Unit 371 (White River)
Colorado Hunting Guide — Elk
Unit 371 lies in Summit County and covers about 172 square miles. Ground runs from 7,952 to 13,500 feet. CPW bounds it by Cataract Creek and Green Mountain Reservoir among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 8%. Federal land covers about 88% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 371
Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 371 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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Elk Hunting in Unit 371
Unit 371 lies in Summit County and covers about 172 square miles. Ground runs from 7,952 to 13,500 feet. CPW bounds it by Cataract Creek and Green Mountain Reservoir among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 8%. Federal land covers about 88% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Where to Find Elk in Unit 371
CPW draws an exact line around unit 371 and says nothing about where the elk stand inside it. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Summit County. It runs to about 172 square miles.
The lines of the unit: Cataract Creek, Green Mountain Reservoir and Blue River
CPW has unit 371 bounded on the north by Cataract Creek; on the east by Green Mountain Reservoir and Blue River; on the south by I-70; on the west by Gore Range divide. It tells you the shape of the unit and nothing about its inhabitants. 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: Mount Powell, Gore Range and Eagles Nest
Named high points inside the unit include Mount Powell at 13,500 feet, Gore Range at 13,500 feet, Eagles Nest at 13,376 feet, Red Peak at 13,143 feet and Keller Mountain at 13,078 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: Lund Gulch, Butler Gulch and McKinley Gulch
Below them sit Lund Gulch at 8,226 feet, Butler Gulch at 7,991 feet, McKinley Gulch at 7,979 feet, Doig Gulch at 7,952 feet and Uneva Pass at 11,915 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: Blue River SWA - Eagle's Nest Unit
CPW lists Blue River SWA - Eagle's Nest 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 88% of the unit on top of those.
Water in this unit
The water inside the unit line comes to 2,311 mapped stream reaches, 32 lakes and 555 stock tanks. 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: E-13
CPW does not manage elk unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit E-13, and unit 371 is one piece of it. The rest of E-13 is unit 28 and unit 37. That matters twice over: the population objective and the licence numbers are set for the whole area, and the animals move across unit lines inside it without noticing them.
Reading the land status
Our ownership read for this unit is approximate — it comes out as National Forest 60%, Private / Other 32% and State Trust 8%, so treat it as a starting point and check a current land-status layer before you plan a route. A grid sample of the unit reads 8,125 to 11,860 feet, and named ground inside the line runs 7,952 to 13,500 feet — take 7,952 to 13,500 as the spread, because the sample is a grid and misses both ends. With 5,548 feet between the two ends, that is a lot of vertical to cover, and it means the season you draw decides which half of the unit you hunt.
Unit 371 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
The lay of it
- 8,125–11,860 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 10,142 ft ; peaks can run higher.
- 171.6 sq mi inside the boundary.
Who owns the ground
- National Forest — 60%
- State Trust — 8%
- Private / Other — 32%
Roughly 68% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.
Water on the ground
- 555 tanks
- 2,311 stream segments
- 32 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: Mount Powell (13,500 ft), Red Peak (13,143 ft), Keller Mountain (13,078 ft), Buffalo Mountain (12,764 ft)
Holding ground: Uneva Pass (11,915 ft), Eccles Pass (11,893 ft), Officers Gulch (9,452 ft), Blue River SWA - Eagle's Nest Unit
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 371
Elk Success Rates
CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 371 at 6% — 78 animals taken by 1,261 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 — 4% success, 20 taken by 487 hunters
- Muzzleloader — 8% success, 6 taken by 74 hunters
- Rifle — 7% success, 52 taken by 700 hunters
These are the agency's own printed figures for this unit, not a modelled estimate and not a state average. They describe one season, so check CPW's current harvest estimates before you read a trend into them.
Elk Draw Odds
| Season | Tags | Applicants | Draw % | Pts Req |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rifle — 1st Season either sex (resident) | 19 | 151 | 12.6% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season either sex (nonresident) | 7 | 83 | 8.4% | — |
| Rifle — 4th Season either sex (resident) | 10 | 37 | 27.0% | — |
| Rifle — 4th Season either sex (nonresident) | 10 | 13 | 76.9% | — |
| Rifle — 4th Season either sex (resident) | 2 | 2 | 100.0% | — |
| Rifle — 4th Season either sex (nonresident) | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident) | 9 | 39 | 23.1% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident) | 0 | 1 | 0.0% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident) | 7 | 67 | 10.4% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident) | 1 | 9 | 11.1% | — |
| Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident) | 8 | 43 | 18.6% | — |
| Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident) | 1 | 2 | 50.0% | — |
| Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident) | 7 | 35 | 20.0% | — |
| Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident) | 1 | 4 | 25.0% | — |
| Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident) | 9 | 12 | 75.0% | — |
| Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident) | 0 | 1 | 0.0% | — |
| Rifle — 5th Season cow only (resident) | 9 | 26 | 34.6% | — |
| Rifle — 5th Season cow only (nonresident) | 0 | 1 | 0.0% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season either sex (resident) | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season either sex (nonresident) | 3 | 4 | 75.0% | — |
Data from 2026 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number.
Open in Draw Odds EngineCPW's 2026 draw recap for elk in unit 371, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:
- EE371O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 151 applicants for 19 licences, 12.6% drawn, no preference points needed
- EE371O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Either Sex, nonresident: 83 applicants for 7 licences, 8.4% drawn, no preference points needed
- EF371O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Cow Only, resident: 67 applicants for 7 licences, 10.4% drawn, no preference points needed
- EF371O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Cow Only, resident: 43 applicants for 8 licences, 18.6% 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 11 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
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Colorado unit 371?
What is the elk success rate in unit 371?
Where do you stay and resupply for a unit 371 hunt?
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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 371, 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