Colorado Pronghorn Mule Deer Elk Moose Black Bear

Unit 48 (Leadville)

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

Unit 48 lies in Lake and Chaffee counties and covers about 300 square miles. Ground runs from 9,097 to 14,415 feet. CPW bounds it by Continental Divide and Tennessee Creek among others. CPW's harvest estimates put pronghorn success here as high as 42%. Federal land covers about 88% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Colorado Hunting Guide

🏔️

88%

Public Land

⛰️

9,288–12,373 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 48

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 48 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.

Pronghorn guide Mule Deer guide Elk guide Moose guide Black Bear guide

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Pronghorn Hunting in Unit 48

Where to Find Pronghorn in Unit 48

What CPW publishes for unit 48 is a boundary, not a pronghorn map. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Lake and Chaffee counties. It runs to about 300 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Continental Divide, Tennessee Creek and Arkansas River

CPW has unit 48 bounded on the north by Continental Divide; on the east by Tennessee Creek and Arkansas River; on the south by Clear Creek and South Fork of Clear Creek; 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: Mount Elbert, Sawatch Range and Mount Massive

Named high points inside the unit include Mount Elbert at 14,415 feet, Sawatch Range at 14,409 feet, Mount Massive at 14,368 feet, Gannett Peak (not official) at 14,364 feet and La Plata Peak at 14,316 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Pronghorn stay on the open rolling ground and leave the timber alone.

Holding ground: Peekaboo Gulch, Lackawanna Gulch and Mountain Boy Gulch

Below them sit Peekaboo Gulch at 10,960 feet, Lackawanna Gulch at 10,808 feet, Mountain Boy Gulch at 10,797 feet, McNasser Gulch at 10,791 feet and Kearney Park at 10,636 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Two you can watch from a single knob is worth more than five you have to drive between.

Public ground to start from: Box Creek STL and Crystal Lake STL

CPW lists Box Creek STL and Crystal Lake STL 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 2,796 mapped stream reaches, 25 lakes and 517 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: A-39

CPW does not manage pronghorn unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit A-39, and unit 48 is one piece of it. The rest of A-39 is unit 56 and unit 481. 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 9,288 to 12,373 feet, and named ground inside the line runs 9,097 to 14,415 feet — take 9,097 to 14,415 as the spread, because the sample is a grid and misses both ends. With 5,318 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 48 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

9,288–12,373 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 10,601 ft ; peaks can run higher.
299.6 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

517 tanks
2,796 stream segments
25 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 Elbert (14,415 ft), Mount Massive (14,368 ft), La Plata Peak (14,316 ft), Mount Hope (13,928 ft)

Holding ground: Mountain Boy Park (12,151 ft), La Plata Basin (11,993 ft), Hagerman Pass (11,941 ft), Box Creek STL

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 Pronghorn in Unit 48

CPW's own harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 48 at 42% across all manners of take. That is an ordinary spread for this country, and it rewards whoever scouted. The plan: spot from a vehicle or a rise at distance, then plan a stalk that uses the only cover there is — the curve of the ground.

Glassing from Mount Oklahoma, Rinker Peak and Bull Hill

Take a position on one of Mount Oklahoma (13,833 ft), Rinker Peak (13,732 ft), Bull Hill (13,729 ft) and Garfield Peak (13,725 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, early-season bucks hold does and can be decoyed where the law allows it.

Water against feed

There are 2,796 mapped stream reaches and 517 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 63/34°F, Oct 52/25°F and Nov 41/15°F. By Nov the lows are around 15°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 1.2 in. in Sep, 0.9 in. in Oct and 0.7 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: CR 4 / FR 105 and FR 145

US 24 is the paved frame, which is also where everyone else starts. CR 4 / FR 105 and FR 145 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. 4 mapped public entry points fall inside the unit, so decide which one you take before the morning you take it.

