Colorado Moose Black Bear Mule Deer Elk

Unit 47

Colorado Hunting Guide — Moose, Black Bear, Mule Deer, Elk

Unit 47 lies in Eagle and Pitkin counties and covers about 293 square miles. Ground runs from 6,842 to 13,701 feet. CPW bounds it by Frying Pan River and Ivanhoe Creek among others. CPW's harvest estimates put Shiras moose success here as high as 100%. Federal land covers about 93% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Colorado Hunting Guide

🏔️

93%

Public Land

⛰️

8,283–12,451 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 47

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 47 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.

Moose guide Black Bear guide Mule Deer guide Elk guide

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Moose Hunting in Unit 47

Where to Find Shiras Moose in Unit 47

CPW draws an exact line around unit 47 and says nothing about where the Shiras moose stand inside it. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Eagle and Pitkin counties. It runs to about 293 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Frying Pan River, Ivanhoe Creek and Continental Divide

CPW has unit 47 bounded on the north by Frying Pan River and Ivanhoe Creek; on the east by Continental Divide; on the south by Colo. 82; on the west by Roaring Fork River. That is a legal description, not a habitat map. 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: Twining Peak, Williams Mountains and Geissler Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Twining Peak at 13,701 feet, Williams Mountains at 13,296 feet, Geissler Mountain at 13,265 feet, Mount Nast at 12,459 feet and Wildcat Mountain at 12,086 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: Kobey Park, Horse Park and Slab Park

Below them sit Kobey Park at 10,871 feet, Horse Park at 10,603 feet, Slab Park at 10,541 feet, Hunter Flats at 10,338 feet and Van Horn Park at 9,694 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 in this unit

The water inside the unit line comes to 4,587 mapped stream reaches, 14 lakes and 289 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: M-11

CPW does not manage Shiras moose unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit M-11, and unit 47 is one piece of it. The rest of M-11 is unit 44, unit 45, unit 431, unit 444 and unit 471. 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 Private / Other 100%, 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 8,283 to 12,451 feet, and named ground inside the line runs 6,842 to 13,701 feet — take 6,842 to 13,701 as the spread, because the sample is a grid and misses both ends. With 6,859 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 47 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

8,283–12,451 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 10,259 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
293.3 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

Private / Other — 100%

Roughly 0% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

289 tanks
4,587 stream segments
14 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: Twining Peak (13,701 ft), Williams Mountains (13,296 ft), Mount Nast (12,459 ft), Wildcat Mountain (12,086 ft)

Holding ground: Midway Pass (11,840 ft), South Fork Pass (11,810 ft), Sawmill Park (11,007 ft)

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 47

CPW's own harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 47 at 100% 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 Bald Knob, Sloane Peak and Cyclone Mountain

Take a position on one of Bald Knob (11,088 ft), Sloane Peak (10,498 ft), Cyclone Mountain (10,455 ft) and Red Mountain (10,411 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, late September bulls answer a cow call near water.

Water against feed

There are 4,587 mapped stream reaches and 289 tanks inside the unit, so water is rarely the limiting factor. Where water is everywhere, feed is what concentrates animals, so hunt the feed and treat water as a convenience. Check the ground around it before you commit an evening to it.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Season normals here run Sep 69/39°F, Oct 57/29°F and Nov 43/19°F. By Nov the lows are around 19°F, and the first hard storm after that moves animals off the high ground — a late tag is a bet on that storm arriving. Precipitation runs about 1.6 in. in Sep, 1.7 in. in Oct and 1.6 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: CO 82 and CR 104

CO 82 is the paved frame, which is also where everyone else starts. CR 4G / FR 505.1 and FR 527.1 need clearance, and that is usually where the boot tracks thin out. 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 47 sits inside M-11

Across M-11, CPW's 2023 Shiras moose success runs 100% in unit 44, 100% in unit 45, 100% in unit 47, 100% in unit 444 and 100% in unit 471. Nothing in the herd beat unit 47 on that measure and 4 units 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.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Twining Peak, Williams Mountains, Mount Nast and Wildcat Mountain as places to see from, and Midway Pass, South Fork Pass, Sawmill Park and Frying Pan River SWA (Fishing Lease) 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.

