Colorado Moose Elk Mule Deer

Unit 36

Colorado Hunting Guide — Moose, Elk, Mule Deer

Unit 36 lies in Eagle County. CPW bounds it by Elk Creek to Piney Ridge and Gore Range divide (Elliot Ridge) among others. CPW's harvest estimates put Shiras moose success here as high as 67%. Federal land covers about 84% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Colorado Hunting Guide

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84%

Public Land

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 36

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 36 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.

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Moose Hunting in Unit 36

Where to Find Shiras Moose in Unit 36

CPW's material on unit 36 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its Shiras moose live. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Eagle County.

The lines of the unit: Elk Creek to Piney Ridge, Gore Range divide (Elliot Ridge) and Gore Range divide

CPW has unit 36 bounded on the north by Elk Creek to Piney Ridge, to Eagle's Nest Wilderness boundary and Gore Range divide (Elliot Ridge); on the east by Gore Range divide; on S from Gore Range divide to Vail Pass summit on I-70, following I-70 to Dowd Junction, then to Wolcott by Eagle River; on the west by Colo. 131 and Colorado River from State Bridge to Elk Creek. 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: The Spider, Meridian Peak and Bald Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include The Spider at 12,670 feet, Meridian Peak at 12,404 feet, Bald Mountain at 12,137 feet, Piney Ridge at 11,565 feet and Piney Peak at 11,555 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Moose want willow, water and shade, and they rarely leave the drainage that has all three.

Holding ground: Elkhorn Park, Kelly Park and Corral Park

Below them sit Elkhorn Park at 9,329 feet, Kelly Park at 8,871 feet, Corral Park at 8,860 feet, Grass Gulch Park at 8,648 feet and Muddy Pass at 8,596 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.

Water: Red Spring and Gore Creek Spring

Named sources include Red Spring and Gore Creek Spring. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

The herd this unit belongs to: M-3

CPW does not manage Shiras moose unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit M-3, and unit 36 is one piece of it. The rest of M-3 is unit 15, unit 18, unit 27, unit 28, unit 37, unit 181, unit 361 and unit 371. Read a neighbour in the same herd before you read the state average — the herd, not the unit line, is what the agency is steering.

Unit 36 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: The Spider (12,670 ft), Meridian Peak (12,404 ft), Bald Mountain (12,137 ft)

Holding ground: Red Buffalo Pass (11,700 ft), Moniger Park (10,084 ft), Rock Creek Park (10,078 ft), Red Spring, Gore Creek Spring

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

How to Hunt Shiras Moose in Unit 36

CPW's own harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 36 at 67% across all manners of take. A number like that comes from few tags and a short season, not from easy hunting. The plan: walk the willow bottoms slowly at first and last light and look for fresh browse before you look for the animal.

Glassing from Casteel Ridge, The Spider and Meridian Peak

Take a position on one of Casteel Ridge (8,338 ft), The Spider (12,670 ft), Meridian Peak (12,404 ft) and Bald Mountain (12,137 ft) and be on it before light. Work the morning with the air falling away from you, then accept that by mid-morning the wind has reversed and the plan has to change with it. Work the glass in strips and go back over ground you already covered — animals appear in country you looked at ten minutes ago. On the rut hunts, late September bulls answer a cow call near water.

Where unit 36 sits inside M-3

Across M-3, CPW's 2023 Shiras moose success runs 100% in unit 181, 100% in unit 371, 93% in unit 18, 88% in unit 28 and 77% in unit 37. That puts unit 36 behind 5 of the 7 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 181 carried the better number in the same herd — check its tag count before you read that as an easier hunt.

The way in: I-70 and Colo. 131

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: I-70 and Colo. 131. 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 The Spider, Meridian Peak and Bald Mountain as places to see from, and Red Buffalo Pass, Moniger Park, Rock Creek Park and Red Spring 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

275 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. Leave the truck earlier than you want to and you will hunt the best half-hour of the 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.

Colorado rules that decide your day

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

Legal shooting hours

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

Motorized retrieval

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

Tagging

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

Leaving meat

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

Where you may not shoot

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

Moose: where to put the shot

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

Shots to refuse

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

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

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Moose Success Rates

All manners of take67%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 36 at 67% — 2 animals taken by 3 hunters. On a sample that small the percentage moves several points with one animal, so read the hunter count beside it.

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

Moose Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — 1st Season cow only (resident)	1	98	1.0%	3
Archery — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull only (resident)	2	229	0.9%	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 36, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

MM036O1X — Any Legal Method, 1st Season, Bull Only, resident: 229 applicants for 2 licences, 0.9% drawn, 3 preference points needed
MF036O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Cow Only, resident: 98 applicants for 1 licences, 1% 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.

Elk Hunting in Unit 36

Unit 36 lies in Eagle County. CPW bounds it by Elk Creek to Piney Ridge and Gore Range divide (Elliot Ridge) among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 14%. Federal land covers about 84% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Elk in Unit 36

What CPW publishes for unit 36 is a boundary, not a elk 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 Eagle County.

