Unit 361

CPW draws an exact line around unit 361 and says nothing about where the elk stand inside it. 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 and Grand counties.

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

CPW has unit 361 bounded on the north by Colorado River from Elk Creek to Inspiration Point; on the east by Gore Range divide; on the south and west by Piney Ridge to Elk Creek, following Piney Ridge to Eagle's Nest Wildernes boundary and Gore Range divide (Elliott Ridge). Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. 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: Cottonwood Peak, Chimney Rock and Dice Hill

Named high points inside the unit include Cottonwood Peak at 11,485 feet, Chimney Rock at 11,086 feet, Dice Hill at 9,846 feet and Sheephorn Mountain at 9,573 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: Garden Gulch, McPhee Gulch and Upper State Park

Below them sit Garden Gulch at 6,975 feet, McPhee Gulch at 6,839 feet, Upper State Park at 10,133 feet, Hartman Divide at 7,775 feet and Hartman Gulch at 7,317 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Work out which of them you can see from one position before you pick a camp.

Public ground to start from: Radium SWA, Radium SWA - Hartman Unit and Radium SWA - Sheephorn Unit

CPW lists Radium SWA, Radium SWA - Hartman Unit and Radium SWA - Sheephorn Unit 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 69% of the unit on top of those.

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 361 is one piece of it. The rest of E-12 is unit 35 and unit 36. 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.

CPW's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 361 at archery 0%, muzzleloader 0% and rifle 14%. 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 Cottonwood Peak, Chimney Rock and Dice Hill

Take a position on one of Cottonwood Peak (11,485 ft), Chimney Rock (11,086 ft), Dice Hill (9,846 ft) and Sheephorn Mountain (9,573 ft) and be on it before light. Cold air slides downhill in the dark, so keep your scent out of the bowl you mean to watch; expect the thermals to turn uphill an hour after the sun reaches the slope. 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, September bugling works where you can get above a drainage and let the thermals carry sound downhill.

Getting past the roads

There is little true four-wheel-drive road here, so distance from the gravel is the only thing separating you from the next hunter. One mapped public entry point falls inside the unit, so decide which one you take before the morning you take it.

Where unit 361 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. Unit 361 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 35 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 Cottonwood Peak, Chimney Rock and Dice Hill as places to see from, and Upper State Park, McPhee Gulch, Radium SWA and Radium SWA - Hartman Unit 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

83 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.