Getting in and staying out: unit 47

Named routes and what they need

CO 82 — 11.3 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CR 104 — 6.4 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CR 4G;FR 505.1 — 5.7 mi · High-clearance
CR 4 — 5.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
FR 527.1 — 2.5 mi · High-clearance
CR 17 — 1.3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)

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

Aspen — 6.9 mi · groceries, lodging, gear
Woody Creek — 8.9 mi · no services listed
Snowmass Village — 11.9 mi · groceries, lodging, gear
Basalt — 18.5 mi · groceries
El Jebel — 22 mi · fuel, groceries

Developed camps

CHAPMAN CAMPGROUND AND GROUP · reservable
DEARHAMER CAMPGROUND · reservable
Snowmass Area

Season weather and signal

Jan33° / 9° · 1.5" precip
Aug76° / 46° · 1.7" precip
Sep69° / 39° · 1.6" precip
Oct57° / 29° · 1.7" precip
Nov43° / 19° · 1.6" precip
Dec33° / 9° · 1.4" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 9% 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.

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 take100%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 47 at 100% — 2 animals taken by 2 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)	2	33	6.1%	3
Archery — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Archery — 1st Season cow only (resident)	2	46	4.3%	3
Archery — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull only (resident)	2	130	1.5%	3
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull only (resident)	2	141	1.4%	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 47, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

MM047S1X — Any Legal Method, 1st Season, Bull Only, resident: 141 applicants for 2 licences, 1.4% drawn, 3 preference points needed
MM047O1X — Any Legal Method, 1st Season, Bull Only, resident: 130 applicants for 2 licences, 1.5% drawn, 3 preference points needed
MF047S1A — Archery, 1st Season, Cow Only, resident: 46 applicants for 2 licences, 4.3% drawn, 3 preference points needed
MF047O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Cow Only, resident: 33 applicants for 2 licences, 6.1% 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.

Black Bear Hunting in Unit 47

Unit 47 lies in Eagle and Pitkin counties and covers about 293 square miles. Ground runs from 6,842 to 13,701 feet. CPW bounds it by Frying Pan River and Ivanhoe Creek among others. CPW publishes no per-unit black bear success figure we can verify for this unit. Federal land covers about 93% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Black Bear in Unit 47

CPW's material on unit 47 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its black bear live. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Eagle and Pitkin counties. It runs to about 293 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Frying Pan River, Ivanhoe Creek and Continental Divide

High ground inside the line: Smuggler Mountain, Mount Yeckel and Larkspur Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Smuggler Mountain at 11,925 feet, Mount Yeckel at 11,753 feet, Larkspur Mountain at 11,445 feet, Bald Knob at 11,088 feet and Sloane Peak at 10,498 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Bears follow food, which in early autumn means oakbrush, chokecherry and serviceberry on south slopes.

Holding ground: Foster Gulch, Twin Meadows and Lamont Pasture

Below them sit Foster Gulch at 9,525 feet, Twin Meadows at 9,469 feet, Lamont Pasture at 9,268 feet, Lenado Gulch at 8,782 feet and Chapman Gulch at 8,684 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Two you can watch from a single knob is worth more than five you have to drive between.

Water in this unit

The herd this unit belongs to: B-11

CPW does not manage black bear unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit B-11, and unit 47 is one piece of it. The rest of B-11 is unit 35, unit 36, unit 43, unit 44, unit 45, unit 361, unit 431 and unit 444 and 1 more. 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

Unit 47 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

8,283–12,451 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 10,259 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
293.3 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

Private / Other — 100%

Roughly 0% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

289 tanks
4,587 stream segments
14 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: Twining Peak (13,701 ft), Williams Mountains (13,296 ft), Mount Nast (12,459 ft), Wildcat Mountain (12,086 ft)

Holding ground: Midway Pass (11,840 ft), South Fork Pass (11,810 ft), Sawmill Park (11,007 ft)

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 Black Bear in Unit 47

CPW publishes no black bear success figure for unit 47 that we can tie to this unit alone, so we won't quote one. The plan: find the berry crop first, then glass it morning and evening until something is in it.

Glassing from Ford Peak, Teetum Ridge and Vagneur Mountain

Take a position on one of Ford Peak (10,392 ft), Teetum Ridge (10,380 ft), Vagneur Mountain (10,360 ft) and Riley Mountain (10,339 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. Glass the edges first, then the shaded timber, then the edges again as the light goes. On the rut hunts, September hunts coincide with the feeding push before denning.

