Colorado Elk Mule Deer Pronghorn Black Bear

Unit 82 (Great Sand Dunes)

Colorado Hunting Guide — Elk, Mule Deer, Pronghorn, Black Bear

Unit 82 lies in Alamosa and Saguache counties. CPW bounds it by Poncha Pass and Rio Grande- Arkansas River divide among others. CPW's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 28%. Federal land covers about 49% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Colorado Hunting Guide

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49%

Public Land

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 82

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit 82 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.

Elk guide Mule Deer guide Pronghorn guide Black Bear guide

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Elk Hunting in Unit 82

Where to Find Elk in Unit 82

CPW's material on unit 82 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its elk live. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Alamosa and Saguache counties.

The lines of the unit: Poncha Pass, Rio Grande- Arkansas River divide and Alamosa-Costilla Co. line

CPW has unit 82 bounded on the north by Poncha Pass; on the north and east by Rio Grande- Arkansas River divide; on the south by Alamosa-Costilla Co. line and U.S. 160; on the west by Colo. 17 and U.S. 285. 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: Crestone Peaks, Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle

Named high points inside the unit include Crestone Peaks at 14,258 feet, Crestone Peak at 14,258 feet, Crestone Needle at 14,141 feet, Kit Carson Mountain at 14,131 feet and Challenger Point at 14,052 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: Hayden Pass, California Gulch and Medano Pass

Below them sit Hayden Pass at 10,662 feet, California Gulch at 10,205 feet, Medano Pass at 9,989 feet, Mill Gulch at 9,917 feet and Aspen Gulch at 9,797 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: Mineral Hot Springs STL, Mirage STL and Orient Mine SWA

CPW lists Mineral Hot Springs STL, Mirage STL, Orient Mine SWA, Rock Creek STL and San Luis Lakes 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 49% of the unit on top of those.

Water: Oak Springs, Antelope Springs and Denton Spring

Named sources include Oak Springs, Antelope Springs, Denton Spring, King Well, Mount Blanca Well and Zapata Falls. 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-11

CPW does not manage elk unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit E-11, and unit 82 is one piece of it. CPW puts no other unit in E-11, so this unit carries the herd on its own. 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.

Unit 82 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Crestone Peaks (14,258 ft), Ellingwood Point (14,041 ft), California Peak (13,827 ft), Electric Peak (13,586 ft)

Holding ground: Groundhog Basin (11,848 ft), Kolkman Basin (11,599 ft), Big Branch (11,175 ft), Mineral Hot Springs STL, Mirage 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 82

CPW's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 82 at archery 7%, muzzleloader 17% and rifle 28%. 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 California Peak, Electric Peak and Tijeras Peak

Take a position on one of California Peak (13,827 ft), Electric Peak (13,586 ft), Tijeras Peak (13,562 ft) and Cottonwood Peak (13,561 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.

The way in: U.S. 160, Colo. 17 and U.S. 285

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: U.S. 160, Colo. 17 and U.S. 285. 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 Crestone Peaks, Ellingwood Point, California Peak and Electric Peak as places to see from, and Groundhog Basin, Kolkman Basin, Big Branch and Mineral Hot Springs 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

1,088 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.

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.

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 take22%

Archery7%

Muzzleloader17%

Rifle28%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 82 at 22% — 567 animals taken by 2,588 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 — 7% success, 50 taken by 718 hunters
Muzzleloader — 17% success, 18 taken by 105 hunters
Rifle — 28% success, 498 taken by 1,766 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)	32	83	38.6%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	37	72	51.4%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (resident)	18	38	47.4%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	8	10	80.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (resident)	176	341	51.6%	—
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	95	191	49.7%	—
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (resident)	59	176	33.5%	—
Rifle — 4th Season either sex (nonresident)	32	43	74.4%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (resident)	47	122	38.5%	—
Rifle — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	3	10	30.0%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (resident)	105	201	52.2%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season cow only (nonresident)	10	23	43.5%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (resident)	114	212	53.8%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season cow only (nonresident)	4	8	50.0%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (resident)	30	95	31.6%	—
Rifle — 4th Season cow only (nonresident)	1	6	16.7%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	119	220	54.1%	—
Archery — 1st Season cow only (resident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Archery — 1st Season cow only (nonresident)	1	5	20.0%	—

