Colorado Mule Deer Elk

Unit 64

Colorado Hunting Guide — Mule Deer, Elk

Unit 64 lies in Delta and Montrose counties and covers about 268 square miles. Ground runs from 5,089 to 9,715 feet. CPW bounds it by Colo. 92 to Gunnison River and Big Blue Creek among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 50%. Federal land covers about 44% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Colorado Hunting Guide

🏔️

44%

Public Land

⛰️

5,089–8,137 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 64

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 64 guide around your hunt: three ranked spots with morning, afternoon and evening plays, a day-by-day plan, topo maps with every pin numbered, a camp and access plan, the legal and retrieval rules for this unit, shot discipline, a meat-care and pack-out plan, and a pre-trip checklist. Every coordinate sits on land recorded as public.

Mule Deer guide Elk guide

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Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 64

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 64

What CPW publishes for unit 64 is a boundary, not a mule deer 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 Delta and Montrose counties. It runs to about 268 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Colo. 92 to Gunnison River, Big Blue Creek and U.S. 50

CPW has unit 64 bounded on the north and east by Colo. 92 to Gunnison River, south to Morrow Point Res.; on the east by Big Blue Creek; on the south and west by U.S. 50. Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. 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: Poverty Mesa, Sheep Knob and Fitzpatrick Mesa

Named high points inside the unit include Poverty Mesa at 9,715 feet, Sheep Knob at 9,518 feet, Fitzpatrick Mesa at 9,393 feet, Coffee Pot Hill at 9,002 feet and Curecanti Needle at 7,536 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Mule deer on open country use every fold and draw there is, and almost none of the flat.

Holding ground: Pool Gulch, Ellison Gulch and Peach Valley

Below them sit Pool Gulch at 6,746 feet, Ellison Gulch at 6,685 feet, Peach Valley at 5,047 feet, Upper Bostwick Park at 7,333 feet and Piñon Springs Draw at 7,194 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Reaching the edge of one before light beats reaching its middle at noon.

Water: Lions Spring and Round Corral Spring

Named sources include Lions Spring and Round Corral Spring. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

The herd this unit belongs to: D-40

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-40, and unit 64 is one piece of it. The rest of D-40 is unit 65. 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

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 5,089 to 8,137 feet, and named ground inside the line runs 5,047 to 9,715 feet — take 5,089 to 9,715 as the spread, because the sample is a grid and walks past summits. With 4,626 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 64 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

5,089–8,137 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 6,085 ft ; peaks can run higher.
268.3 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

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: Sheep Knob (9,518 ft), Curecanti Needle (7,536 ft), Red Rocks (6,865 ft), Flat Top (6,320 ft)

Holding ground: Pool Gulch (6,746 ft), Lions Spring, Round Corral Spring

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

How to Hunt Mule Deer in Unit 64

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 64 at archery 10% and rifle 50%. A number like that comes from few tags and a short season, not from easy hunting. The plan: glass the broken edges at first light, then sit still and keep glassing the same ground.

Glassing from East Mesa, Smiths Mountain and Garnet Mesa

Take a position on one of East Mesa (5,641 ft), Smiths Mountain (5,640 ft), Garnet Mesa (5,223 ft) and Poverty Mesa (9,715 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. 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.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Season normals here run Sep 73/45°F, Oct 60/34°F and Nov 46/24°F. Warm afternoons compress the hunting into the first and last hour, and make meat care the day's real problem rather than the shot. Precipitation runs about 1.8 in. in Sep, 1.6 in. in Oct and 1.3 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: US 50 and East Portal Road

US 50 is the paved frame, which is also where everyone else starts. 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 64 sits inside D-40

Across D-40, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 45% in unit 64 and 45% in unit 65. Nothing in the herd beat unit 64 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 Sheep Knob, Curecanti Needle, Red Rocks and Flat Top as places to see from, and Pool Gulch, Delta SWA, Lions Spring and Round Corral Spring 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 a day here costs you

268 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 Montrose, about 8 miles out, which is an hour of your morning each way if you sleep there. With 3,048 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 64

Named routes and what they need

US 50 — 15.2 mi · Paved (all rigs)
East Portal Road — 5.3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Pioneer Road — 1.6 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Amber Road — 1.6 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Falcon Road — 1.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
O74 RD — 1.5 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

Montrose — 8.4 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging, gear
Olathe — 9.2 mi · no services listed
Crawford — 13.5 mi · fuel, groceries
Hotchkiss — 15.4 mi · no services listed
Delta — 17.7 mi · fuel

Developed camps

Unnamed camp site
Cottonwood Grove Campground
Chukar
East Portal Campground · Fee
Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan35° / 14° · 1.3" precip
Aug81° / 53° · 1.5" precip
Sep73° / 45° · 1.8" precip
Oct60° / 34° · 1.6" precip
Nov46° / 24° · 1.3" precip
Dec35° / 15° · 1.3" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 21% of the unit. Plan on being out of contact and tell someone your route.

Colorado rules that decide your day

Summarised from CPW regulations. They change — read the current regulations and your permit-tag before you hunt.

