Unit S23 (Kenosha)
Colorado Hunting Guide — Bighorn Sheep
Unit S23 lies in Park and Jefferson counties. CPW bounds it by U.S. 285 and Park CR 68 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put bighorn sheep success here as high as 0%. Federal land covers about 39% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit S23
Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit S23 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 S23
Unit S23 lies in Park and Jefferson counties. CPW bounds it by U.S. 285 and Park CR 68 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put bighorn sheep success here as high as 0%. Federal land covers about 39% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Where to Find Bighorn Sheep in Unit S23
What CPW publishes for unit S23 is a boundary, not a bighorn sheep 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 Park and Jefferson counties.
The lines of the unit: U.S. 285, Park CR 68 and USFS 543
CPW has unit S23 bounded on the north by U.S. 285; on the north and east by Park CR 68, USFS 543 and 560; on the south by USFS 545, USFS Trail 609, Park CR 56 and USFS 56 (Lost Park Rd.); on the west by U.S. 285. That is a legal description, not a habitat map. 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: Kenosha Mountains, South Twin Cone Peak and Platte River Mountains
Named high points inside the unit include Kenosha Mountains at 12,395 feet, South Twin Cone Peak at 12,311 feet, Platte River Mountains at 12,301 feet, North Twin Cone Peak at 12,301 feet and Mount Blaine at 12,291 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: Kenosha Gulch, Craig Meadows and Bluestem Draw
Below them sit Kenosha Gulch at 9,027 feet, Craig Meadows at 8,711 feet, Bluestem Draw at 8,670 feet, Hinkle Gulch at 8,576 feet and McArthur Gulch at 7,968 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Two you can watch from a single knob is worth more than five you have to drive between.
Public ground to start from: McArthur Gulch STL
CPW lists McArthur Gulch 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 39% of the unit on top of those.
The herd this unit belongs to: RBS-06
CPW does not manage bighorn sheep unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit RBS-06, and unit S23 is one piece of it. The rest of RBS-06 is unit S27. 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 S23 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
Named features inside the unit
Glass from: Kenosha Mountains (12,395 ft), South Twin Cone Peak (12,311 ft), Windy Peak (11,935 ft), Shawnee Peak (11,890 ft)
Holding ground: Craig Park (11,048 ft), Kenosha Pass (9,994 ft), East Lost Park (9,687 ft), McArthur Gulch 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 Bighorn Sheep in Unit S23
Bighorn Sheep Success Rates
CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put bighorn sheep success in unit S23 at 0% — 0 animals taken by 1 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 | 179 | 1.1% | 3 |
| Rifle — 1st Season ram only (nonresident) | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | — |
| Archery — 1st Season ram only (resident) | 1 | 32 | 3.1% | 3 |
| Archery — 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 EngineCPW's 2026 draw recap for bighorn sheep in unit S23, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:
- SMS23O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Ram Only, resident: 179 applicants for 2 licences, 1.1% drawn, 3 preference points needed
- SMS23O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Ram Only, resident: 32 applicants for 1 licences, 3.1% 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 S23?
What is the bighorn sheep success rate in unit S23?
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 S23, 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