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 elk in unit 82, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

EE082O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 341 applicants for 176 licences, 51.6% drawn, no preference points needed
EE082V1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, nonresident: 220 applicants for 119 licences, 54.1% drawn, no preference points needed
EF082O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Cow Only, resident: 212 applicants for 114 licences, 53.8% drawn, no preference points needed
EF082O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Cow Only, resident: 201 applicants for 105 licences, 52.2% 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 14 further code-and-residency combinations in the recap for this unit. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 82

Unit 82 lies in Alamosa and Saguache counties. CPW bounds it by Poncha Pass and Rio Grande- Arkansas River divide among others. CPW's harvest estimates put mule deer success here as high as 47%. Federal land covers about 49% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 82

CPW draws an exact line around unit 82 and says nothing about where the mule deer 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 Alamosa and Saguache counties.

The lines of the unit: Poncha Pass, Rio Grande- Arkansas River divide and Alamosa-Costilla Co. line

CPW has unit 82 bounded on the north by Poncha Pass; on the north and east by Rio Grande- Arkansas River divide; on the south by Alamosa-Costilla Co. line and U.S. 160; on the west by Colo. 17 and U.S. 285. Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. 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: Ellingwood Point, Little Bear Peak and Columbia Point

Named high points inside the unit include Ellingwood Point at 14,041 feet, Little Bear Peak at 13,990 feet, Columbia Point at 13,958 feet, California Peak at 13,827 feet and Electric Peak at 13,586 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: Willow Creek Park, Mosca Pass and Wilcox Gulch

Below them sit Willow Creek Park at 9,783 feet, Mosca Pass at 9,716 feet, Wilcox Gulch at 9,336 feet, Slide Rock Canyon at 9,268 feet and Little Spring Gulch at 9,265 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Reaching the edge of one before light beats reaching its middle at noon.

Public ground to start from: San Luis Lakes SWA, Steel Canyon STL and Villa Grove STL

CPW lists San Luis Lakes SWA, Steel Canyon STL, Villa Grove STL, Zapata Falls STL and Mineral Hot Springs 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 49% of the unit on top of those.

Water: Cedar Spring, Hayden Spring and Mosca Spring

Named sources include Cedar Spring, Hayden Spring, Mosca Spring, Tobin Creek Well, Mineral Hot Springs and Oak Springs. 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-56

CPW does not manage mule deer unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit D-56, and unit 82 is one piece of it. The rest of D-56 is unit 83. 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 82 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Crestone Peaks (14,258 ft), Ellingwood Point (14,041 ft), California Peak (13,827 ft), Electric Peak (13,586 ft)

Holding ground: Groundhog Basin (11,848 ft), Kolkman Basin (11,599 ft), Big Branch (11,175 ft), Mineral Hot Springs STL, Mirage 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 Mule Deer in Unit 82

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 82 at archery 24% and rifle 47%. That is an ordinary spread for this country, and it rewards whoever scouted. The plan: glass the broken edges at first light, then sit still and keep glassing the same ground.

Glassing from Pico Aislado, Twin Peaks and Fluted Peak

Take a position on one of Pico Aislado (13,560 ft), Twin Peaks (13,556 ft), Fluted Peak (13,533 ft) and Milwaukee Peak (13,498 ft) and be on it before light. Cold air slides downhill in the dark, so keep your scent out of the bowl you mean to watch; expect the thermals to turn uphill an hour after the sun reaches the slope. 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.

Where unit 82 sits inside D-56

Across D-56, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 77% in unit 83 and 44% in unit 82. Unit 82 is the lowest of them, so whatever drives success in this herd is happening somewhere else in it. If the draw lets you choose, unit 83 carried the better number in the same herd — check its tag count before you read that as an easier hunt.

