Unit 76 (San Juan)

What CPW publishes for unit 76 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 Hinsdale, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache and San Juan counties.

The lines of the unit: Continental Divide, Saguache-Mineral Co. line and USFS Trail 787

CPW has unit 76 bounded on the north by Continental Divide, Saguache-Mineral Co. line and USFS Trail 787; on the east by La Garita Stock Driveway (ATV trail), USFS 600-3A & 600, Colo. 149 and U.S. 160; on the south and 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: Sheep Mountain, Greenhalgh Mountain and South River Peak

Named high points inside the unit include Sheep Mountain at 13,261 feet, Greenhalgh Mountain at 13,213 feet, South River Peak at 13,108 feet, Chief Mountain at 13,000 feet and Simpson Mountain at 12,898 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: Cañon Nieve, Long Park and Starvation Gulch

Below them sit Cañon Nieve at 10,417 feet, Long Park at 10,327 feet, Starvation Gulch at 10,256 feet, Stage Station Flat at 10,232 feet and Trouble Hill at 10,187 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

Public ground to start from: Rito Hondo Reservoir SWA, Road Canyon Reservoir SWA and Big Meadows Reservoir SWA

CPW lists Rito Hondo Reservoir SWA, Road Canyon Reservoir SWA, Big Meadows Reservoir SWA, Brown Lakes SWA and Coller SWA 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 100% of the unit on top of those.

The herd this unit belongs to: D-36

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-36, and unit 76 is one piece of it. The rest of D-36 is unit 79 and unit 791. 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.

CPW's material on unit 76 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its Shiras moose 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 Hinsdale, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache and San Juan counties.

The lines of the unit: Continental Divide, Saguache-Mineral Co. line and USFS Trail 787

CPW has unit 76 bounded on the north by Continental Divide, Saguache-Mineral Co. line and USFS Trail 787; on the east by La Garita Stock Driveway (ATV trail), USFS 600-3A & 600, Colo. 149 and U.S. 160; on the south and west by Continental Divide. It tells you the shape of the unit and nothing about its inhabitants. 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: Fisher Mountain, Table Mountain and Mount Hope

Named high points inside the unit include Fisher Mountain at 12,861 feet, Table Mountain at 12,814 feet, Mount Hope at 12,808 feet, Indian Ridge at 12,745 feet and Beautiful Mountain at 12,743 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: North Clear Creek Park, Horse Thief Pasture and Sawmill Canyon

Below them sit North Clear Creek Park at 10,069 feet, Horse Thief Pasture at 10,022 feet, Sawmill Canyon at 9,859 feet, Porcupine Gulch at 9,809 feet and Ptarmigan Meadows at 9,700 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: Coller SWA - Rio Grande River Access, Creede SWA and Rito Hondo Reservoir SWA

CPW lists Coller SWA - Rio Grande River Access, Creede SWA, Rito Hondo Reservoir SWA, Road Canyon Reservoir SWA and Big Meadows Reservoir SWA 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 100% of the unit on top of those.

The herd this unit belongs to: M-4

CPW does not manage Shiras moose unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit M-4, and unit 76 is one piece of it. The rest of M-4 is unit 65, unit 66, unit 67, unit 68, unit 70, unit 71, unit 72 and unit 73 and 14 more. 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.

CPW draws an exact line around unit 76 and says nothing about where the black bear 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 Hinsdale, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache and San Juan counties.

The lines of the unit: Continental Divide, Saguache-Mineral Co. line and USFS Trail 787

CPW has unit 76 bounded on the north by Continental Divide, Saguache-Mineral Co. line and USFS Trail 787; on the east by La Garita Stock Driveway (ATV trail), USFS 600-3A & 600, Colo. 149 and U.S. 160; on the south and west by Continental Divide. 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: Bristol Head, Table Mountain and Sawtooth Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Bristol Head at 12,694 feet, Table Mountain at 12,682 feet, Sawtooth Mountain at 12,574 feet, Baldy Mountain at 12,484 feet and Snow Mesa at 12,404 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: Carcass Gulch, Goodrich Park and Santa Maria Pass

Below them sit Carcass Gulch at 9,655 feet, Goodrich Park at 9,591 feet, Santa Maria Pass at 9,518 feet, Minnie Gulch at 9,477 feet and Crooked Canyon at 9,349 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

Public ground to start from: Brown Lakes SWA, Coller SWA and Coller SWA - Rio Grande River Access

CPW lists Brown Lakes SWA, Coller SWA, Coller SWA - Rio Grande River Access, Creede SWA and Rito Hondo Reservoir SWA 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 100% of the unit on top of those.

The herd this unit belongs to: B-13

CPW does not manage black bear unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit B-13, and unit 76 is one piece of it. The rest of B-13 is unit 68, unit 79, unit 80, unit 81, unit 681, unit 682 and unit 791. 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.

CPW publishes no black bear success figure for unit 76 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 Piedra Peak, Finger Mesa and Knife Edge

Take a position on one of Piedra Peak (12,324 ft), Finger Mesa (12,297 ft), Knife Edge (12,279 ft) and Stair Steps (12,162 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.

Getting past the roads

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.

The way in: USFS 600, Colo. 149 and U.S. 160

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: USFS 600, Colo. 149 and U.S. 160. Those are its edges, not its interior — useful because they are where you leave the pavement, and useless for telling you what the inside is like. Pick the edge nearest the country you mean to hunt and work in from it on foot, rather than driving the perimeter looking for a way through.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks La Garita Mountains, Rio Grande Pyramid, La Garita Peak and Pole Creek Mountain as places to see from, and Halfmoon Pass, Hunchback Pass, San Luis Pass and Big Meadows Reservoir SWA as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the unit line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Walk between two of them rather than driving between four, and you will learn more in a day.

What a day here costs you

971 square miles is more country than a week will cover, so pick one drainage and learn it rather than driving the unit. The ground is gentle enough that the pack-out is a distance problem rather than a climbing one. 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. We have no black bear success figure for this unit that survives checking against CPW's own harvest and hunter counts, and we would rather say so than print a statewide average as though it were measured here.