668	25.6%	—
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (resident)	60	170	35.3%	—
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (nonresident)	21	145	14.5%	1
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	1	11	9.1%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	12	24	50.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident)	13	25	52.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident)	20	25	80.0%	—

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

DM033O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 668 applicants for 171 licences, 25.6% drawn, no preference points needed
DM033O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 410 applicants for 179 licences, 43.7% drawn, no preference points needed
DM033O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, resident: 409 applicants for 143 licences, 35% drawn, no preference points needed
DM033O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, resident: 365 applicants for 143 licences, 39.2% 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 15 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 33

Unit 33 sits in western Colorado across Garfield and Rio Blanco counties. It covers about 416 square miles, from the Colorado River country near 5,700 feet to ridges above 10,000. CPW's unit material doesn't break out Shiras moose here, so you'll hunt off terrain and water, not an agency map of where the animals are. Confirm which ground is public before you drive in. That decides whether this tag is worth the effort.

Where to Look for Shiras Moose in Unit 33

CPW's unit material gives a legal boundary for 33 and no moose narrative. Nobody has told us where the animals sit, so this section is our terrain read. Treat every spot below as a place to look, not a promise.

The frame: Colo. 13, Canyon Creek and the Colorado River

The agency describes the unit as bounded on the north by the White River–Colorado River divide, on the east by Canyon Creek, on the south by the Colorado River and on the west by Colo. 13. That's a legal line, not a habitat description. It does tell you how you'll come in. Colo. 13 is paved and runs the west edge. CO 325 is also paved. Silt, New Castle, Rifle and Glenwood Springs are the nearest towns.

Parks and flats in the high timber

Our best starting country is the open ground in the upper elevations. Triangle Park (9,466 feet), Seaman Park (9,298) and Lake Park (9,260) are flats in the high country. Moose lean on wet ground, willow and the edge of dark timber, so wet flats high up are where we'd spend the first days. Long Park (8,278) is the lower version. Check each one for standing water or willow before you commit a morning.

The gulches and the springs

The valley bottoms mapped as holding country are Tangle Gulch (8,565), Irish Gulch (8,498), Hoover Gulch (8,427), Trappers Gulch (8,189), Garden Gulch (7,844), Bear Gulch (7,807) and Stump Gulch (7,720). Named springs give you something to check: Irish Spring, Joe Hill Spring, Clark Cabin Spring, Bear Spring, Mud Spring and Cold Spring. We'd walk the wet ground in these gulches before we looked at any dry ridge. Early season, start high. If it's hot, expect animals to hold in cool, wet drainages through the day.

Access and the public-land question

High-clearance tracks include FR 601.1 (about 11 miles), FR 245.1 (about 7) and FR 211.1 (about 6). CR 252 is graded gravel that a 2WD rig can handle. We can't give you a clean public-versus-private split for this unit. Many of the named features show as public, but you need a current land-status map before you plan any approach. Skip anything you can't prove is open to you.

Unit 33 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

5,714–10,626 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 7,792 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
415.6 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
BLM — 15%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 17%

Roughly 83% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

493 tanks
8,554 stream segments
12 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: Spring Hill (11,113 ft), Clinetop Mesa (10,670 ft), Clark Ridge (9,743 ft), Coulter Mesa (9,289 ft)

Holding ground: Triangle Park (9,466 ft), Lake Park (9,260 ft), Tangle Gulch (8,565 ft), West Rifle Creek SWA, Wheeler 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 Moose in Unit 33

With no agency moose breakdown behind us, the play is simple. Find water and willow, glass it hard, and be patient. Moose are big and dark, but they hide well in timber.

Glass from the points, then drop in

Use the ridges and points as your optics platforms. Clark Ridge (9,743), Coulter Mesa (9,289), Irish Ridge (9,285), Banner Ridge (9,266), Burnt Ridge (9,219) and Joe Hill (9,181) overlook the heads of the gulches. Lower, Hadley Point (9,044), Meadow Creek Point (8,988), Windy Point (8,736), Clark Point (8,421) and Deep Creek Point (8,358) are cliff-edge lookouts into the drainages. Be on your glass at first light and again for the last hour. Scan willow, wet edges and the shadow lines where timber meets open ground. Look for a dark shape standing still, a long leg or a pale rump. Then sit. Ten minutes on one basin beats an hour of walking.

Wind and the approach

Mornings, cool air drains downslope into the gulches. Afternoons, thermals climb. Plan your stalk so the wind is in your face and never at your back. Don't walk down the middle of a wet bottom. Stay on the bench above it and look down. A moose in willow often hears you before you see it.

Beating the crowd

The paved roads and the graded CR 252 will draw the most trucks. Our advice is to use FR 601.1, FR 245.1 or FR 211.1 as a starting point, then walk away from the road. A mile off a high-clearance track gets you away from most people. Hunting the high parks early and dropping to the lower gulches later is a sound way to cover the elevation range.

What a realistic day looks like

Expect plenty of empty glassing. Check the springs, then the willow, then move to the next basin. Make sure of your target before you shoot. This unit has elk, and a moose tag doesn't cover anything else. Read your license for its sex and season restrictions. Plan the pack-out before you pull the trigger, because a moose is heavy and the high country is a long way from a road. Bring help, and bring more than one game bag.

