Colorado Mule Deer Moose Elk

Unit 38

Colorado Hunting Guide — Mule Deer, Moose, Elk

Unit 38 lies in Gilpin, Boulder, Clear Creek and Jefferson counties and covers about 455 square miles. Ground runs from 5,407 to 13,255 feet. CPW bounds it by USFS 149 (Rollins Pass Rd.) and Colo. 119 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 22%. Federal land covers about 24% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Colorado Hunting Guide

🏔️

24%

Public Land

⛰️

5,407–11,904 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 38

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 38 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 Moose 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 38

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 38

CPW's material on unit 38 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its mule deer live. 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 Gilpin, Boulder, Clear Creek and Jefferson counties. It runs to about 455 square miles.

The lines of the unit: USFS 149 (Rollins Pass Rd.), Colo. 119 and U.S. 40

CPW has unit 38 bounded on the north by USFS 149 (Rollins Pass Rd.) and Colo. 119, 72, 93 & 128; on the east by I-25; on the south by I-70 and U.S. 40; on the west by Continental 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: James Peak, Mount Flora and Mount Eva

Named high points inside the unit include James Peak at 13,255 feet, Mount Flora at 13,112 feet, Mount Eva at 13,109 feet, Witter Peak at 12,862 feet and Breckinridge Peak at 12,845 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: Miners Gulch, Smith Gulch and Kings Flat

Below them sit Miners Gulch at 9,741 feet, Smith Gulch at 9,702 feet, Kings Flat at 9,656 feet, Pecks Flat at 9,609 feet and Stewart Gulch at 9,286 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: Ralston Creek SWA

CPW lists Ralston Creek 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 24% of the unit on top of those.

Water: Lariat Spring and Charm Spring

Named sources include Lariat Spring and Charm 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-27

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-27, and unit 38 is one piece of it. The rest of D-27 is unit 29. 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.

Reading the land status

Our ownership read for this unit is approximate — it comes out as National Forest 60%, Private / Other 17%, BLM 15% 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 5,407 to 11,904 feet, and named ground inside the line runs 5,412 to 13,255 feet — take 5,407 to 13,255 as the spread, because the sample is a grid and walks past summits. With 7,848 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 38 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

5,407–11,904 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 8,270 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
455.4 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

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: James Peak (13,255 ft), Mount Flora (13,112 ft), Mount Eva (13,109 ft)

Holding ground: Rogers Pass (11,869 ft), Elk Park (10,410 ft), Washoe Gulch (10,110 ft), Ralston Creek SWA, Lariat Spring

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

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How to Hunt Mule Deer in Unit 38

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 38 at archery 13% and rifle 22%. That is an ordinary spread for this country, and it rewards whoever scouted. The plan: glass the broken edges at first light, then sit still and keep glassing the same ground.

Glassing from Haystack Mountain, Nebraska Hill and Yankee Hill

Take a position on one of Haystack Mountain (11,726 ft), Nebraska Hill (11,550 ft), Yankee Hill (11,228 ft) and Montana Mountain (10,947 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, late-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Season normals here run Sep 69/43°F, Oct 56/33°F and Nov 45/24°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 1.9 in. in Sep, 1.5 in. in Oct and 1.1 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

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 38 sits inside D-27

Across D-27, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 27% in unit 29 and 20% in unit 38. Unit 38 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 29 carried the better number in the same herd — check its tag count before you read that as an easier hunt.

The way in: USFS 149, Colo. 119 and I-25

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: USFS 149, Colo. 119, I-25, I-70 and U.S. 40. 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 James Peak, Mount Flora and Mount Eva as places to see from, and Rogers Pass, Elk Park, Washoe Gulch and Ralston Creek SWA 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 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 38

Nearest services

Black Hawk — 7.1 mi · lodging
Central City — 8.2 mi · lodging
Golden — 9 mi · fuel, groceries, gear
Leyden — 9.6 mi · fuel, groceries
Idaho Springs — 9.8 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging, gear

Developed camps

Cold Springs - Arapaho Roosevelt NF (CO) · reservable
PICKLE GULCH · reservable
KELLY DAHL · reservable
COLUMBINE CAMPGROUND · reservable

Season weather and signal

Jan38° / 18° · 0.9" precip
Aug76° / 50° · 2.4" precip
Sep69° / 43° · 1.9" precip
Oct56° / 33° · 1.5" precip
Nov45° / 24° · 1.1" precip
Dec38° / 18° · 0.9" 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.