Legal shooting hours

Big game may be taken from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset.

Motorized retrieval

Colorado has no general off-road retrieval allowance. Travel stays on designated routes, so plan to pack every animal out on your back or with stock. Check the forest or BLM travel map for the roads that are actually open in hunting season.

Tagging

Validate and attach your carcass tag before the animal is moved, and keep evidence of sex attached until the carcass reaches your home or a processor.

Leaving meat

Abandoning edible meat is illegal. CPW counts the four quarters and the loins.

Where you may not shoot

Occupied structures — No discharging a firearm within 50 yards of a developed campsite, and never toward an occupied building.
Roads — No shooting from or across a public road, and no shooting from a motor vehicle.

Mule Deer: where to put the shot

Broadside or quartering away, on the back edge of the front leg about a third of the way up the body.

Shots to refuse

Nothing behind or overlapping the animal you picked.
Your maximum range is the farthest you have shot a three-shot group into a paper plate from the rest you are carrying.
Pass the shot you are talking yourself into.

Plan the carry: roughly 40– 120 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — two large coolers. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Mule Deer Success Rates

All manners of take45%

Archery10%

Rifle50%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 64 at 45% — 175 animals taken by 387 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 — 10% success, 3 taken by 31 hunters
Rifle — 50% success, 167 taken by 331 hunters

These are the agency's own printed figures for this unit, not a modelled estimate and not a state average. They describe one season, so check CPW's current harvest estimates before you read a trend into them.

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 6th Season either sex (resident)	25	32	78.1%	—
Rifle — 6th Season either sex (nonresident)	0	1	0.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	129	420	30.7%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	81	200	40.5%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident)	114	369	30.9%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident)	41	217	18.9%	1
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (resident)	28	171	16.4%	2
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (nonresident)	9	65	13.8%	4
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	26	49	53.1%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	40	57	70.2%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident)	33	98	33.7%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident)	48	98	49.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	44	205	21.5%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	13	91	14.3%	1
Archery — 1st Season buck only (resident)	89	182	48.9%	—
Archery — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	58	124	46.8%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (resident)	54	115	47.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	31	62	50.0%	—

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

Open in Draw Odds Engine

CPW's 2026 draw recap for mule deer in unit 64, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

DM064O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, resident: 420 applicants for 129 licences, 30.7% drawn, no preference points needed
DM064O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, resident: 369 applicants for 114 licences, 30.9% drawn, no preference points needed
DM064O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 217 applicants for 41 licences, 18.9% drawn, 1 preference point needed
DM064O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 205 applicants for 44 licences, 21.5% drawn, no preference points needed

Colorado runs a pure preference-point draw, so the point figure above is the requirement the agency published for that code in that year, not a forecast for the next one. There are 14 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 64

Unit 64 lies in Delta and Montrose counties and covers about 268 square miles. Ground runs from 5,089 to 9,715 feet. CPW bounds it by Colo. 92 to Gunnison River and Big Blue Creek among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 24%. Federal land covers about 44% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Elk in Unit 64

CPW's material on unit 64 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its elk live. 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 Delta and Montrose counties. It runs to about 268 square miles.

The lines of the unit: Colo. 92 to Gunnison River, Big Blue Creek and U.S. 50

CPW has unit 64 bounded on the north and east by Colo. 92 to Gunnison River, south to Morrow Point Res.; on the east by Big Blue Creek; on the south and west by U.S. 50. 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: Red Rocks, Flat Top and North Mesa

Named high points inside the unit include Red Rocks at 6,865 feet, Flat Top at 6,320 feet, North Mesa at 5,808 feet, East Mesa at 5,641 feet and Smiths Mountain at 5,640 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Elk on low, open country live on distance and visibility, so they see you first.

Holding ground: Bostwick Park, Jones Draw and Houston Gulch

Below them sit Bostwick Park at 7,074 feet, Jones Draw at 6,988 feet, Houston Gulch at 6,836 feet, Pool Gulch at 6,746 feet and Ellison Gulch at 6,685 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: Lions Spring and Round Corral Spring

Named sources include Lions Spring and Round Corral Spring. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

The herd this unit belongs to: E-35

CPW does not manage elk unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit E-35, and unit 64 is one piece of it. The rest of E-35 is unit 65. 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 64 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

5,089–8,137 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 6,085 ft ; peaks can run higher.
268.3 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

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: Sheep Knob (9,518 ft), Curecanti Needle (7,536 ft), Red Rocks (6,865 ft), Flat Top (6,320 ft)

Holding ground: Pool Gulch (6,746 ft), Lions Spring, Round Corral Spring

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

How to Hunt Elk in Unit 64

CPW's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 64 at archery 6%, muzzleloader 5% and rifle 24%. 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 Sheep Knob, Fitzpatrick Mesa and Coffee Pot Hill

Take a position on one of Sheep Knob (9,518 ft), Fitzpatrick Mesa (9,393 ft), Coffee Pot Hill (9,002 ft) and Curecanti Needle (7,536 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. Give a basin forty minutes before you decide it is empty. On the rut hunts, September bugling works where you can get above a drainage and let the thermals carry sound downhill.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Getting past the roads: US 50 and East Portal Road

Where unit 64 sits inside E-35

Across E-35, CPW's 2023 elk success runs 21% in unit 64 and 18% in unit 65. Unit 64 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 Sheep Knob, Curecanti Needle, Red Rocks and Flat Top as places to see from, and Pool Gulch, Delta SWA, Lions Spring and Round Corral Spring 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

268 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 Montrose, about 8 miles out, which is an hour of your morning each way if you sleep there. With 3,048 feet between the lowest and highest ground, the walk back up out of a kill site is the part to plan first. One good position held through the whole of first light beats three visited in a hurry.

