Colorado Bighorn Sheep

Unit S26 (Taylor River)

Colorado Hunting Guide — Bighorn Sheep

Unit S26 lies in Gunnison County. CPW bounds it by USFS/Gunnison CR 738 (Brush Creek Rd.) and USFS 738.2B (East Brush Creek Rd.) among others. CPW's harvest estimates put bighorn sheep success here as high as 0%. 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

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Bighorn Sheep guide

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Bighorn Sheep Hunting in Unit S26

Where to Find Bighorn Sheep in Unit S26

CPW draws an exact line around unit S26 and says nothing about where the bighorn sheep stand inside it. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Gunnison County.

The lines of the unit: USFS/Gunnison CR 738 (Brush Creek Rd.), USFS 738.2B (East Brush Creek Rd.) and USFS Trail 400 (Brush Creek Trail)

CPW has unit S26 bounded on the north by USFS/Gunnison CR 738 (Brush Creek Rd.), USFS 738.2B (East Brush Creek Rd.), USFS Trail 400 (Brush Creek Trail), 761.1D (Taylor River Head Rd.); on the east by USFS Rds. 761 (Taylor Pass Rd.) and 742, and Willow Creek, Middle Willow Creek and Cumberland Pass Rd.; on the south by New Mexico Principal Meridian/6th Principal Meridian divide, western Fossil Ridge Wilderness boundary and Lost Canyon Rd.; on the west by Colo. 135. 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: Italian Mountain, Lambertson Peak and Crystal Peak

Named high points inside the unit include Italian Mountain at 13,345 feet, Lambertson Peak at 12,982 feet, Crystal Peak at 12,758 feet, American Flag Mountain at 12,719 feet and Hunters Hill at 12,588 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: Porcupine Gulch, Dustin Gulch and Burro Gulch

Below them sit Porcupine Gulch at 10,571 feet, Dustin Gulch at 10,441 feet, Burro Gulch at 10,421 feet, Horse Basin at 10,419 feet and Slaughterhouse Gulch at 10,196 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Reaching the edge of one before light beats reaching its middle at noon.

Public ground to start from: Almont Triangle SWA and Leaps Gulch SWA

CPW lists Almont Triangle SWA and Leaps Gulch 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: Biebel Springs, Cement Creek Hot Spring and Ranger Hot Spring

Named sources include Biebel Springs, Cement Creek Hot Spring, Ranger Hot Spring, White Water Spring and Caroline 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-23

CPW does not manage bighorn sheep unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit RBS-23, and unit S26 is one piece of it. The rest of RBS-23 is unit S70. 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 S26 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Italian Mountain (13,345 ft), Crystal Peak (12,758 ft), American Flag Mountain (12,719 ft), Mount Tilton (12,511 ft)

Holding ground: Eyre Basin (11,602 ft), Hells Half Acre (10,808 ft), Doctor Park (10,760 ft), Almont Triangle SWA, Leaps Gulch SWA

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 S26

CPW's own harvest estimates put bighorn sheep success in unit S26 at 0% across all manners of take. A number that low means most hunters here go home empty, and the ones who don't put the days in first. The plan: pick a glassing position across from the escape terrain and stay on it for hours, not minutes.

Glassing from Matchless Mountain, South Matchless Mountain and Cement Mountain

Take a position on one of Matchless Mountain (12,379 ft), South Matchless Mountain (12,223 ft), Cement Mountain (12,196 ft) and Double Top (12,175 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 hunts put rams with ewe groups on the same rock.

Getting past the roads

There is little true four-wheel-drive road here, so distance from the gravel is the only thing separating you from the next hunter. One mapped public entry point falls inside the unit, so decide which one you take before the morning you take it.

Where unit S26 sits inside RBS-23

Across RBS-23, CPW's 2023 bighorn sheep success runs 100% in unit S70 and 0% in unit S26. Unit S26 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 S70 carried the better number in the same herd — check its tag count before you read that as an easier hunt.

The way in: Gunnison CR 738, USFS 738.2 and Colo. 135

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: Gunnison CR 738, USFS 738.2 and Colo. 135. 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 Italian Mountain, Crystal Peak, American Flag Mountain and Mount Tilton as places to see from, and Eyre Basin, Hells Half Acre, Doctor Park and Almont Triangle 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

402 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

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 take0%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put bighorn sheep success in unit S26 at 0% — 0 animals taken by 2 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
Archery — 1st Season ram only (resident)	2	56	3.6%	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 Engine

CPW's 2026 draw recap for bighorn sheep in unit S26, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

SMS26O1A — Archery, 1st Season, Ram Only, resident: 56 applicants for 2 licences, 3.6% 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. Figures checked against CPW's own statistics pages on 2026-06-09.

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

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Camp Sites

Backcountry camping required. No developed facilities.

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Road Conditions

Remote access. Significant hiking from trailhead required.

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Terrain Difficulty

Extreme. Technical sheep terrain requiring elite fitness.

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Hunting Pressure

Very low given six tags over three years.

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Weather

Variable. Alpine areas see snow by September-October.

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Cell Service

None in sheep terrain.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit S26?

Unit S26 lies in Gunnison County, and CPW has it bounded on the north by USFS/Gunnison CR 738 (Brush Creek Rd.), USFS 738.2B (East Brush Creek Rd.), USFS Trail 400 (Brush Creek Trail), 761.1D (Taylor River Head Rd.); on the east by USFS Rds. 761 (Taylor Pass Rd.) and 742, and Willow Creek, Middle Willow Creek and Cumberland Pass Rd.; on the south by New Mexico Principal Meridian/6th Principal Meridian divide, western Fossil Ridge Wilderness boundary and Lost Canyon Rd.; on the west by Colo. 135.

What is the bighorn sheep success rate in unit S26?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put bighorn sheep success in unit S26 at 0% 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 S26, 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