Where unit 48 sits inside A-39

Across A-39, CPW's 2023 pronghorn success runs 42% in unit 48, 20% in unit 481 and 0% in unit 56. Unit 48 is the best of them on that measure, which usually means fewer tags rather than more 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 Mount Elbert, Mount Massive, La Plata Peak and Mount Hope as places to see from, and Mountain Boy Park, La Plata Basin, Hagerman Pass and Box Creek STL 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 48

Named routes and what they need

CR 4;FR 105 — 2.8 mi · High-clearance
FR 145 — 1.9 mi · High-clearance
US 24 — 1.6 mi · Paved (all rigs)

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

Leadville — 11.1 mi · fuel, groceries
Leadville North — 11.2 mi · fuel, groceries
Aspen — 21.5 mi · groceries, lodging, gear
Alma — 22.4 mi · no services listed
Fairplay — 23.9 mi · fuel, groceries

Developed camps

May Queen Campground · reservable
Unnamed camp site
Parry Peak Campground
Twin Peaks Campground
Sugar Loafin' RV Park

Season weather and signal

Jan32° / 5° · 0.6" precip
Aug70° / 40° · 1.7" precip
Sep63° / 34° · 1.2" precip
Oct52° / 25° · 0.9" precip
Nov41° / 15° · 0.7" precip
Dec32° / 7° · 0.7" 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.

Pronghorn: where to put the shot

Broadside, straight up the front leg, a third of the way into the body. Pronghorn are shallow-chested and the lungs sit forward.

Shots to refuse

Range it, then range it again. Open country makes 400 yards look like 250.
Wait for the buck to stop. Nobody kills a running pronghorn cleanly on purpose.
Mind the backdrop. A miss carries a long way across a flat.

Plan the carry: roughly 30– 45 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — one large cooler with ice already in it. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Unlock pronghorn hunting tactics for Unit 48

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Pronghorn Success Rates

All manners of take42%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 48 at 42% — 10 animals taken by 23 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.

Pronghorn Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (resident)	18	28	64.3%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (resident)	6	42	14.3%	2
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	2	6	33.3%	4
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (resident)	16	171	9.4%	2
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	7	293	2.4%	10
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	1	14	7.1%	9
Archery — 1st Season doe only (resident)	31	48	64.6%	—
Archery — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Archery — 1st Season buck only (resident)	32	85	37.6%	—
Archery — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	0	10	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 pronghorn in unit 48, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

AM048O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 293 applicants for 7 licences, 2.4% drawn, 10 preference points needed
AF048O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Doe Only, resident: 171 applicants for 16 licences, 9.4% drawn, 2 preference points needed
AM048O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 85 applicants for 32 licences, 37.6% drawn, no preference points needed
AF048O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Doe Only, resident: 48 applicants for 31 licences, 64.6% 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 5 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 48

Unit 48 lies in Lake and Chaffee counties and covers about 300 square miles. Ground runs from 9,097 to 14,415 feet. CPW bounds it by Continental Divide and Tennessee Creek among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 46%. Federal land covers about 88% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 48

CPW's material on unit 48 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 Lake and Chaffee counties. It runs to about 300 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Continental Divide, Tennessee Creek and Arkansas River

High ground inside the line: Mount Hope, French Mountain and Casco Peak

Named high points inside the unit include Mount Hope at 13,928 feet, French Mountain at 13,886 feet, Casco Peak at 13,874 feet, Mount Oklahoma at 13,833 feet and Rinker Peak at 13,732 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: Sayres Gulch, Graham Gulch and Negro Gulch

Below them sit Sayres Gulch at 10,483 feet, Graham Gulch at 10,455 feet, Negro Gulch at 10,408 feet, Little Willis Gulch at 10,277 feet and Lulu Gulch at 10,270 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Work out which of them you can see from one position before you pick a camp.

Public ground to start from: Box Creek STL and Crystal Lake STL

Water in this unit

The herd this unit belongs to: D-15

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-15, and unit 48 is one piece of it. The rest of D-15 is unit 56, unit 481 and unit 561. 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 48 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

9,288–12,373 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 10,601 ft ; peaks can run higher.
299.6 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

517 tanks
2,796 stream segments
25 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 Elbert (14,415 ft), Mount Massive (14,368 ft), La Plata Peak (14,316 ft), Mount Hope (13,928 ft)

Holding ground: Mountain Boy Park (12,151 ft), La Plata Basin (11,993 ft), Hagerman Pass (11,941 ft), Box Creek STL

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 48

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 48 at archery 5% and rifle 46%. 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 Deer Mountain, Twining Peak and Mount Champion

Take a position on one of Deer Mountain (13,722 ft), Twining Peak (13,701 ft), Mount Champion (13,628 ft) and Mount Blaurock (13,575 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-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.

