Unit 681
Colorado Hunting Guide — Elk
Unit 681 lies in Saguache County. CPW bounds it by Continental Divide and Poncha Pass among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 22%. Federal land covers about 89% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 681
Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 681 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.
Free accounts get one report a year with the top spot unlocked. ProHunt Pro includes unlimited reports, all three spots, the full camp plan, and GPX/KML downloads for onX and Google Earth. Prefer to see one first? Open the builder and pick any unit.
Elk Hunting in Unit 681
Unit 681 lies in Saguache County. CPW bounds it by Continental Divide and Poncha Pass among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 22%. Federal land covers about 89% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Where to Find Elk in Unit 681
CPW draws an exact line around unit 681 and says nothing about where the elk stand inside it. So the ground below is the unit's own and the read on where to start is ours, labelled as such. The unit lies in Saguache County.
The lines of the unit: Continental Divide, Poncha Pass and U.S. 285
CPW has unit 681 bounded on the north by Continental Divide and Arkansas River Divide between North Pass and Poncha Pass; on the east by U.S. 285; on the south by U.S. 285 and Colo. 114; on the west by Colo. 114. 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: Antora Peak, Windy Point and Whale Hill
Named high points inside the unit include Antora Peak at 13,246 feet, Windy Point at 12,739 feet, Whale Hill at 12,165 feet, Mount Manitou at 12,113 feet and Hayden Peak at 12,087 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: Indian Park, Rawley Gulch and Lucky Boy Gulch
Below them sit Indian Park at 9,684 feet, Rawley Gulch at 9,606 feet, Lucky Boy Gulch at 9,511 feet, Copper Gulch at 9,503 feet and Graveyard Gulch at 9,452 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.
Public ground to start from: Jacks Creek STL, Kerber Creek STL and Middle Creek STL
CPW lists Jacks Creek STL, Kerber Creek STL, Middle Creek STL and Stonehouse Gulch 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 89% of the unit on top of those.
Water: Cody Spring, Noland Spring and Asterhouse Spring
Named sources include Cody Spring, Noland Spring, Asterhouse Spring, McIntyre Spring, O'Neal Spring and Proffit 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-26
CPW does not manage elk unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit E-26, and unit 681 is one piece of it. The rest of E-26 is unit 68. 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.
Unit 681 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
Named features inside the unit
Glass from: Antora Peak (13,246 ft), Whale Hill (12,165 ft), Hayden Peak (12,087 ft), Flagstaff Mountain (12,074 ft)
Holding ground: Antora Meadows (12,407 ft), Elkhorn Peak (11,992 ft), Firebox Park (10,636 ft), Jacks Creek STL, Kerber 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 681
Elk Success Rates
CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 681 at 7% — 106 animals taken by 1,498 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 — 5% success, 34 taken by 681 hunters
- Muzzleloader — 22% success, 5 taken by 24 hunters
- Rifle — 8% success, 67 taken by 792 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.
Elk Draw Odds
| Season | Tags | Applicants | Draw % | Pts Req |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident) | 14 | 147 | 9.5% | 3 |
| Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident) | 3 | 15 | 20.0% | 3 |
| Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident) | 14 | 132 | 10.6% | 2 |
| Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident) | 3 | 8 | 37.5% | 2 |
| Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident) | 16 | 52 | 30.8% | — |
| Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident) | 2 | 3 | 66.7% | — |
Data from 2024 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number.
Open in Draw Odds EngineCPW's 2024 draw recap for elk in unit 681, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:
- EF681O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Cow Only, resident: 147 applicants for 14 licences, 9.5% drawn, 3 preference points needed
- EF681O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Cow Only, resident: 132 applicants for 14 licences, 10.6% drawn, 2 preference points needed
- EF681O4R — Rifle, 4th Season, Cow Only, resident: 52 applicants for 16 licences, 30.8% drawn, no preference points needed
- EF681O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Cow Only, nonresident: 15 applicants for 3 licences, 20% drawn, 3 preference points needed
Colorado runs a pure preference-point draw, so the point figure above is the requirement the agency published for that code in that year, not a forecast for the next one. There are 2 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
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Colorado unit 681?
What is the elk success rate in unit 681?
Plan Your Hunt with ProHunt Pro
Unlock advanced tactics, the Tag-to-Trail Planner, AI hunt strategy assistant, and personalized camp and trip execution plans.
Upgrade to Pro — $49/yrSources & 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 Elk Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for elk in unit 681, 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