The lines of the unit: Elk Creek to Piney Ridge, Gore Range divide (Elliot Ridge) and Gore Range divide

CPW has unit 36 bounded on the north by Elk Creek to Piney Ridge, to Eagle's Nest Wilderness boundary and Gore Range divide (Elliot Ridge); on the east by Gore Range divide; on S from Gore Range divide to Vail Pass summit on I-70, following I-70 to Dowd Junction, then to Wolcott by Eagle River; on the west by Colo. 131 and Colorado River from State Bridge to Elk Creek. 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: Petty Mountain, Red and White Mountain and Slate Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Petty Mountain at 11,272 feet, Red and White Mountain at 11,196 feet, Slate Mountain at 11,130 feet, Casteel Ridge at 8,338 feet and The Spider at 12,670 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: Denison Draw, Rhoads Gulch and Grass Gulch

Below them sit Denison Draw at 7,930 feet, Rhoads Gulch at 7,857 feet, Grass Gulch at 7,817 feet, Spring Draw Two at 7,796 feet and Spring Draw One at 7,796 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

Water: Red Spring and Gore Creek Spring

Named sources include Red Spring and Gore Creek Spring. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

The herd this unit belongs to: E-12

CPW does not manage elk unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit E-12, and unit 36 is one piece of it. The rest of E-12 is unit 35 and unit 361. Read a neighbour in the same herd before you read the state average — the herd, not the unit line, is what the agency is steering.

Unit 36 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: The Spider (12,670 ft), Meridian Peak (12,404 ft), Bald Mountain (12,137 ft)

Holding ground: Red Buffalo Pass (11,700 ft), Moniger Park (10,084 ft), Rock Creek Park (10,078 ft), Red Spring, Gore Creek Spring

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 36

CPW's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 36 at archery 5%, muzzleloader 14% and rifle 11%. 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 Piney Ridge, Piney Peak and Petty Mountain

Take a position on one of Piney Ridge (11,565 ft), Piney Peak (11,555 ft), Petty Mountain (11,272 ft) and Red and White Mountain (11,196 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. 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.

Where unit 36 sits inside E-12

Across E-12, CPW's 2023 elk success runs 13% in unit 35, 9% in unit 36 and 8% in unit 361. That puts unit 36 behind 1 of the 2 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 35 carried the better number in the same herd — check its tag count before you read that as an easier hunt.

The way in: I-70 and Colo. 131

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: I-70 and Colo. 131. 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. Check each of them on a current motor-vehicle-use map before you count on it, because a line on a boundary description is not a promise of public access.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks The Spider, Meridian Peak and Bald Mountain as places to see from, and Red Buffalo Pass, Moniger Park, Rock Creek Park and Red Spring 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

275 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. One good position held through the whole of first light beats three visited in a hurry.

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.

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 take9%

Archery5%

Muzzleloader14%

Rifle11%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 36 at 9% — 125 animals taken by 1,349 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 — 5% success, 24 taken by 489 hunters
Muzzleloader — 14% success, 19 taken by 133 hunters
Rifle — 11% success, 81 taken by 726 hunters

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (resident)	24	84	28.6%	—
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (nonresident)	11	24	45.8%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident)	75	112	67.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident)	23	32	71.9%	—
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (resident)	7	13	53.8%	—
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	44	78	56.4%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	6	14	42.9%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	4	18	22.2%	—
Rifle — 4th Season 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 36, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

EF036O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Cow Only, resident: 112 applicants for 75 licences, 67% drawn, no preference points needed
EE036O4R — Rifle, 4th Season, Either Sex, resident: 84 applicants for 24 licences, 28.6% drawn, no preference points needed
EF036O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Cow Only, resident: 78 applicants for 44 licences, 56.4% drawn, no preference points needed
EF036O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Cow Only, nonresident: 32 applicants for 23 licences, 71.9% 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 4 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 36

Unit 36 lies in Eagle County. CPW bounds it by Elk Creek to Piney Ridge and Gore Range divide (Elliot Ridge) among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 50%. Federal land covers about 84% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 36

CPW's material on unit 36 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its mule deer 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 Eagle County.

The lines of the unit: Elk Creek to Piney Ridge, Gore Range divide (Elliot Ridge) and Gore Range divide

High ground inside the line: Meridian Peak, Bald Mountain and Piney Ridge

Named high points inside the unit include Meridian Peak at 12,404 feet, Bald Mountain at 12,137 feet, Piney Ridge at 11,565 feet, Piney Peak at 11,555 feet and Petty Mountain at 11,272 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: Nottingham Gulch, Bear Gulch and Swift Gulch

Below them sit Nottingham Gulch at 7,761 feet, Bear Gulch at 7,696 feet, Swift Gulch at 7,566 feet, Deadhorse Gulch at 7,139 feet and Spring Draw at 7,070 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.