Water against feed

There are 2,796 mapped stream reaches and 517 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: CR 4 / FR 105 and FR 145

Where unit 48 sits inside D-15

Across D-15, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 44% in unit 481, 37% in unit 56, 33% in unit 48 and 26% in unit 561. That puts unit 48 behind 2 of the 3 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 481 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 Mount Elbert, Mount Massive, La Plata Peak and Mount Hope as places to see from, and Mountain Boy Park, La Plata Basin, Hagerman Pass and Box Creek STL 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 48

Named routes and what they need

CR 4;FR 105 — 2.8 mi · High-clearance
FR 145 — 1.9 mi · High-clearance
US 24 — 1.6 mi · Paved (all rigs)

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

Leadville — 11.1 mi · fuel, groceries
Leadville North — 11.2 mi · fuel, groceries
Aspen — 21.5 mi · groceries, lodging, gear
Alma — 22.4 mi · no services listed
Fairplay — 23.9 mi · fuel, groceries

Developed camps

May Queen Campground · reservable
Unnamed camp site
Parry Peak Campground
Twin Peaks Campground
Sugar Loafin' RV Park

Season weather and signal

Jan32° / 5° · 0.6" precip
Aug70° / 40° · 1.7" precip
Sep63° / 34° · 1.2" precip
Oct52° / 25° · 0.9" precip
Nov41° / 15° · 0.7" precip
Dec32° / 7° · 0.7" 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.

Pro Members Only

Unlock mule deer tactics for Unit 48

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Mule Deer Success Rates

All manners of take33%

Archery5%

Rifle46%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 48 at 33% — 67 animals taken by 205 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 — 5% success, 2 taken by 38 hunters
Rifle — 46% success, 66 taken by 143 hunters

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (resident)	8	127	6.3%	1
Muzzleloader — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	7	0.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (resident)	63	218	28.9%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	22	57	38.6%	1
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	16	185	8.6%	8
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	4	39	10.3%	12
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	230	961	23.9%	1
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	40	143	28.0%	1
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident)	142	868	16.4%	1
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident)	30	100	30.0%	1
Archery — 1st Season buck only (resident)	141	402	35.1%	—
Archery — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	39	94	41.5%	—

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

DM048O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, resident: 961 applicants for 230 licences, 23.9% drawn, 1 preference point needed
DM048O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, resident: 868 applicants for 142 licences, 16.4% drawn, 1 preference point needed
DM048O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 402 applicants for 141 licences, 35.1% drawn, no preference points needed
DM048O1M — Muzzleloader, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 218 applicants for 63 licences, 28.9% 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 8 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 48

Unit 48 lies in Lake and Chaffee counties and covers about 300 square miles. Ground runs from 9,097 to 14,415 feet. CPW bounds it by Continental Divide and Tennessee Creek among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 35%. 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 48

What CPW publishes for unit 48 is a boundary, not a elk map. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Lake and Chaffee counties. It runs to about 300 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Continental Divide, Tennessee Creek and Arkansas River

CPW has unit 48 bounded on the north by Continental Divide; on the east by Tennessee Creek and Arkansas River; on the south by Clear Creek and South Fork of Clear Creek; on the west by Continental Divide. That is a legal description, not a habitat map. 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: Bull Hill, Garfield Peak and Deer Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Bull Hill at 13,729 feet, Garfield Peak at 13,725 feet, Deer Mountain at 13,722 feet, Twining Peak at 13,701 feet and Mount Champion at 13,628 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: Shingle Mill Gulch, La Plata Gulch and Crane Park

Below them sit Shingle Mill Gulch at 10,138 feet, La Plata Gulch at 10,117 feet, Crane Park at 10,116 feet, Hayden Gulch at 10,039 feet and Buffalo Park at 10,004 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Reaching the edge of one before light beats reaching its middle at noon.

Public ground to start from: Box Creek STL and Crystal Lake STL

Water in this unit

The herd this unit belongs to: E-17

CPW does not manage elk unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit E-17, and unit 48 is one piece of it. The rest of E-17 is unit 56, unit 481 and unit 561. 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 48 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

9,288–12,373 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 10,601 ft ; peaks can run higher.
299.6 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

517 tanks
2,796 stream segments
25 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 Elbert (14,415 ft), Mount Massive (14,368 ft), La Plata Peak (14,316 ft), Mount Hope (13,928 ft)

Holding ground: Mountain Boy Park (12,151 ft), La Plata Basin (11,993 ft), Hagerman Pass (11,941 ft), Box Creek STL

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 48

CPW's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 48 at archery 11%, muzzleloader 34% and rifle 35%. That is an ordinary spread for this country, and it rewards whoever scouted. 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 Mount Cosgriff, Ellingwood Ridge and Ervin Peak

Take a position on one of Mount Cosgriff (13,564 ft), Ellingwood Ridge (13,561 ft), Ervin Peak (13,507 ft) and Red Mountain (13,460 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, September bugling works where you can get above a drainage and let the thermals carry sound downhill.