Getting in and staying out: unit 33

Named routes and what they need

FR 601.1 — 11.2 mi · High-clearance
CR 252 — 10.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CO 13 — 7.3 mi · Paved (all rigs)
FR 245.1 — 7.3 mi · High-clearance
FR 211.1 — 5.7 mi · High-clearance
CO 325 — 4.3 mi · Paved (all rigs)

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

Nearest services

Silt — 9.7 mi · groceries
New Castle — 9.9 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
Rifle — 13.1 mi · fuel, gear
Glenwood Springs — 19.5 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging, gear
Cattle Creek — 25.7 mi · no services listed

Developed camps

Rifle Mountain Park
Elk Creek Campground
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Lakeview Campground

Season weather and signal

Jan37° / 11° · 0.9" precip
Aug87° / 51° · 1.2" precip
Sep79° / 43° · 1.4" precip
Oct65° / 31° · 1.4" precip
Nov50° / 22° · 0.7" precip
Dec37° / 13° · 0.7" precip

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

Colorado rules that decide your day

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

Legal shooting hours

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

Motorized retrieval

Tagging

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

Leaving meat

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

Where you may not shoot

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

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.

Pro Members Only

Unlock moose hunting tactics for Unit 33

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Moose Success Rates

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates carry no Shiras moose row for unit 33 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.

Moose Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — 1st Season cow only (resident)	1	21	4.8%	3
Archery — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull only (resident)	1	119	0.8%	3
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—

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

Open in Draw Odds Engine

CPW's 2026 draw recap for Shiras moose in unit 33, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

MM033O1X — Any Legal Method, 1st Season, Bull Only, resident: 119 applicants for 1 licences, 0.8% drawn, 3 preference points needed
MF033O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Cow Only, resident: 21 applicants for 1 licences, 4.8% drawn, 3 preference points needed

Colorado runs a pure preference-point draw, so the point figure above is the requirement the agency published for that code in that year, not a forecast for the next one. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

⛺

Camp Sites

25 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit, including Rifle Mountain Park, Elk Creek Campground and Lakeview Campground.

🛣️

Road Conditions

FR 601.1, CR 252 and CO 13 are the named routes in the unit. Roughly 23 mi paved, 24 mi gravel and 1 mi four-wheel-drive.

🥾

Terrain Difficulty

5,714–10,626 ft, averaging 7,792. More than 4,000 feet of relief, so plan the pack-out before the shot.

👥

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 79/43°F, 1.4 in.; Oct 65/31°F, 1.4 in.; Nov 50/22°F, 0.7 in..

📱

Cell Service

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

🏘️

Nearest Town

Silt (10 mi), New Castle (10 mi), Rifle (13 mi)

Pro Members Only

Unlock logistics for Unit 33

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 33?

Unit 33 lies in Garfield and Rio Blanco counties, and CPW has it bounded on the north by White River-Colorado River divide; on the east by Canyon Creek; on the south by Colorado River; on the west by Colo. 13. It covers about 416 square miles.

What is the elk success rate in unit 33?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 33 at 11% across all manners of take, and archery 10%, muzzleloader 16% and rifle 11% 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 33 hunt?

The nearest services our logistics pipeline finds for unit 33 are at Silt, about 10 miles from the unit's centre, with New Castle at about 10 miles. There are also 25 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 33?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 33 at 31% across all manners of take, and archery 7% and rifle 36% 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 33?

CPW publishes no Shiras moose success figure we can tie to unit 33 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.

Free Hunt Planning Tools

🎰 Colorado Draw Odds Unit-level tag success rates 📅 Application Timeline Deadlines for all 9 states 🦌 Rut Forecast Peak rut timing by species 💰 Hunt Cost Calculator Budget your entire hunt

Plan Your Hunt with ProHunt Pro

Unlock advanced tactics, the Tag-to-Trail Planner, AI hunt strategy assistant, and personalized camp and trip execution plans.

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

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 Elk Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for elk in unit 33, 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 33, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22

Unit 33 (Glenwood Springs)

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 33

Elk Hunting in Unit 33

Elk Country Between Colo. 13, Canyon Creek and the Colorado River

Read the ownership before you plan

Parks and benches: Triangle, Seaman and Lake

The gulches: Tangle, Irish, Hoover and Trappers

Getting there

Unit 33 terrain and land status

The lay of it

Who owns the ground

Water on the ground

Named features inside the unit

Glassing the Ridges and Working the Gulches

Elk Success Rates

Elk Draw Odds

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 33

Where the deer should be in Unit 33

High parks and ridges: Triangle, Seaman, Lake, Clark Ridge

Mid-elevation gulches: Tangle, Irish, Hoover, Trappers

Low gulches: Garden, Bear, Stump

Getting there

Unit 33 terrain and land status

The lay of it

Who owns the ground

Water on the ground

Named features inside the unit

How to hunt mule deer in Unit 33

Mule Deer Success Rates

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Moose Hunting in Unit 33

Where to Look for Shiras Moose in Unit 33

The frame: Colo. 13, Canyon Creek and the Colorado River

Parks and flats in the high timber

The gulches and the springs

Access and the public-land question

Unit 33 terrain and land status

The lay of it

Who owns the ground

Water on the ground

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt Moose in Unit 33

Moose Success Rates

Moose Draw Odds

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Explore Related Units

Unit 35 — Elk

Unit 12 — Elk

Unit 33 — Mule Deer

Frequently Asked Questions

Free Hunt Planning Tools

Plan Your Hunt with ProHunt Pro

Sources & Verification