Water against feed

There are 4,587 mapped stream reaches and 289 tanks inside the unit, so water is rarely the limiting factor. Where water is everywhere, feed is what concentrates animals, so hunt the feed and treat water as a convenience. Sitting water works where you can see fresh tracks going in, and nowhere else.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Getting past the roads: CO 82 and CR 104

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Twining Peak, Williams Mountains, Mount Nast and Wildcat Mountain as places to see from, and Midway Pass, South Fork Pass, Sawmill Park and Frying Pan River SWA (Fishing Lease) 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

293 square miles is more country than a week will cover, so pick one drainage and learn it rather than driving the unit. The nearest services are at Aspen, about 7 miles out, which is an hour of your morning each way if you sleep there. With 4,168 feet between the lowest and highest ground, the walk back up out of a kill site is the part to plan first. Leave the truck earlier than you want to and you will hunt the best half-hour of the day.

Getting in and staying out: unit 47

Named routes and what they need

CO 82 — 11.3 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CR 104 — 6.4 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CR 4G;FR 505.1 — 5.7 mi · High-clearance
CR 4 — 5.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
FR 527.1 — 2.5 mi · High-clearance
CR 17 — 1.3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)

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

Aspen — 6.9 mi · groceries, lodging, gear
Woody Creek — 8.9 mi · no services listed
Snowmass Village — 11.9 mi · groceries, lodging, gear
Basalt — 18.5 mi · groceries
El Jebel — 22 mi · fuel, groceries

Developed camps

CHAPMAN CAMPGROUND AND GROUP · reservable
DEARHAMER CAMPGROUND · reservable
Snowmass Area

Season weather and signal

Jan33° / 9° · 1.5" precip
Aug76° / 46° · 1.7" precip
Sep69° / 39° · 1.6" precip
Oct57° / 29° · 1.7" precip
Nov43° / 19° · 1.6" precip
Dec33° / 9° · 1.4" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 9% 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.

Black Bear: 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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Unlock Unit 47 black bear tactics

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Black Bear Success Rates

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates carry no black bear row for unit 47 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.

Black Bear Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	19	28	67.9%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	4	4	100.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season either sex (resident)	3	5	60.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	1	2	50.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (resident)	75	108	69.4%	—
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	11	20	55.0%	—

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 black bear in unit 47, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

BE047O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 108 applicants for 75 licences, 69.4% drawn, no preference points needed
BE047O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 28 applicants for 19 licences, 67.9% drawn, no preference points needed
BE047O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Either Sex, nonresident: 20 applicants for 11 licences, 55% drawn, no preference points needed
BE047O1M — Muzzleloader, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 5 applicants for 3 licences, 60% 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 2 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 47

Unit 47 lies in Eagle and Pitkin counties and covers about 293 square miles. Ground runs from 6,842 to 13,701 feet. CPW bounds it by Frying Pan River and Ivanhoe Creek among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 43%. Federal land covers about 93% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 47

CPW draws an exact line around unit 47 and says nothing about where the mule deer 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 Pitkin counties. It runs to about 293 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Frying Pan River, Ivanhoe Creek and Continental Divide

CPW has unit 47 bounded on the north by Frying Pan River and Ivanhoe Creek; on the east by Continental Divide; on the south by Colo. 82; on the west by Roaring Fork River. Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. 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: Cyclone Mountain, Red Mountain and Ford Peak

Named high points inside the unit include Cyclone Mountain at 10,455 feet, Red Mountain at 10,411 feet, Ford Peak at 10,392 feet, Teetum Ridge at 10,380 feet and Vagneur Mountain at 10,360 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: Bessie Park, Horseshoe Draw and Conroy Gulch

Below them sit Bessie Park at 8,431 feet, Horseshoe Draw at 8,025 feet, Conroy Gulch at 7,796 feet, Slaughterhouse Gulch at 7,715 feet and Dobson Gulch at 7,644 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 in this unit

The herd this unit belongs to: D-13

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-13, and unit 47 is one piece of it. The rest of D-13 is unit 43, unit 431 and unit 471. 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 47 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

8,283–12,451 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 10,259 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
293.3 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

Private / Other — 100%

Roughly 0% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

289 tanks
4,587 stream segments
14 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: Twining Peak (13,701 ft), Williams Mountains (13,296 ft), Mount Nast (12,459 ft), Wildcat Mountain (12,086 ft)

Holding ground: Midway Pass (11,840 ft), South Fork Pass (11,810 ft), Sawmill Park (11,007 ft)

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 47

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 47 at archery 25% and rifle 43%. 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 Thimble Rock, Triangle Peak and Twining Peak

Take a position on one of Thimble Rock (10,088 ft), Triangle Peak (9,219 ft), Twining Peak (13,701 ft) and Williams Mountains (13,296 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, late-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.