Water against feed

There are 2,796 mapped stream reaches and 517 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: CR 4 / FR 105 and FR 145

Where unit 48 sits inside E-17

Across E-17, CPW's 2023 elk success runs 29% in unit 48, 22% in unit 481, 21% in unit 56 and 19% in unit 561. Unit 48 is the best of them on that measure, which usually means fewer tags rather than more 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 Mount Elbert, Mount Massive, La Plata Peak and Mount Hope as places to see from, and Mountain Boy Park, La Plata Basin, Hagerman Pass and Box Creek STL 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 48

Named routes and what they need

CR 4;FR 105 — 2.8 mi · High-clearance
FR 145 — 1.9 mi · High-clearance
US 24 — 1.6 mi · Paved (all rigs)

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

Leadville — 11.1 mi · fuel, groceries
Leadville North — 11.2 mi · fuel, groceries
Aspen — 21.5 mi · groceries, lodging, gear
Alma — 22.4 mi · no services listed
Fairplay — 23.9 mi · fuel, groceries

Developed camps

May Queen Campground · reservable
Unnamed camp site
Parry Peak Campground
Twin Peaks Campground
Sugar Loafin' RV Park

Season weather and signal

Jan32° / 5° · 0.6" precip
Aug70° / 40° · 1.7" precip
Sep63° / 34° · 1.2" precip
Oct52° / 25° · 0.9" precip
Nov41° / 15° · 0.7" precip
Dec32° / 7° · 0.7" 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 take29%

Archery11%

Muzzleloader34%

Rifle35%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 48 at 29% — 97 animals taken by 339 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 — 11% success, 10 taken by 90 hunters
Muzzleloader — 34% success, 20 taken by 58 hunters
Rifle — 35% success, 67 taken by 191 hunters

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	76	274	27.7%	1
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	26	122	21.3%	3
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (resident)	22	82	26.8%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	7	18	38.9%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season bull only (resident)	28	117	23.9%	2
Muzzleloader — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	9	47	19.1%	8
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident)	32	220	14.5%	1
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident)	5	13	38.5%	1
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	26	133	19.5%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident)	0	1	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season bull only (resident)	36	246	14.6%	4
Rifle — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	11	92	12.0%	8
Rifle — 2nd Season bull only (resident)	12	170	7.1%	2
Rifle — 2nd Season bull only (nonresident)	4	39	10.3%	4
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	20	145	13.8%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	1	6	16.7%	3
Rifle — 3rd Season bull only (resident)	7	94	7.4%	2
Rifle — 3rd Season bull only (nonresident)	2	16	12.5%	2
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (resident)	8	48	16.7%	—
Rifle — 4th Season bull only (nonresident)	1	4	25.0%	1

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

EE048O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 274 applicants for 76 licences, 27.7% drawn, 1 preference point needed
EM048O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Bull Only, resident: 246 applicants for 36 licences, 14.6% drawn, 4 preference points needed
EF048O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Cow Only, resident: 220 applicants for 32 licences, 14.5% drawn, 1 preference point needed
EM048O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Bull Only, resident: 170 applicants for 12 licences, 7.1% 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 16 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 48

Unit 48 lies in Lake and Chaffee counties and covers about 300 square miles. Ground runs from 9,097 to 14,415 feet. CPW bounds it by Continental Divide and Tennessee Creek among others. CPW publishes no per-unit Shiras moose success figure we can verify for this unit. Federal land covers about 88% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Shiras Moose in Unit 48

What CPW publishes for unit 48 is a boundary, not a Shiras moose map. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Lake and Chaffee counties. It runs to about 300 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Continental Divide, Tennessee Creek and Arkansas River

CPW has unit 48 bounded on the north by Continental Divide; on the east by Tennessee Creek and Arkansas River; on the south by Clear Creek and South Fork of Clear Creek; on the west by Continental Divide. 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: Mount Blaurock, Mount Cosgriff and Ellingwood Ridge

Named high points inside the unit include Mount Blaurock at 13,575 feet, Mount Cosgriff at 13,564 feet, Ellingwood Ridge at 13,561 feet, Ervin Peak at 13,507 feet and Red Mountain at 13,460 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: Echo Canyon, Longs Gulch and Hewitts Gulch