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 take20%

Archery13%

Rifle22%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 38 at 20% — 261 animals taken by 1,275 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 — 13% success, 20 taken by 156 hunters
Rifle — 22% success, 234 taken by 1,072 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
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (resident)	100	158	63.3%	—
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	3	3	100.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (resident)	19	77	24.7%	—
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (resident)	8	103	7.8%	1
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (nonresident)	0	1	0.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season doe only (resident)	9	68	13.2%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season doe only (resident)	9	63	14.3%	—
Rifle — 4th Season doe only (nonresident)	0	1	0.0%	—
Rifle — 5th Season doe only (resident)	36	82	43.9%	—
Rifle — 5th Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	114	196	58.2%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	4	6	66.7%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident)	57	173	32.9%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident)	8	19	42.1%	—
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (resident)	59	118	50.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (nonresident)	5	9	55.6%	—
Rifle — 5th Season buck only (resident)	61	101	60.4%	—
Rifle — 5th Season buck only (nonresident)	8	8	100.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season either sex (resident)	16	161	9.9%	2
Rifle — 2nd Season either sex (nonresident)	1	6	16.7%	3
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (resident)	11	154	7.1%	1
Rifle — 2nd Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	137	253	54.2%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	6	15	40.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (resident)	6	40	15.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	1	0.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (resident)	25	46	54.3%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	1	2	50.0%	—

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

DE038O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 253 applicants for 137 licences, 54.2% drawn, no preference points needed
DM038O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, resident: 196 applicants for 114 licences, 58.2% drawn, no preference points needed
DM038O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, resident: 173 applicants for 57 licences, 32.9% drawn, no preference points needed
DE038L2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Either Sex, resident: 161 applicants for 16 licences, 9.9% drawn, 2 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 22 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 38

Unit 38 lies in Gilpin, Boulder, Clear Creek and Jefferson counties and covers about 455 square miles. Ground runs from 5,407 to 13,255 feet. CPW bounds it by USFS 149 (Rollins Pass Rd.) and Colo. 119 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put Shiras moose success here as high as 83%. Federal land covers about 24% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Shiras Moose in Unit 38

What CPW publishes for unit 38 is a boundary, not a Shiras moose map. 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 Gilpin, Boulder, Clear Creek and Jefferson counties. It runs to about 455 square miles.

The lines of the unit: USFS 149 (Rollins Pass Rd.), Colo. 119 and U.S. 40

CPW has unit 38 bounded on the north by USFS 149 (Rollins Pass Rd.) and Colo. 119, 72, 93 & 128; on the east by I-25; on the south by I-70 and U.S. 40; on the west by Continental Divide. 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: Colorado Mines Peak, Cone Mountain and Kingston Peak

Named high points inside the unit include Colorado Mines Peak at 12,486 feet, Cone Mountain at 12,231 feet, Kingston Peak at 12,130 feet, Haystack Mountain at 11,726 feet and Nebraska Hill at 11,550 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: Cumberland Gulch, Broomfield Gulch and Davenport Gulch

Below them sit Cumberland Gulch at 9,246 feet, Broomfield Gulch at 9,224 feet, Davenport Gulch at 9,172 feet, Freeman Gulch at 9,171 feet and Frazer Meadow at 9,122 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Reaching the edge of one before light beats reaching its middle at noon.

Public ground to start from: Ralston Creek SWA

Water: Lariat Spring and Charm Spring

Named sources include Lariat Spring and Charm 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-7

CPW does not manage Shiras moose unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit M-7, and unit 38 is one piece of it. The rest of M-7 is unit 20 and unit 29. 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.

Reading the land status

Unit 38 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

5,407–11,904 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 8,270 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
455.4 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

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: James Peak (13,255 ft), Mount Flora (13,112 ft), Mount Eva (13,109 ft)

Holding ground: Rogers Pass (11,869 ft), Elk Park (10,410 ft), Washoe Gulch (10,110 ft), Ralston Creek SWA, Lariat 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 38

CPW's own harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 38 at 83% 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 Dakota Hill, Oregon Hill and Fox Mountain

Take a position on one of Dakota Hill (10,921 ft), Oregon Hill (10,895 ft), Fox Mountain (10,879 ft) and Pile Hill (10,871 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. 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.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Getting past the roads

Where unit 38 sits inside M-7

Across M-7, CPW's 2023 Shiras moose success runs 83% in unit 20, 83% in unit 38 and 75% in unit 29. Nothing in the herd beat unit 38 on that measure and one unit matched it, which on a hunt this small says more about tag numbers than about animals. Success inside one herd moves with tag numbers and season length as much as with animals, so read the licence count alongside it.