Water against feed

There are 4,587 mapped stream reaches and 289 tanks inside the unit, so water is rarely the limiting factor. Where water is everywhere, feed is what concentrates animals, so hunt the feed and treat water as a convenience. A tank with no tracks is a tank with no reason to sit on it.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Getting past the roads: CO 82 and CR 104

Where unit 47 sits inside D-13

Across D-13, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 40% in unit 43, 39% in unit 47 and 23% in unit 471. That puts unit 47 behind 1 of the 2 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 43 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 Twining Peak, Williams Mountains, Mount Nast and Wildcat Mountain as places to see from, and Midway Pass, South Fork Pass, Sawmill Park and Frying Pan River SWA (Fishing Lease) 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 47

Named routes and what they need

CO 82 — 11.3 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CR 104 — 6.4 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CR 4G;FR 505.1 — 5.7 mi · High-clearance
CR 4 — 5.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
FR 527.1 — 2.5 mi · High-clearance
CR 17 — 1.3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)

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

Aspen — 6.9 mi · groceries, lodging, gear
Woody Creek — 8.9 mi · no services listed
Snowmass Village — 11.9 mi · groceries, lodging, gear
Basalt — 18.5 mi · groceries
El Jebel — 22 mi · fuel, groceries

Developed camps

CHAPMAN CAMPGROUND AND GROUP · reservable
DEARHAMER CAMPGROUND · reservable
Snowmass Area

Season weather and signal

Jan33° / 9° · 1.5" precip
Aug76° / 46° · 1.7" precip
Sep69° / 39° · 1.6" precip
Oct57° / 29° · 1.7" precip
Nov43° / 19° · 1.6" precip
Dec33° / 9° · 1.4" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 9% 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.

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Mule Deer Success Rates

All manners of take39%

Archery25%

Rifle43%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 47 at 39% — 89 animals taken by 229 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 — 25% success, 7 taken by 27 hunters
Rifle — 43% success, 72 taken by 168 hunters

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	23	56	41.1%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	7	21	33.3%	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 mule deer in unit 47, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

DM047E1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 56 applicants for 23 licences, 41.1% drawn, no preference points needed
DM047E1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 21 applicants for 7 licences, 33.3% drawn, 3 preference points needed

Elk Hunting in Unit 47

Unit 47 lies in Eagle and Pitkin counties and covers about 293 square miles. Ground runs from 6,842 to 13,701 feet. CPW bounds it by Frying Pan River and Ivanhoe Creek among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 19%. Federal land covers about 93% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Elk in Unit 47

What CPW publishes for unit 47 is a boundary, not a elk 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 Eagle and Pitkin counties. It runs to about 293 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Frying Pan River, Ivanhoe Creek and Continental Divide

CPW has unit 47 bounded on the north by Frying Pan River and Ivanhoe Creek; on the east by Continental Divide; on the south by Colo. 82; on the west by Roaring Fork River. It tells you the shape of the unit and nothing about its inhabitants. 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: Riley Mountain, Thimble Rock and Triangle Peak

Named high points inside the unit include Riley Mountain at 10,339 feet, Thimble Rock at 10,088 feet, Triangle Peak at 9,219 feet, Twining Peak at 13,701 feet and Williams Mountains at 13,296 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: Gavin Gulch, Snyder Gulch and Red Canyon

Below them sit Gavin Gulch at 7,581 feet, Snyder Gulch at 7,428 feet, Red Canyon at 7,400 feet, Trentaz Gulch at 7,362 feet and Burke Gulch at 7,323 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 in this unit

The herd this unit belongs to: E-16

CPW does not manage elk unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit E-16, and unit 47 is one piece of it. The rest of E-16 is unit 44, unit 45 and unit 444. 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 47 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

8,283–12,451 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 10,259 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
293.3 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

Private / Other — 100%

Roughly 0% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

289 tanks
4,587 stream segments
14 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: Twining Peak (13,701 ft), Williams Mountains (13,296 ft), Mount Nast (12,459 ft), Wildcat Mountain (12,086 ft)

Holding ground: Midway Pass (11,840 ft), South Fork Pass (11,810 ft), Sawmill Park (11,007 ft)

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 47

CPW's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 47 at archery 19% and rifle 17%. 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 Geissler Mountain, Mount Nast and Wildcat Mountain

Take a position on one of Geissler Mountain (13,265 ft), Mount Nast (12,459 ft), Wildcat Mountain (12,086 ft) and Smuggler Mountain (11,925 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.

