Unit 851

CPW's own harvest estimates put mule deer success in unit 851 at archery 39% and rifle 53%. 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 Miranda Peak, Mariquita Peak and De Anza Peak

Take a position on one of Miranda Peak (13,432 ft), Mariquita Peak (13,383 ft), De Anza Peak (13,324 ft) and The Little Wall (9,691 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, late-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.

Where unit 851 sits inside D-32

Across D-32, CPW's 2023 mule deer success runs 53% in unit 85, 51% in unit 851 and 29% in unit 140. That puts unit 851 behind 1 of the 2 other units in the herd. If the draw lets you choose, unit 85 carried the better number in the same herd — check its tag count before you read that as an easier hunt.

The way in: Colo. 12 and I-25

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: Colo. 12 and I-25. 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

The map above marks Red Mountain, Purgatoire Peak and Miranda Peak as places to see from, and Devils Park, Wilkens Park and Bosque del Oso 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

438 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.

What CPW publishes for unit 851 is a boundary, not a black bear 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 Costilla and Las Animas counties.

The lines of the unit: North forks of Purgatoire River, Colo. 12 and Sangre de Cristo divide

CPW has unit 851 bounded on the north by West and North forks of Purgatoire River and Colo. 12; on the east by I-25; on the south by NM; on the west by Sangre de Cristo 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: Vermejo Peak, Purgatoire Peak and Miranda Peak

Named high points inside the unit include Vermejo Peak at 13,703 feet, Purgatoire Peak at 13,658 feet, Miranda Peak at 13,432 feet, Mariquita Peak at 13,383 feet and De Anza Peak at 13,324 feet. None carries a public-land flag we trust, so settle the ownership question before you plan to stand on one. Bears follow food, which in early autumn means oakbrush, chokecherry and serviceberry on south slopes.

Holding ground: South Valley, Park Plateau and Bandarito Canyon

Below them sit South Valley at 7,903 feet, Park Plateau at 7,857 feet, Bandarito Canyon at 7,563 feet, Trail Canyon at 7,560 feet and Cottonwood Canyon at 7,476 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: Bosque del Oso SWA

CPW lists Bosque del Oso 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 1% of the unit on top of those.

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 851 is one piece of it. The rest of B-7 is unit 69, unit 82, unit 83, unit 84, unit 85, unit 86, unit 140 and unit 691 and 1 more. 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.

CPW publishes no black bear success figure for unit 851 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 The Stonewall, Ute Hills and Red Mountain

Take a position on one of The Stonewall (9,259 ft), Ute Hills (9,048 ft), Red Mountain (13,896 ft) and Vermejo Peak (13,703 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 hunts coincide with the feeding push before denning.

The way in: Colo. 12 and I-25

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: Colo. 12 and I-25. 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 Red Mountain, Purgatoire Peak and Miranda Peak as places to see from, and Devils Park, Wilkens Park and Bosque del Oso 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

438 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. 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.