Below them sit Echo Canyon at 9,975 feet, Longs Gulch at 9,951 feet, Hewitts Gulch at 9,933 feet, Porcupine Gulch at 9,876 feet and Little Porcupine Gulch at 9,875 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: Box Creek STL and Crystal Lake STL

Water in this unit

The herd this unit belongs to: M-12

CPW does not manage Shiras moose unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit M-12, and unit 48 is one piece of it. The rest of M-12 is unit 55, unit 56, unit 481, unit 551 and unit 561. 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 48 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

9,288–12,373 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 10,601 ft ; peaks can run higher.
299.6 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

517 tanks
2,796 stream segments
25 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 Elbert (14,415 ft), Mount Massive (14,368 ft), La Plata Peak (14,316 ft), Mount Hope (13,928 ft)

Holding ground: Mountain Boy Park (12,151 ft), La Plata Basin (11,993 ft), Hagerman Pass (11,941 ft), Box Creek STL

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 48

CPW publishes no Shiras moose success figure for unit 48 that we can tie to this unit alone, so we won't quote one. 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 Quail Mountain, Twin Peaks and Homestake Peak

Take a position on one of Quail Mountain (13,459 ft), Twin Peaks (13,323 ft), Homestake Peak (13,191 ft) and Virginia Peak (13,066 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, late September bulls answer a cow call near water.

Water against feed

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Getting past the roads: CR 4 / FR 105 and FR 145

A first plan from the pins on this page

What a day here costs you

300 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 Leadville, about 11 miles out, which is an hour of your morning each way if you sleep there. With 3,085 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 48

Named routes and what they need

CR 4;FR 105 — 2.8 mi · High-clearance
FR 145 — 1.9 mi · High-clearance
US 24 — 1.6 mi · Paved (all rigs)

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

Leadville — 11.1 mi · fuel, groceries
Leadville North — 11.2 mi · fuel, groceries
Aspen — 21.5 mi · groceries, lodging, gear
Alma — 22.4 mi · no services listed
Fairplay — 23.9 mi · fuel, groceries

Developed camps

May Queen Campground · reservable
Unnamed camp site
Parry Peak Campground
Twin Peaks Campground
Sugar Loafin' RV Park

Season weather and signal

Jan32° / 5° · 0.6" precip
Aug70° / 40° · 1.7" precip
Sep63° / 34° · 1.2" precip
Oct52° / 25° · 0.9" precip
Nov41° / 15° · 0.7" precip
Dec32° / 7° · 0.7" 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.

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

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates carry no Shiras moose row for unit 48 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.

Moose Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull only (resident)	4	403	1.0%	3
Any Legal Method — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Archery — 1st Season cow only (resident)	1	231	0.4%	3
Archery — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—

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

Open in Draw Odds Engine

CPW's 2026 draw recap for Shiras moose in unit 48, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

MM048O1X — Any Legal Method, 1st Season, Bull Only, resident: 403 applicants for 4 licences, 1% drawn, 3 preference points needed
MF048O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Cow Only, resident: 231 applicants for 1 licences, 0.4% 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 48

Unit 48 lies in Lake and Chaffee counties and covers about 300 square miles. Ground runs from 9,097 to 14,415 feet. CPW bounds it by Continental Divide and Tennessee Creek among others. CPW publishes no per-unit black bear success figure we can verify for this unit. Federal land covers about 88% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Black Bear in Unit 48

What CPW publishes for unit 48 is a boundary, not a black bear 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 Lake and Chaffee counties. It runs to about 300 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Continental Divide, Tennessee Creek and Arkansas River

CPW has unit 48 bounded on the north by Continental Divide; on the east by Tennessee Creek and Arkansas River; on the south by Clear Creek and South Fork of Clear Creek; on the west by Continental Divide. That is a legal description, not a habitat map. 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: Quail Mountain, Twin Peaks and Homestake Peak

Named high points inside the unit include Quail Mountain at 13,459 feet, Twin Peaks at 13,323 feet, Homestake Peak at 13,191 feet, Virginia Peak at 13,066 feet and Winfield Peak at 13,062 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: Monitor Gulch, Gleason Gulch and Temple Gulch

Below them sit Monitor Gulch at 9,843 feet, Gleason Gulch at 9,832 feet, Temple Gulch at 9,819 feet, Sheep Gulch at 9,816 feet and Saint Kevin Gulch at 9,813 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: Box Creek STL and Crystal Lake STL

Water in this unit

The herd this unit belongs to: B-14

CPW does not manage black bear unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit B-14, and unit 48 is one piece of it. The rest of B-14 is unit 49, unit 56, unit 57, unit 481 and unit 561. 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 48 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