Water: Red Spring and Gore Creek Spring

Named sources include Red Spring and Gore Creek Spring. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

The herd this unit belongs to: D-8

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-8, and unit 36 is one piece of it. The rest of D-8 is unit 15, unit 35, unit 45 and unit 361. 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 36 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: The Spider (12,670 ft), Meridian Peak (12,404 ft), Bald Mountain (12,137 ft)

Holding ground: Red Buffalo Pass (11,700 ft), Moniger Park (10,084 ft), Rock Creek Park (10,078 ft), Red Spring, Gore Creek Spring

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 36

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 36 at archery 50% and rifle 37%. 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 Slate Mountain, Casteel Ridge and The Spider

Take a position on one of Slate Mountain (11,130 ft), Casteel Ridge (8,338 ft), The Spider (12,670 ft) and Meridian Peak (12,404 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. 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.

Where unit 36 sits inside D-8

Across D-8, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 39% in unit 35, 35% in unit 36, 33% in unit 15, 32% in unit 45 and 24% in unit 361. That puts unit 36 behind 1 of the 4 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 35 carried the better number in the same herd — check its tag count before you read that as an easier hunt.

The way in: I-70 and Colo. 131

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks The Spider, Meridian Peak and Bald Mountain as places to see from, and Red Buffalo Pass, Moniger Park, Rock Creek Park and Red Spring 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 a day here costs you

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.

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 take35%

Archery50%

Rifle37%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 36 at 35% — 279 animals taken by 787 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 — 50% success, 24 taken by 49 hunters
Rifle — 37% success, 243 taken by 657 hunters

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	8	65	12.3%	3
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	2	14	14.3%	6

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

Open in Draw Odds Engine

CPW's 2026 draw recap for mule deer in unit 36, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

DM036E1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 65 applicants for 8 licences, 12.3% drawn, 3 preference points needed
DM036E1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 14 applicants for 2 licences, 14.3% drawn, 6 preference points needed

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

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Road Conditions

Paved CO 14 provides main access. Forest roads gravel and high-clearance.

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Terrain Difficulty

Moderate. Willow drainages are flat walking but pack-out from remote basins is demanding.

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Hunting Pressure

Very low. Limited quota and wilderness designation keep it quiet.

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Weather

Cold. Lows into the 20s by late September and snow at elevation is common.

📱

Cell Service

None in wilderness. Satellite communicator required.

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Nearest Town

Walden

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 36?

Unit 36 lies in Eagle County, and CPW has it bounded on the north by Elk Creek to Piney Ridge, to Eagle's Nest Wilderness boundary and Gore Range divide (Elliot Ridge); on the east by Gore Range divide; on S from Gore Range divide to Vail Pass summit on I-70, following I-70 to Dowd Junction, then to Wolcott by Eagle River; on the west by Colo. 131 and Colorado River from State Bridge to Elk Creek.

What is the Shiras moose success rate in unit 36?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 36 at 67% across all manners of take. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the elk success rate in unit 36?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 36 at 9% across all manners of take, and archery 5%, muzzleloader 14% and rifle 11% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 36?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 36 at 35% across all manners of take, and archery 50% and rifle 37% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

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Sources & Verification

Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-10-23.

Colorado Big Game Hunting Brochure — Game Management Unit (GMU) Descriptions (pp. 79-80-81-82) — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: GMU boundary description, Counties the unit lies in, Data analysis unit (DAU) the unit belongs to · accessed 2026-10-22
2023 Colorado Moose Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for Shiras moose in unit 36, 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 36, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22
2023 Colorado Deer Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for mule deer in unit 36, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22

Unit 36

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 36

Moose Hunting in Unit 36

Where to Find Shiras Moose in Unit 36

The lines of the unit: Elk Creek to Piney Ridge, Gore Range divide (Elliot Ridge) and Gore Range divide

High ground inside the line: The Spider, Meridian Peak and Bald Mountain

Holding ground: Elkhorn Park, Kelly Park and Corral Park

Water: Red Spring and Gore Creek Spring

The herd this unit belongs to: M-3

Unit 36 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt Shiras Moose in Unit 36

Moose Success Rates

Moose Draw Odds

Elk Hunting in Unit 36

Where to Find Elk in Unit 36

The lines of the unit: Elk Creek to Piney Ridge, Gore Range divide (Elliot Ridge) and Gore Range divide

High ground inside the line: Petty Mountain, Red and White Mountain and Slate Mountain

Holding ground: Denison Draw, Rhoads Gulch and Grass Gulch

Water: Red Spring and Gore Creek Spring

The herd this unit belongs to: E-12

Unit 36 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt Elk in Unit 36

Elk Success Rates

Elk Draw Odds

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 36

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 36

The lines of the unit: Elk Creek to Piney Ridge, Gore Range divide (Elliot Ridge) and Gore Range divide

High ground inside the line: Meridian Peak, Bald Mountain and Piney Ridge

Holding ground: Nottingham Gulch, Bear Gulch and Swift Gulch

Water: Red Spring and Gore Creek Spring

The herd this unit belongs to: D-8

Unit 36 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt Mule Deer in Unit 36

Mule Deer Success Rates

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Explore Related Units

Unit 37 — Moose

Unit 44 — Moose

Unit 36 — Elk

Frequently Asked Questions

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Sources & Verification