Colorado Bighorn Sheep

Unit S13 (Snowmass East)

Colorado Hunting Guide — Bighorn Sheep

Unit S13 lies in Pitkin County. CPW bounds it by Roaring Fork River and Colo. 82 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put bighorn sheep success here as high as 67%. Federal land covers about 6% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Colorado Hunting Guide

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Public Land

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Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit S13 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.

Bighorn Sheep guide

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Bighorn Sheep Hunting in Unit S13

Where to Find Bighorn Sheep in Unit S13

CPW's material on unit S13 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 Pitkin County.

The lines of the unit: Roaring Fork River, Colo. 82 and Pitkin CRs 14 (Aspen Mtn. Summer Rd.)

CPW has unit S13 bounded on the north and east by Roaring Fork River, Colo. 82, Pitkin CRs 14 (Aspen Mtn. Summer Rd.) and 15 E (Richmond Hill Rd.) and USFS 7761; on the south by Taylor River Head Rd. (USFS 761.1D), Brush Creek Trail (USFS Trail 400), E. Brush Creek Rd. (USFS 738.2B) and Brush Creek Rd. (USFS/Gunnison CR 738); on the west by Colo. 135, Gothic Rd. (Gunnison CR 317), Crystal River-Gunnison River divide, Roaring Fork River-Crystal River divide and Capitol Creek. 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: Castle Peak, Maroon Bells and Maroon Peak

Named high points inside the unit include Castle Peak at 14,244 feet, Maroon Bells at 14,129 feet, Maroon Peak at 14,129 feet, Elk Mountains at 14,129 feet and Capitol Peak at 14,076 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: Willow Pass, Copper Pass and Heckert Pass

Below them sit Willow Pass at 12,577 feet, Copper Pass at 12,541 feet, Heckert Pass at 12,535 feet, Conundrum Basin at 12,484 feet and Buckskin Pass at 12,402 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Reaching the edge of one before light beats reaching its middle at noon.

Public ground to start from: Williams Hill SWA

CPW lists Williams Hill 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 6% of the unit on top of those.

Water: Judd Falls and Conundrum Hot Springs

Named sources include Judd Falls and Conundrum Hot 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: RBS-13

CPW does not manage bighorn sheep unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit RBS-13, and unit S13 is one piece of it. The rest of RBS-13 is unit S25. 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.

Unit S13 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Castle Peak (14,244 ft), Maroon Bells (14,129 ft), Capitol Peak (14,076 ft), Pyramid Peak (13,949 ft)

Holding ground: Electric Pass (13,416 ft), Triangle Pass (12,961 ft), Pearl Pass (12,697 ft), Williams Hill SWA, Judd Falls

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 Bighorn Sheep in Unit S13

CPW's own harvest estimates put bighorn sheep success in unit S13 at 67% across all manners of take. A number like that comes from few tags and a short season, not from easy hunting. The plan: pick a glassing position across from the escape terrain and stay on it for hours, not minutes.

Glassing from Cathedral Peak, Hayden Peak and Snowmass Peak

Take a position on one of Cathedral Peak (13,922 ft), Hayden Peak (13,546 ft), Snowmass Peak (13,527 ft) and Clark Peak (13,516 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. Give a basin forty minutes before you decide it is empty. On the rut hunts, late hunts put rams with ewe groups on the same rock.

Where unit S13 sits inside RBS-13

Across RBS-13, CPW's 2023 bighorn sheep success runs 100% in unit S25 and 67% in unit S13. Unit S13 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 S25 carried the better number in the same herd — check its tag count before you read that as an easier hunt.

The way in: Colo. 82, Pitkin CRs 14 and USFS 7761

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: Colo. 82, Pitkin CRs 14, USFS 7761, USFS 761.1 and USFS 738.2. 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 Castle Peak, Maroon Bells, Capitol Peak and Pyramid Peak as places to see from, and Electric Pass, Triangle Pass, Pearl Pass and Williams Hill SWA 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

332 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

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.

Bighorn Sheep: 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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Bighorn Sheep Success Rates

All manners of take67%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put bighorn sheep success in unit S13 at 67% — 2 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)	2	135	1.5%	3
Rifle — 1st Season ram only (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—

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 bighorn sheep in unit S13, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

SMS13O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Ram Only, resident: 135 applicants for 2 licences, 1.5% 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

Planning Notes

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Road Conditions

US-24, CO-82, and CO-91 are paved. Trailhead access roads are graded gravel; some high-clearance. Wilderness travel is on-foot only.

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Terrain Difficulty

Extremely steep, exposed, and high — 10,000 to 14,400+ ft. Physical and technical demands are serious.

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Hunting Pressure

Minimal on bighorn tags — only 3 per year. Recreational hikers and climbers share trails but not the alpine.

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Weather

Afternoon thunderstorms daily through August and early September; snow possible any time. Late-season hunts demand full winter gear.

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Cell Service

Decent in the valley corridors; none in the wilderness alpine.

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Nearest Town

Buena Vista, Leadville, and Salida provide full services, outfitters, and gear rental. Denver (3 hours east) for technical mountaineering gear.

Note: We pre-file a detailed itinerary with a trusted contact and carry a satellite communicator on every trip into the S13 alpine.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit S13?

Unit S13 lies in Pitkin County, and CPW has it bounded on the north and east by Roaring Fork River, Colo. 82, Pitkin CRs 14 (Aspen Mtn. Summer Rd.) and 15 E (Richmond Hill Rd.) and USFS 7761; on the south by Taylor River Head Rd. (USFS 761.1D), Brush Creek Trail (USFS Trail 400), E. Brush Creek Rd. (USFS 738.2B) and Brush Creek Rd. (USFS/Gunnison CR 738); on the west by Colo. 135, Gothic Rd. (Gunnison CR 317), Crystal River-Gunnison River divide, Roaring Fork River-Crystal River divide and Capitol Creek.

What is the bighorn sheep success rate in unit S13?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put bighorn sheep success in unit S13 at 67% across all manners of take. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

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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 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 S13, 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