The way in: USFS 149, Colo. 119 and I-25

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: USFS 149, Colo. 119, I-25, I-70 and U.S. 40. 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. Park on the boundary and walk; a unit you can only enter from its rim rewards whoever is willing to leave the truck at the rim.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks James Peak, Mount Flora and Mount Eva as places to see from, and Rogers Pass, Elk Park, Washoe Gulch and Ralston Creek 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 38

Nearest services

Black Hawk — 7.1 mi · lodging
Central City — 8.2 mi · lodging
Golden — 9 mi · fuel, groceries, gear
Leyden — 9.6 mi · fuel, groceries
Idaho Springs — 9.8 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging, gear

Developed camps

Cold Springs - Arapaho Roosevelt NF (CO) · reservable
PICKLE GULCH · reservable
KELLY DAHL · reservable
COLUMBINE CAMPGROUND · reservable

Season weather and signal

Jan38° / 18° · 0.9" precip
Aug76° / 50° · 2.4" precip
Sep69° / 43° · 1.9" precip
Oct56° / 33° · 1.5" precip
Nov45° / 24° · 1.1" precip
Dec38° / 18° · 0.9" 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.

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Moose Success Rates

All manners of take83%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 38 at 83% — 10 animals taken by 12 hunters. On a sample that small the percentage moves several points with one animal, so read the hunter count beside it.

Moose Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident)	6	48	12.5%	3
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Archery — 1st Season cow only (resident)	5	145	3.4%	3
Archery — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	1	4	25.0%	3
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull only (resident)	6	334	1.8%	3
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	1	58	1.7%	3

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

MM038O1X — Any Legal Method, 1st Season, Bull Only, resident: 334 applicants for 6 licences, 1.8% drawn, 3 preference points needed
MF038O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Cow Only, resident: 145 applicants for 5 licences, 3.4% drawn, 3 preference points needed
MM038O1X — Any Legal Method, 1st Season, Bull Only, nonresident: 58 applicants for 1 licences, 1.7% drawn, 3 preference points needed
MF038L1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Cow Only, resident: 48 applicants for 6 licences, 12.5% 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. There are 1 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 38

Unit 38 lies in Gilpin, Boulder, Clear Creek and Jefferson counties and covers about 455 square miles. Ground runs from 5,407 to 13,255 feet. CPW bounds it by USFS 149 (Rollins Pass Rd.) and Colo. 119 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 11%. Federal land covers about 24% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Elk in Unit 38

CPW draws an exact line around unit 38 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 Gilpin, Boulder, Clear Creek and Jefferson counties. It runs to about 455 square miles.

The lines of the unit: USFS 149 (Rollins Pass Rd.), Colo. 119 and U.S. 40

High ground inside the line: Yankee Hill, Montana Mountain and Dakota Hill

Named high points inside the unit include Yankee Hill at 11,228 feet, Montana Mountain at 10,947 feet, Dakota Hill at 10,921 feet, Oregon Hill at 10,895 feet and Fox Mountain at 10,879 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: Gibson Gulch, Mammoth Gulch and Eureka Gulch

Below them sit Gibson Gulch at 9,085 feet, Mammoth Gulch at 8,996 feet, Eureka Gulch at 8,905 feet, Little Hamlin Gulch at 8,769 feet and Leavenworth Gulch at 8,760 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Two you can watch from a single knob is worth more than five you have to drive between.

Public ground to start from: Ralston Creek SWA

Water: Lariat Spring and Charm Spring

Named sources include Lariat Spring and Charm 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-38

CPW does not manage elk unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit E-38, and unit 38 is one piece of it. The rest of E-38 is unit 29. 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.

Reading the land status

Unit 38 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

5,407–11,904 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 8,270 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
455.4 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

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: James Peak (13,255 ft), Mount Flora (13,112 ft), Mount Eva (13,109 ft)

Holding ground: Rogers Pass (11,869 ft), Elk Park (10,410 ft), Washoe Gulch (10,110 ft), Ralston Creek SWA, Lariat 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 38

CPW's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 38 at archery 10%, muzzleloader 8% 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 Colorado Mountain, Sheridan Hill and California Mountain

Take a position on one of Colorado Mountain (10,868 ft), Sheridan Hill (10,725 ft), California Mountain (10,642 ft) and Idaho Hill (10,534 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.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Getting past the roads

Where unit 38 sits inside E-38

Across E-38, CPW's 2023 elk success runs 28% in unit 29 and 10% in unit 38. Unit 38 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 29 carried the better number in the same herd — check its tag count before you read that as an easier hunt.