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 64

Named routes and what they need

US 50 — 15.2 mi · Paved (all rigs)
East Portal Road — 5.3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Pioneer Road — 1.6 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Amber Road — 1.6 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Falcon Road — 1.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
O74 RD — 1.5 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

Montrose — 8.4 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging, gear
Olathe — 9.2 mi · no services listed
Crawford — 13.5 mi · fuel, groceries
Hotchkiss — 15.4 mi · no services listed
Delta — 17.7 mi · fuel

Developed camps

Unnamed camp site
Cottonwood Grove Campground
Chukar
East Portal Campground · Fee
Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan35° / 14° · 1.3" precip
Aug81° / 53° · 1.5" precip
Sep73° / 45° · 1.8" precip
Oct60° / 34° · 1.6" precip
Nov46° / 24° · 1.3" precip
Dec35° / 15° · 1.3" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 21% 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 take21%

Archery6%

Muzzleloader5%

Rifle24%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 64 at 21% — 214 animals taken by 1,041 hunters. That is a lot of hunters in one unit, and the percentage is what it looks like after all of them have been through it.

Archery — 6% success, 8 taken by 143 hunters
Muzzleloader — 5% success, 3 taken by 56 hunters
Rifle — 24% success, 202 taken by 843 hunters

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (resident)	171	452	37.8%	—
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	223	395	56.5%	—
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (resident)	60	191	31.4%	—
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (nonresident)	34	80	42.5%	—
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (resident)	21	39	53.8%	—
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	59	85	69.4%	—
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (resident)	32	57	56.1%	—
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (nonresident)	15	24	62.5%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident)	74	185	40.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	29	99	29.3%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident)	88	158	55.7%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident)	51	65	78.5%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	59	173	34.1%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	34	57	59.6%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident)	7	20	35.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	1	2	50.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident)	29	39	74.4%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident)	16	17	94.1%	—
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (resident)	20	30	66.7%	—
Rifle — 5th Season cow only (nonresident)	2	4	50.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	25	78	32.1%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident)	2	7	28.6%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	30	52	57.7%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	16	24	66.7%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	11	47	23.4%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident)	1	4	25.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (resident)	51	92	55.4%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	23	38	60.5%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season bull only (resident)	52	103	50.5%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season bull only (nonresident)	54	151	35.8%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	393	682	57.6%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	4	5	80.0%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	60	102	58.8%	—

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

EE064V1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, nonresident: 682 applicants for 393 licences, 57.6% drawn, no preference points needed
EE064O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 452 applicants for 171 licences, 37.8% drawn, no preference points needed
EE064O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Either Sex, nonresident: 395 applicants for 223 licences, 56.5% drawn, no preference points needed
EE064O4R — Rifle, 4th Season, Either Sex, resident: 191 applicants for 60 licences, 31.4% 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 29 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

10 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit, including Cottonwood Grove Campground, Chukar and East Portal Campground.

🛣️

Road Conditions

US 50, East Portal Road and Pioneer Road are the named routes in the unit. Roughly 30 mi paved, 20 mi gravel and 1 mi four-wheel-drive.

🥾

Terrain Difficulty

5,089–8,137 ft, averaging 6,085. 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 73/45°F, 1.8 in.; Oct 60/34°F, 1.6 in.; Nov 46/24°F, 1.3 in..

📱

Cell Service

Verizon 21%, AT&T 14%, T-Mobile 7% of the unit area — modelled coverage, not measured. Assume no signal off the paved road.

🏘️

Nearest Town

Montrose (8 mi), Olathe (9 mi), Crawford (14 mi)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 64?

Unit 64 lies in Delta and Montrose counties, and CPW has it bounded on the north and east by Colo. 92 to Gunnison River, south to Morrow Point Res.; on the east by Big Blue Creek; on the south and west by U.S. 50. It covers about 268 square miles.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 64?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 64 at 45% across all manners of take, and archery 10% and rifle 50% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

Where do you stay and resupply for a unit 64 hunt?

The nearest services our logistics pipeline finds for unit 64 are at Montrose, about 8 miles from the unit's centre, with Olathe at about 9 miles. There are also 10 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit.

What is the elk success rate in unit 64?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 64 at 21% across all manners of take, and archery 6%, muzzleloader 5% and rifle 24% 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 Deer Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for mule deer in unit 64, 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 Elk Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for elk in unit 64, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22