Unit S02 (Gore-Eagles Nest)
Colorado Hunting Guide — Bighorn Sheep
Unit S02 lies in Eagle and Summit counties. CPW bounds it by Elk Creek to Piney Ridge and Eagles Nest Wilderness boundary among others. CPW's harvest estimates put bighorn sheep success here as high as 100%. Federal land covers about 87% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit S02
Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit S02 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.
Bighorn Sheep Hunting in Unit S02
Unit S02 lies in Eagle and Summit counties. CPW bounds it by Elk Creek to Piney Ridge and Eagles Nest Wilderness boundary among others. CPW's harvest estimates put bighorn sheep success here as high as 100%. Federal land covers about 87% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Where to Find Bighorn Sheep in Unit S02
CPW's material on unit S02 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its bighorn sheep live. 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 Eagle and Summit counties.
The lines of the unit: Elk Creek to Piney Ridge, Eagles Nest Wilderness boundary and North Fork of Elliott Creek
CPW has unit S02 bounded on the north by Elk Creek to Piney Ridge, Eagles Nest Wilderness boundary, Elliott Ridge/Arapaho/White River National Forest boundary, North Fork of Elliott Creek, Hoagland Reservoir and Elliott Creek; on the east by Blue River; on S b I-70; on the west by Colo. 131 and Colorado River from State Bridge to Elk Creek. It tells you the shape of the unit and nothing about its inhabitants. 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: Mount Powell, Gore Range and Eagles Nest
Named high points inside the unit include Mount Powell at 13,500 feet, Gore Range at 13,500 feet, Eagles Nest at 13,376 feet, Red Peak at 13,143 feet and Keller Mountain at 13,078 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Sheep need rock to escape into and will not stand far from it.
Holding ground: Big Park, Flagstone Park and Officers Gulch
Below them sit Big Park at 9,902 feet, Flagstone Park at 9,473 feet, Officers Gulch at 9,452 feet, Elkhorn Park at 9,329 feet and Ryan Gulch at 9,240 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Work out which of them you can see from one position before you pick a camp.
Public ground to start from: Blue River SWA - Eagle's Nest Unit
CPW lists Blue River SWA - Eagle's Nest Unit 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 87% of the unit on top of those.
Water: Red Spring and Gore Creek Spring
Named sources include Red Spring and Gore Creek 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: RBS-32
CPW does not manage bighorn sheep unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit RBS-32, and unit S02 is one piece of it. The rest of RBS-32 is unit S77. 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 S02 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
Named features inside the unit
Glass from: Mount Powell (13,500 ft), Red Peak (13,143 ft), Keller Mountain (13,078 ft), Buffalo Mountain (12,764 ft)
Holding ground: Uneva Pass (11,915 ft), Eccles Pass (11,893 ft), Moniger Park (10,084 ft), Blue River SWA - Eagle's Nest Unit, Red Spring
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 Bighorn Sheep in Unit S02
Bighorn Sheep Success Rates
CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put bighorn sheep success in unit S02 at 100% — 3 animals taken by 3 hunters. On a sample that small the percentage moves several points with one animal, so read the hunter count beside it.
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.
Bighorn Sheep Draw Odds
| Season | Tags | Applicants | Draw % | Pts Req |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rifle — 1st Season ram only (resident) | 1 | 204 | 0.5% | 3 |
| Rifle — 1st Season ram only (nonresident) | 1 | 268 | 0.4% | 3 |
Data from 2026 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number.
Open in Draw Odds EngineCPW's 2026 draw recap for bighorn sheep in unit S02, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:
- SMS02O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Ram Only, nonresident: 268 applicants for 1 licences, 0.4% drawn, 3 preference points needed
- SMS02O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Ram Only, resident: 204 applicants for 1 licences, 0.5% 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. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.
Unit Logistics & Expectations
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Colorado unit S02?
What is the bighorn sheep success rate in unit S02?
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 Sheep & Goat Hunting Brochure — Game Management Unit (GMU) Descriptions (pp. 16-17) — 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 Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep Harvest Estimates — Colorado Parks and Wildlife · supports: Percent success for bighorn sheep in unit S02, 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