The way in: U.S. 160, Colo. 17 and U.S. 285

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: U.S. 160, Colo. 17 and U.S. 285. 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. Park on the boundary and walk; a unit you can only enter from its rim rewards whoever is willing to leave the truck at the rim.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Crestone Peaks, Ellingwood Point, California Peak and Electric Peak as places to see from, and Groundhog Basin, Kolkman Basin, Big Branch and Mineral Hot Springs STL 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

1,088 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. Decide the night before where you will be at first light, and go there in the dark.

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.

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.

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.

Pro Members Only

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Mule Deer Success Rates

All manners of take44%

Archery24%

Rifle47%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 82 at 44% — 176 animals taken by 399 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 — 24% success, 10 taken by 41 hunters
Rifle — 47% success, 143 taken by 303 hunters

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	30	168	17.9%	4
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	10	74	13.5%	6
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (resident)	90	335	26.9%	—
Rifle — 2nd Season buck only (nonresident)	32	143	22.4%	—
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (resident)	70	336	20.8%	1
Rifle — 3rd Season buck only (nonresident)	24	102	23.5%	1
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (resident)	17	161	10.6%	3
Rifle — 4th Season buck only (nonresident)	6	63	9.5%	4
Archery — 1st Season buck only (resident)	28	94	29.8%	—
Archery — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	10	42	23.8%	1
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (resident)	36	81	44.4%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	16	30	53.3%	—

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

DM082O3R — Rifle, 3rd Season, Buck Only, resident: 336 applicants for 70 licences, 20.8% drawn, 1 preference point needed
DM082O2R — Rifle, 2nd Season, Buck Only, resident: 335 applicants for 90 licences, 26.9% drawn, no preference points needed
DM082E1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 168 applicants for 30 licences, 17.9% drawn, 4 preference points needed
DM082O4R — Rifle, 4th Season, Buck Only, resident: 161 applicants for 17 licences, 10.6% 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 8 further code-and-residency combinations in the recap for this unit. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Pronghorn Hunting in Unit 82

Unit 82 lies in Alamosa and Saguache counties. CPW bounds it by Poncha Pass and Rio Grande- Arkansas River divide among others. CPW's harvest estimates put pronghorn success here as high as 72%. Federal land covers about 49% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Pronghorn in Unit 82

What CPW publishes for unit 82 is a boundary, not a pronghorn 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 Alamosa and Saguache counties.

The lines of the unit: Poncha Pass, Rio Grande- Arkansas River divide and Alamosa-Costilla Co. line

CPW has unit 82 bounded on the north by Poncha Pass; on the north and east by Rio Grande- Arkansas River divide; on the south by Alamosa-Costilla Co. line and U.S. 160; on the west by Colo. 17 and U.S. 285. Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. 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: Tijeras Peak, Cottonwood Peak and Pico Aislado

Named high points inside the unit include Tijeras Peak at 13,562 feet, Cottonwood Peak at 13,561 feet, Pico Aislado at 13,560 feet, Twin Peaks at 13,556 feet and Fluted Peak at 13,533 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Pronghorn stay on the open rolling ground and leave the timber alone.

Holding ground: Lime Canyon, Black Canyon and Poncha Pass

Below them sit Lime Canyon at 9,049 feet, Black Canyon at 9,029 feet, Poncha Pass at 9,009 feet, Big South Canyon at 8,989 feet and Copper Gulch at 8,964 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

Public ground to start from: Mirage STL, Orient Mine SWA and Rock Creek STL

CPW lists Mirage STL, Orient Mine SWA, Rock Creek STL, San Luis Lakes STL and San Luis Lakes 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 49% of the unit on top of those.

Water: Antelope Springs, Denton Spring and King Well

Named sources include Antelope Springs, Denton Spring, King Well, Mount Blanca Well, Zapata Falls and Cedar 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: A-14

CPW does not manage pronghorn unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit A-14, and unit 82 is one piece of it. The rest of A-14 is unit 68, unit 79, unit 681, unit 682 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.

