Unit 58 (West Elk / Black Canyon)

What CPW publishes for unit 58 is a boundary, not a black bear map. 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 Fremont and Park counties. It runs to about 874 square miles.

The lines of the unit: U.S. 24, Park CRs 59 and Colo. 9

CPW has unit 58 bounded on the north by U.S. 24; on the east by Park CRs 59, 102 and Colo. 9; on the south by U.S. 50 and Arkansas River; on the west by Kaufman Ridge and Badger Creek. That is a legal description, not a habitat map. Its value is practical — those are the features you will navigate by, and the ridges that separate one day's country from another's.

High ground inside the line: Waugh Mountain, Black Mountain and Thirtynine Mile Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Waugh Mountain at 11,703 feet, Black Mountain at 11,649 feet, Thirtynine Mile Mountain at 11,550 feet, Stoney Face Mountain at 11,348 feet and Loco Mountain at 11,213 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: Sheep Gulch, Cals Fork Gulch and Waugh Gulch

Below them sit Sheep Gulch at 9,181 feet, Cals Fork Gulch at 9,083 feet, Waugh Gulch at 9,020 feet, Galster Gulch at 8,979 feet and Chumway Park at 8,944 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: Agate Mountain STL, Badger Creek STL and Buffalo Gulch STL

CPW lists Agate Mountain STL, Badger Creek STL, Buffalo Gulch STL, Charlie Meyers SWA and Cottonwood Ridge 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 38% of the unit on top of those.

Water in this unit

The water inside the unit line comes to 7,980 mapped stream reaches, 24 lakes and 965 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: B-2

CPW does not manage black bear unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit B-2, and unit 58 is one piece of it. The rest of B-2 is unit 59, unit 511, unit 512, unit 581 and unit 591. 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 6,502 to 9,924 feet, and named ground inside the line runs 5,729 to 11,703 feet — take 5,729 to 11,703 as the spread, because the sample is a grid and misses both ends. With 5,974 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.

CPW publishes no black bear success figure for unit 58 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 Thirtyone Mile Mountain, Burned Timber Mountain and Hammond Peak

Take a position on one of Thirtyone Mile Mountain (10,301 ft), Burned Timber Mountain (10,056 ft), Hammond Peak (10,040 ft) and West Antelope Mountain (9,996 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. 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 7,980 mapped stream reaches and 965 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

Season normals here run Sep 70/40°F, Oct 59/29°F and Nov 47/20°F. By Nov the lows are around 20°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 0.5 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: CR 53 and US 50

US 50 and CO 9 are the paved frame, which is also where everyone else starts. There are roughly 5.5 miles of genuine four-wheel-drive road in the unit, and the country past the end of them is the part worth your legs. 12 mapped public entry points fall inside the unit, so decide which one you take before the morning you take it.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Waugh Mountain, Black Mountain, Thirtynine Mile Mountain and Stoney Face Mountain as places to see from, and Kaufman Pasture, Trout Creek Pass, Poncha Park and Agate Mountain 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 a day here costs you

874 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 Howard, about 20 miles out, which is an hour of your morning each way if you sleep there. With 3,422 feet between the lowest and highest ground, the walk back up out of a kill site is the part to plan first. Decide the night before where you will be at first light, and go there in the dark.