Unit 70 (Telluride)
Colorado Hunting Guide — Elk, Mule Deer
Unit 70 runs along Colorado's western edge against Utah, across Dolores, Montrose and San Miguel Counties. CPW puts it at 1,511 square miles of high San Juan country around Telluride, with summits to nearly 14,000 feet. The herd is E-24, but CPW's unit material doesn't break elk down by area. You're scouting from terrain, so size and relief decide whether this tag works for you.
Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 70
Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 70 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 70
Unit 70 runs along Colorado's western edge against Utah, across Dolores, Montrose and San Miguel Counties. CPW puts it at 1,511 square miles of high San Juan country around Telluride, with summits to nearly 14,000 feet. The herd is E-24, but CPW's unit material doesn't break elk down by area. You're scouting from terrain, so size and relief decide whether this tag works for you.
Reading a 1,511-Square-Mile Unit Without an Elk Map
We'll be straight about this one. CPW's unit description gives a boundary, a herd number (E-24) and an acreage, and nothing about where elk sit inside it. Nobody has handed us a list of favorite drainages. What follows is built from the edges of the unit, the high points inside it and the water we can name.
The Frame: Highways, Rivers and the Utah Line
The northern edge follows Colo. 90, the Dolores River, the San Miguel River and Colo. 62. The south follows the San Miguel-Dolores county line, Disappointment Creek, the Dolores River again and Summit Canyon Creek. Utah closes the west. The east side runs along county lines, which means the crest country, not a road.
That tells you how you get in. The paved corridors are on the north edge. The lower river and creek country sits on the north, south and west edges. The high interior is the part you reach on foot or by forest road from those edges. A boundary is a legal line, and it doesn't tell you elk are standing on it. Treat it as a way to find trailheads.
The High Country: Peaks to Glass From
The unit is stacked with big summits: Wilson Peak at 13,985 feet, San Miguel Peak at 13,697, Ulysses S Grant Peak at 13,735, Wasatch Mountain at 13,518, La Junta Peak at 13,444, San Joaquin Ridge at 13,416 and Silver Mountain at 13,426. Lizard Head tops out at 12,958, and Gold Hill, Ajax and Hayden Peak sit around 12,700 to 12,960.
Those are landmarks, not elk locations. Use them to orient yourself and to pick basins and benches below them. We'd expect elk to hold lower and in timber, but we can't point you to a specific basin from what's published.
The Western Dolores County Side
Sheep Mountain (13,184), Middle Peak (13,249) and Lone Cone (12,569) are the Dolores County landmarks. Lone Cone stands apart from the main crest, so it's easy to pick out when you're working the lower country. Without more detail, we'd use it as a reference point and look for benches and drainages on its flanks.
Water You Can Name
The map carries named springs: Larson, Poison Spider, Pierce, Sheep, Bear, Nelson Springs, Sandys Fort, Wrights, Mexican, Cy Orr, Lindsey and Horsethief, plus Ingram Falls and East Island Mesa Spring. We can't tell you which ones are flowing or which hold elk. Mark them all, then check them in person. Water in dry years is a reasonable place to start a scouting trip.
Unit 70 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
Named features inside the unit
Glass from: Wilson Peak (13,985 ft), Vermilion Peak (13,868 ft), Ulysses S Grant Peak (13,735 ft), Dallas Peak (13,703 ft)
Holding ground: East Basin (12,648 ft), Lena Basin (12,519 ft), Silver Lake Basin (11,838 ft), Carter Place STL, Dan Noble SWA
Every one of these was tested against the unit polygon before it went on the map. They are starting points, not agency recommendations.
How We'd Work a Unit This Big and This Steep
Elk Success Rates
CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 70 at 25% — 829 animals taken by 3,346 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 — 22% success, 143 taken by 648 hunters
- Muzzleloader — 22% success, 22 taken by 99 hunters
- Rifle — 26% success, 665 taken by 2,599 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Muzzleloader — 1st Season either sex (resident) | 52 | 164 | 31.7% | — |
| Muzzleloader — 1st Season either sex (nonresident) | 28 | 211 | 13.3% | 1 |
| Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (resident) | 30 | 65 | 46.2% | — |
| Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (nonresident) | 12 | 33 | 36.4% | — |
| Muzzleloader — 1st Season bull only (resident) | 69 | 113 | 61.1% | — |
| Muzzleloader — 1st Season bull only (nonresident) | 27 | 180 | 15.0% | 4 |
| Rifle — 1st Season either sex (resident) | 106 | 455 | 23.3% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season either sex (nonresident) | 68 | 358 | 19.0% | 1 |
| Rifle — 4th Season either sex (resident) | 31 | 310 | 10.0% | 1 |
| Rifle — 4th Season either sex (nonresident) | 9 | 77 | 11.7% | 1 |
| Rifle — 1st Season either sex (resident) | 50 | 93 | 53.8% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season either sex (nonresident) | 124 | 139 | 89.2% | — |
| Rifle — 4th Season either sex (resident) | 54 | 87 | 62.1% | — |
| Rifle — 4th Season either sex (nonresident) | 50 | 70 | 71.4% | — |
| Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident) | 96 | 298 | 32.2% | — |
| Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident) | 22 | 150 | 14.7% | 2 |
| Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident) | 92 | 338 | 27.2% | — |
| Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident) | 29 | 147 | 19.7% | 1 |
| Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident) | 46 | 199 | 23.1% | — |
| Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident) | 7 | 27 | 25.9% | — |
| Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident) | 18 | 61 | 29.5% | — |
| Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident) | 59 | 78 | 75.6% | — |
| Rifle — 5th Season cow only (resident) | 22 | 148 | 14.9% | — |
| Rifle — 5th Season cow only (nonresident) | 1 | 6 | 16.7% | 1 |
| Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident) | 50 | 249 | 20.1% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident) | 21 | 119 | 17.6% | 1 |
| Rifle — 1st Season bull only (resident) | 109 | 318 | 34.3% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season bull only (nonresident) | 37 | 301 | 12.3% | 3 |
| Rifle — 4th Season bull only (resident) | 27 | 49 | 55.1% | — |
| Rifle — 4th Season bull only (nonresident) | 10 | 34 | 29.4% | 1 |
| Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident) | 22 | 57 | 38.6% | — |
| Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident) | 87 | 103 | 84.5% | — |
| Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident) | 25 | 65 | 38.5% | — |
| Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident) | 2 | 17 | 11.8% | — |
| Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident) | 26 | 38 | 68.4% | — |
| Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident) | 148 | 178 | 83.1% | — |
| Archery — 1st Season cow only (resident) | 50 | 130 | 38.5% | — |
| Archery — 1st Season cow only (nonresident) | 59 | 197 | 29.9% | — |
| Archery — 1st Season bull only (resident) | 96 | 264 | 36.4% | — |
| Archery — 1st Season bull only (nonresident) | 350 | 807 | 43.4% | — |
Data from 2020 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number.
Open in Draw Odds EngineCPW's 2026 draw recap for elk in unit 70, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:
- EM070O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Bull Only, nonresident: 807 applicants for 350 licences, 43.4% drawn, no preference points needed
- EF070O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Cow Only, resident: 338 applicants for 92 licences, 27.2% drawn, no preference points needed
- EM070O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Bull Only, resident: 318 applicants for 109 licences, 34.3% drawn, no preference points needed
- EM070O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Bull Only, nonresident: 301 applicants for 37 licences, 12.3% 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 30 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 70?
What is the elk success rate in unit 70?
What is the mule deer success rate in unit 70?
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 70, 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 70, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22