9,288–12,373 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 10,601 ft ; peaks can run higher.
299.6 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

517 tanks
2,796 stream segments
25 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 Elbert (14,415 ft), Mount Massive (14,368 ft), La Plata Peak (14,316 ft), Mount Hope (13,928 ft)

Holding ground: Mountain Boy Park (12,151 ft), La Plata Basin (11,993 ft), Hagerman Pass (11,941 ft), Box Creek STL

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 48

CPW publishes no black bear success figure for unit 48 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 Winfield Peak, Middle Mountain and Ouray Peak

Take a position on one of Winfield Peak (13,062 ft), Middle Mountain (13,055 ft), Ouray Peak (12,927 ft) and Star Mountain (12,918 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, September hunts coincide with the feeding push before denning.

Water against feed

There are 2,796 mapped stream reaches and 517 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: CR 4 / FR 105 and FR 145

A first plan from the pins on this page

What a day here costs you

Getting in and staying out: unit 48

Named routes and what they need

CR 4;FR 105 — 2.8 mi · High-clearance
FR 145 — 1.9 mi · High-clearance
US 24 — 1.6 mi · Paved (all rigs)

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

Leadville — 11.1 mi · fuel, groceries
Leadville North — 11.2 mi · fuel, groceries
Aspen — 21.5 mi · groceries, lodging, gear
Alma — 22.4 mi · no services listed
Fairplay — 23.9 mi · fuel, groceries

Developed camps

May Queen Campground · reservable
Unnamed camp site
Parry Peak Campground
Twin Peaks Campground
Sugar Loafin' RV Park

Season weather and signal

Jan32° / 5° · 0.6" precip
Aug70° / 40° · 1.7" precip
Sep63° / 34° · 1.2" precip
Oct52° / 25° · 0.9" precip
Nov41° / 15° · 0.7" precip
Dec32° / 7° · 0.7" 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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Black Bear Success Rates

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates carry no black bear row for unit 48 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)	83	105	79.0%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	11	20	55.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season either sex (resident)	37	60	61.7%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	4	9	44.4%	—
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (resident)	219	343	63.8%	—
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	10	14	71.4%	—
Rifle — 5th Season either sex (resident)	131	207	63.3%	—
Rifle — 5th Season either sex (nonresident)	13	18	72.2%	—

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

BE048O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 343 applicants for 219 licences, 63.8% drawn, no preference points needed
BE048O5R — Rifle, 5th Season, Either Sex, resident: 207 applicants for 131 licences, 63.3% drawn, no preference points needed
BE048O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 105 applicants for 83 licences, 79% drawn, no preference points needed
BE048O1M — Muzzleloader, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 60 applicants for 37 licences, 61.7% 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

147 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit, including May Queen Campground, Parry Peak Campground and Twin Peaks Campground.

🛣️

Road Conditions

CR 4 / FR 105, FR 145 and US 24 are the named routes in the unit. Roughly 2 mi paved, 5 mi gravel and 0 mi four-wheel-drive.

🥾

Terrain Difficulty

9,288–12,373 ft, averaging 10,601. Enough relief to separate summer from winter range.

👥

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 63/34°F, 1.2 in.; Oct 52/25°F, 0.9 in.; Nov 41/15°F, 0.7 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

Leadville (11 mi), Leadville North (11 mi), Aspen (22 mi)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 48?

Unit 48 lies in Lake and Chaffee counties, and CPW has it bounded on the north by Continental Divide; on the east by Tennessee Creek and Arkansas River; on the south by Clear Creek and South Fork of Clear Creek; on the west by Continental Divide. It covers about 300 square miles.

What is the pronghorn success rate in unit 48?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 48 at 42% 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 48 hunt?

The nearest services our logistics pipeline finds for unit 48 are at Leadville, about 11 miles from the unit's centre, with Leadville North at about 11 miles. There are also 147 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 48?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 48 at 33% across all manners of take, and archery 5% and rifle 46% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the elk success rate in unit 48?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 48 at 29% across all manners of take, and archery 11%, muzzleloader 34% and rifle 35% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the Shiras moose success rate in unit 48?

CPW publishes no Shiras moose success figure we can tie to unit 48 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 black bear success rate in unit 48?

CPW publishes no black bear success figure we can tie to unit 48 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.

Free Hunt Planning Tools

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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 Pronghorn Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for pronghorn in unit 48, 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 48, 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 48, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22