The way in: USFS 149, Colo. 119 and I-25

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: USFS 149, Colo. 119, I-25, I-70 and U.S. 40. 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. Park on the boundary and walk; a unit you can only enter from its rim rewards whoever is willing to leave the truck at the rim.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks James Peak, Mount Flora and Mount Eva as places to see from, and Rogers Pass, Elk Park, Washoe Gulch and Ralston Creek 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 38

Nearest services

Black Hawk — 7.1 mi · lodging
Central City — 8.2 mi · lodging
Golden — 9 mi · fuel, groceries, gear
Leyden — 9.6 mi · fuel, groceries
Idaho Springs — 9.8 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging, gear

Developed camps

Cold Springs - Arapaho Roosevelt NF (CO) · reservable
PICKLE GULCH · reservable
KELLY DAHL · reservable
COLUMBINE CAMPGROUND · reservable

Season weather and signal

Jan38° / 18° · 0.9" precip
Aug76° / 50° · 2.4" precip
Sep69° / 43° · 1.9" precip
Oct56° / 33° · 1.5" precip
Nov45° / 24° · 1.1" precip
Dec38° / 18° · 0.9" 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.

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 take10%

Archery10%

Muzzleloader8%

Rifle11%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 38 at 10% — 105 animals taken by 1,038 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, 49 taken by 510 hunters
Muzzleloader — 8% success, 3 taken by 37 hunters
Rifle — 11% success, 53 taken by 491 hunters

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident)	74	105	70.5%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	3	3	100.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident)	15	106	14.2%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	2	9	22.2%	2
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident)	8	121	6.6%	2
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (resident)	8	98	8.2%	2
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season bull only (resident)	6	97	6.2%	2
Rifle — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	2	11	18.2%	2
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (resident)	7	45	15.6%	—
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (nonresident)	2	12	16.7%	1
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident)	25	159	15.7%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	6	92	6.5%	2
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	1	2	50.0%	2
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	10	63	15.9%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident)	0	1	0.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (resident)	7	47	14.9%	1
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	1	3	33.3%	1
Muzzleloader — 1st Season bull only (resident)	26	59	44.1%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	4	8	50.0%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	10	14	71.4%	—

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

EF038L2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Cow Only, resident: 159 applicants for 25 licences, 15.7% drawn, no preference points needed
EF038O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Cow Only, resident: 121 applicants for 8 licences, 6.6% drawn, 2 preference points needed
EF038O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Cow Only, resident: 106 applicants for 15 licences, 14.2% drawn, no preference points needed
EF038L1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Cow Only, resident: 105 applicants for 74 licences, 70.5% 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 16 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

4 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit, including Cold Springs - Arapaho Roosevelt NF (CO), Pickle Gulch and Kelly Dahl.

🛣️

Road Conditions

Roughly 0 mi paved, 0 mi gravel and 0 mi four-wheel-drive.

🥾

Terrain Difficulty

5,407–11,904 ft, averaging 8,270. 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 69/43°F, 1.9 in.; Oct 56/33°F, 1.5 in.; Nov 45/24°F, 1.1 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

Black Hawk (7 mi), Central City (8 mi), Golden (9 mi)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 38?

Unit 38 lies in Gilpin, Boulder, Clear Creek and Jefferson counties, and CPW has it bounded on the north by USFS 149 (Rollins Pass Rd.) and Colo. 119, 72, 93 & 128; on the east by I-25; on the south by I-70 and U.S. 40; on the west by Continental Divide. It covers about 455 square miles.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 38?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 38 at 20% across all manners of take, and archery 13% and rifle 22% 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 38 hunt?

The nearest services our logistics pipeline finds for unit 38 are at Black Hawk, about 7 miles from the unit's centre, with Central City at about 8 miles. There are also 4 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit.

What is the Shiras moose success rate in unit 38?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 38 at 83% 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 38?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 38 at 10% across all manners of take, and archery 10%, muzzleloader 8% and rifle 11% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

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

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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 38, 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 Moose Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for Shiras moose in unit 38, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22
2023 Colorado Elk Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for elk in unit 38, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22