Unit 82 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Crestone Peaks (14,258 ft), Ellingwood Point (14,041 ft), California Peak (13,827 ft), Electric Peak (13,586 ft)

Holding ground: Groundhog Basin (11,848 ft), Kolkman Basin (11,599 ft), Big Branch (11,175 ft), Mineral Hot Springs STL, Mirage 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 Pronghorn in Unit 82

CPW's own harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 82 at 72% across all manners of take. A number like that comes from few tags and a short season, not from easy hunting. The plan: spot from a vehicle or a rise at distance, then plan a stalk that uses the only cover there is — the curve of the ground.

Glassing from Mount Marcy, Eureka Mountain and Cleveland Peak

Take a position on one of Mount Marcy (13,497 ft), Eureka Mountain (13,452 ft), Cleveland Peak (13,359 ft) and Mount Herard (13,342 ft) and be on it before light. Cold air slides downhill in the dark, so keep your scent out of the bowl you mean to watch; expect the thermals to turn uphill an hour after the sun reaches the slope. A tripod is worth more here than another hour of walking. On the rut hunts, early-season bucks hold does and can be decoyed where the law allows it.

Where unit 82 sits inside A-14

Across A-14, CPW's 2023 pronghorn success runs 72% in unit 82, 70% in unit 79, 51% in unit 68 and 42% in unit 681. Unit 82 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.

The way in: U.S. 160, Colo. 17 and U.S. 285

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Crestone Peaks, Ellingwood Point, California Peak and Electric Peak as places to see from, and Groundhog Basin, Kolkman Basin, Big Branch and Mineral Hot Springs STL 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

1,088 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. Leave the truck earlier than you want to and you will hunt the best half-hour of the day.

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.

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.

Pronghorn: where to put the shot

Broadside, straight up the front leg, a third of the way into the body. Pronghorn are shallow-chested and the lungs sit forward.

Shots to refuse

Range it, then range it again. Open country makes 400 yards look like 250.
Wait for the buck to stop. Nobody kills a running pronghorn cleanly on purpose.
Mind the backdrop. A miss carries a long way across a flat.

Plan the carry: roughly 30– 45 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — one large cooler with ice already in it. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Pronghorn Success Rates

All manners of take72%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 82 at 72% — 81 animals taken by 112 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.

Pronghorn Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — 1st Season doe only (resident)	4	41	9.8%	—
Archery — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	2	3	66.7%	—
Archery — 1st Season buck only (resident)	15	118	12.7%	5
Archery — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	1	12	8.3%	6
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (resident)	6	251	2.4%	6
Rifle — 1st Season doe only (nonresident)	0	7	0.0%	—
Rifle — 5th Season doe only (resident)	6	48	12.5%	—
Rifle — 5th Season doe only (nonresident)	0	2	0.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (resident)	58	963	6.0%	10
Rifle — 1st Season buck only (nonresident)	6	91	6.6%	10

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 pronghorn in unit 82, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

AM082O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 963 applicants for 58 licences, 6% drawn, 10 preference points needed
AF082O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Doe Only, resident: 251 applicants for 6 licences, 2.4% drawn, 6 preference points needed
AM082O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Buck Only, resident: 118 applicants for 15 licences, 12.7% drawn, 5 preference points needed
AM082O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Buck Only, nonresident: 91 applicants for 6 licences, 6.6% drawn, 10 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 6 further code-and-residency combinations in the recap for this unit. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Black Bear Hunting in Unit 82

Unit 82 lies in Alamosa and Saguache counties. CPW bounds it by Poncha Pass and Rio Grande- Arkansas River divide among others. CPW publishes no per-unit black bear success figure we can verify for this unit. Federal land covers about 49% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Black Bear in Unit 82

CPW draws an exact line around unit 82 and says nothing about where the black bear stand inside it. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Alamosa and Saguache counties.