Water against feed

There are 4,587 mapped stream reaches and 289 tanks inside the unit, so water is rarely the limiting factor. Where water is everywhere, feed is what concentrates animals, so hunt the feed and treat water as a convenience. Sitting water works where you can see fresh tracks going in, and nowhere else.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Getting past the roads: CO 82 and CR 104

Where unit 47 sits inside E-16

Across E-16, CPW's 2023 elk success runs 17% in unit 47, 17% in unit 444, 15% in unit 45 and 14% in unit 44. Nothing in the herd beat unit 47 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.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Twining Peak, Williams Mountains, Mount Nast and Wildcat Mountain as places to see from, and Midway Pass, South Fork Pass, Sawmill Park and Frying Pan River SWA (Fishing Lease) 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.

Getting in and staying out: unit 47

Named routes and what they need

CO 82 — 11.3 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CR 104 — 6.4 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CR 4G;FR 505.1 — 5.7 mi · High-clearance
CR 4 — 5.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
FR 527.1 — 2.5 mi · High-clearance
CR 17 — 1.3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)

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

Aspen — 6.9 mi · groceries, lodging, gear
Woody Creek — 8.9 mi · no services listed
Snowmass Village — 11.9 mi · groceries, lodging, gear
Basalt — 18.5 mi · groceries
El Jebel — 22 mi · fuel, groceries

Developed camps

CHAPMAN CAMPGROUND AND GROUP · reservable
DEARHAMER CAMPGROUND · reservable
Snowmass Area

Season weather and signal

Jan33° / 9° · 1.5" precip
Aug76° / 46° · 1.7" precip
Sep69° / 39° · 1.6" precip
Oct57° / 29° · 1.7" precip
Nov43° / 19° · 1.6" precip
Dec33° / 9° · 1.4" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 9% 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 take17%

Archery19%

Rifle17%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 47 at 17% — 77 animals taken by 440 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 — 19% success, 21 taken by 109 hunters
Rifle — 17% success, 53 taken by 307 hunters

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (resident)	19	31	61.3%	—
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (nonresident)	19	29	65.5%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident)	53	93	57.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident)	12	49	24.5%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	28	62	45.2%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	4	6	66.7%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	10	35	28.6%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident)	0	1	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 47, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

EF047O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Cow Only, resident: 93 applicants for 53 licences, 57% drawn, no preference points needed
EF047O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Cow Only, resident: 62 applicants for 28 licences, 45.2% drawn, no preference points needed
EF047O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Cow Only, nonresident: 49 applicants for 12 licences, 24.5% drawn, no preference points needed
EF047O4R — Rifle, 4th Season, Cow Only, resident: 35 applicants for 10 licences, 28.6% 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 4 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

3 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit, including Chapman Campground And Group, Dearhamer Campground and Snowmass Area.

🛣️

Road Conditions

CO 82, CR 104 and CR 4G / FR 505.1 are the named routes in the unit. Roughly 24 mi paved, 13 mi gravel and 3 mi four-wheel-drive.

🥾

Terrain Difficulty

8,283–12,451 ft, averaging 10,259. 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 69/39°F, 1.6 in.; Oct 57/29°F, 1.7 in.; Nov 43/19°F, 1.6 in..

📱

Cell Service

Verizon 9%, AT&T 6%, T-Mobile 3% of the unit area — modelled coverage, not measured. Assume no signal off the paved road.

🏘️

Nearest Town

Aspen (7 mi), Woody Creek (9 mi), Snowmass Village (12 mi)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 47?

Unit 47 lies in Eagle and Pitkin counties, and CPW has it bounded on the north by Frying Pan River and Ivanhoe Creek; on the east by Continental Divide; on the south by Colo. 82; on the west by Roaring Fork River. It covers about 293 square miles.

What is the Shiras moose success rate in unit 47?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 47 at 100% across all manners of take. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

Where do you stay and resupply for a unit 47 hunt?

The nearest services our logistics pipeline finds for unit 47 are at Aspen, about 7 miles from the unit's centre, with Woody Creek at about 9 miles. There are also 3 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit.

What is the black bear success rate in unit 47?

CPW publishes no black bear success figure we can tie to unit 47 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.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 47?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 47 at 39% across all manners of take, and archery 25% and rifle 43% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the elk success rate in unit 47?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 47 at 17% across all manners of take, and archery 19% and rifle 17% 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 47, 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 47, 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 47, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22