The lines of the unit: Poncha Pass, Rio Grande- Arkansas River divide and Alamosa-Costilla Co. line

CPW has unit 82 bounded on the north by Poncha Pass; on the north and east by Rio Grande- Arkansas River divide; on the south by Alamosa-Costilla Co. line and U.S. 160; on the west by Colo. 17 and U.S. 285. Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. 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: Milwaukee Peak, Mount Marcy and Eureka Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Milwaukee Peak at 13,498 feet, Mount Marcy at 13,497 feet, Eureka Mountain at 13,452 feet, Cleveland Peak at 13,359 feet and Mount Herard at 13,342 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: Orient Canyon, Cleveland Gulch and Chokecherry Canyon

Below them sit Orient Canyon at 8,932 feet, Cleveland Gulch at 8,929 feet, Chokecherry Canyon at 8,869 feet, Steel Canyon at 8,814 feet and Hot Springs Canyon at 8,787 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: Steel Canyon STL, Villa Grove STL and Zapata Falls STL

CPW lists Steel Canyon STL, Villa Grove STL, Zapata Falls STL, Mineral Hot Springs STL and Mirage 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 49% of the unit on top of those.

Water: Hayden Spring, Mosca Spring and Tobin Creek Well

Named sources include Hayden Spring, Mosca Spring, Tobin Creek Well, Mineral Hot Springs, Oak Springs and Antelope Springs. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

The herd this unit belongs to: B-7

CPW does not manage black bear unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit B-7, and unit 82 is one piece of it. The rest of B-7 is unit 69, unit 83, unit 84, unit 85, unit 86, unit 140, unit 691 and unit 851 and 1 more. 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 82 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Crestone Peaks (14,258 ft), Ellingwood Point (14,041 ft), California Peak (13,827 ft), Electric Peak (13,586 ft)

Holding ground: Groundhog Basin (11,848 ft), Kolkman Basin (11,599 ft), Big Branch (11,175 ft), Mineral Hot Springs STL, Mirage STL

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

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How to Hunt Black Bear in Unit 82

CPW publishes no black bear success figure for unit 82 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 Mount Owen, Venable Peak and Hermit Peak

Take a position on one of Mount Owen (13,320 ft), Venable Peak (13,304 ft), Hermit Peak (13,289 ft) and Music Mountain (13,284 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. 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, September hunts coincide with the feeding push before denning.

The way in: U.S. 160, Colo. 17 and U.S. 285

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: U.S. 160, Colo. 17 and U.S. 285. 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. Check each of them on a current motor-vehicle-use map before you count on it, because a line on a boundary description is not a promise of public access.

A first plan from the pins on this page

What a day here costs you

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.

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.

Black Bear: 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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Black Bear Success Rates

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates carry no black bear row for unit 82 that we can read back to this unit on its own. Where the agency reports a unit inside a grouping, or prints a table our parser cannot resolve to a single column, we leave the number out rather than publish a statewide average as though it had been measured here. CPW's current harvest estimates are the place to check before you apply.

Black Bear Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts Req
Archery — 1st Season either sex (resident)	47	82	57.3%	—
Archery — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	11	22	50.0%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season either sex (resident)	22	33	66.7%	—
Muzzleloader — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	7	14	50.0%	—
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (resident)	82	299	27.4%	1
Rifle — 1st Season either sex (nonresident)	8	39	20.5%	1
Rifle — 5th Season either sex (resident)	61	138	44.2%	—
Rifle — 5th Season either sex (nonresident)	17	25	68.0%	—

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 black bear in unit 82, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

BE082O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 299 applicants for 82 licences, 27.4% drawn, 1 preference point needed
BE082O5R — Rifle, 5th Season, Either Sex, resident: 138 applicants for 61 licences, 44.2% drawn, no preference points needed
BE082O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Either Sex, resident: 82 applicants for 47 licences, 57.3% drawn, no preference points needed
BE082O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Either Sex, nonresident: 39 applicants for 8 licences, 20.5% drawn, 1 preference point 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 4 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

🚐

RV Sites

Campgrounds near Great Sand Dunes NP. Alamosa has full services.

⛺

Camp Sites

Dispersed camping on Rio Grande NF and BLM land. Developed campgrounds at Piñon Flats near Great Sand Dunes.

🛻

Trailer Access

CO 150 paved to the park. Forest roads narrow. Short trailers only on spur roads.

💧

Water

Medano Creek, Sand Creek, mountain tributaries. Valley floor can be dry. Always filter.

🛣️

Road Conditions

CO 150 paved. Forest roads maintained through October. 4WD for mountain access roads.

🥾

Terrain Difficulty

Moderate to strenuous. Elevation 7,500-14,000 feet. Dramatic elevation gain from valley to peaks.

👥

Hunting Pressure

Moderate near NP boundary. Low in backcountry Sangre de Cristos.

🌦️

Weather

Expect 10-50F during rifle season. Valley floor is dry and windy. Heavy snow on the mountains.

📱

Cell Service

Spotty near Great Sand Dunes. None in mountain backcountry. Satellite communicator recommended.

🏘️

Nearest Town

Alamosa

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit 82?

Unit 82 lies in Alamosa and Saguache counties, and CPW has it bounded on the north by Poncha Pass; on the north and east by Rio Grande- Arkansas River divide; on the south by Alamosa-Costilla Co. line and U.S. 160; on the west by Colo. 17 and U.S. 285.

What is the elk success rate in unit 82?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 82 at 22% across all manners of take, and archery 7%, muzzleloader 17% and rifle 28% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 82?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 82 at 44% across all manners of take, and archery 24% and rifle 47% by weapon. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the pronghorn success rate in unit 82?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 82 at 72% across all manners of take. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the black bear success rate in unit 82?

CPW publishes no black bear success figure we can tie to unit 82 on its own — the 2023 harvest tables either omit the unit or report it in a grouping we could not read back to it reliably. Rather than quote a statewide average as though it were measured here, we say so. Check CPW's current harvest estimates before you apply.

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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 Elk Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for elk in unit 82, 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 82, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22
2023 Colorado Pronghorn Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for pronghorn in unit 82, Hunters and harvest by weapon and season · accessed 2026-10-22

Unit 82 (Great Sand Dunes)

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Elk Hunting in Unit 82

Where to Find Elk in Unit 82

The lines of the unit: Poncha Pass, Rio Grande- Arkansas River divide and Alamosa-Costilla Co. line

High ground inside the line: Crestone Peaks, Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle

Holding ground: Hayden Pass, California Gulch and Medano Pass

Public ground to start from: Mineral Hot Springs STL, Mirage STL and Orient Mine SWA

Water: Oak Springs, Antelope Springs and Denton Spring

The herd this unit belongs to: E-11

Unit 82 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt Elk in Unit 82

Elk Success Rates

Elk Draw Odds

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 82

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 82

The lines of the unit: Poncha Pass, Rio Grande- Arkansas River divide and Alamosa-Costilla Co. line

High ground inside the line: Ellingwood Point, Little Bear Peak and Columbia Point

Holding ground: Willow Creek Park, Mosca Pass and Wilcox Gulch

Public ground to start from: San Luis Lakes SWA, Steel Canyon STL and Villa Grove STL

Water: Cedar Spring, Hayden Spring and Mosca Spring

The herd this unit belongs to: D-56

Unit 82 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt Mule Deer in Unit 82

Mule Deer Success Rates

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Pronghorn Hunting in Unit 82

Where to Find Pronghorn in Unit 82

The lines of the unit: Poncha Pass, Rio Grande- Arkansas River divide and Alamosa-Costilla Co. line

High ground inside the line: Tijeras Peak, Cottonwood Peak and Pico Aislado

Holding ground: Lime Canyon, Black Canyon and Poncha Pass

Public ground to start from: Mirage STL, Orient Mine SWA and Rock Creek STL

Water: Antelope Springs, Denton Spring and King Well

The herd this unit belongs to: A-14

Unit 82 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt Pronghorn in Unit 82

Pronghorn Success Rates

Pronghorn Draw Odds

Black Bear Hunting in Unit 82

Where to Find Black Bear in Unit 82

How to Hunt Black Bear in Unit 82

Black Bear Success Rates

Black Bear Draw Odds

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Explore Related Units

Unit 551 — Elk

Unit 35 — Elk

Unit 82 — Mule Deer

Frequently Asked Questions

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Sources & Verification