Unit S29 (Alamosa Canyon)
Colorado Hunting Guide — Bighorn Sheep
Unit S29 lies in Conejos, Mineral and Rio Grande counties. CPW bounds it by U.S. 160 and Colo. 15 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put bighorn sheep success here as high as 0%. Federal land covers about 25% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit S29
Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Colorado Unit S29 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 S29
Unit S29 lies in Conejos, Mineral and Rio Grande counties. CPW bounds it by U.S. 160 and Colo. 15 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put bighorn sheep success here as high as 0%. Federal land covers about 25% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Where to Find Bighorn Sheep in Unit S29
CPW's material on unit S29 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 Conejos, Mineral and Rio Grande counties.
The lines of the unit: U.S. 160, Colo. 15 and USFS 255
CPW has unit S29 bounded on the north by U.S. 160; on the east by Colo. 15; on the south by USFS 255, 240 and 259, USFS Trail 706, USFS 260, 250 and 380; on the west by Continental Divide. 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: Bennett Peak, Pintada Mountain and North Mountain
Named high points inside the unit include Bennett Peak at 13,203 feet, Pintada Mountain at 12,818 feet, North Mountain at 12,743 feet, Grayback Mountain at 12,612 feet and Windy Mountain 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: Wolf Creek Pass, Big Park and Ruston Park
Below them sit Wolf Creek Pass at 10,834 feet, Big Park at 10,606 feet, Ruston Park at 10,591 feet, Big Hollow at 10,492 feet and Horseshoe Park at 10,377 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.
Public ground to start from: Alamosa Canyon STL, Alberta Park Reservoir SWA and American Gulch STL
CPW lists Alamosa Canyon STL, Alberta Park Reservoir SWA, American Gulch STL, Beaver Creek Reservoir SWA and Chiquito Peak 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 25% of the unit on top of those.
Water: Shillings Spring, Cedar Spring and Goat Ranch Spring
Named sources include Shillings Spring, Cedar Spring and Goat Ranch 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-24
CPW does not manage bighorn sheep unit by unit. It manages them as data analysis unit RBS-24, and unit S29 is one piece of it. The rest of RBS-24 is unit S30 and unit S31. 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 S29 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
Named features inside the unit
Glass from: Bennett Peak (13,203 ft), Pintada Mountain (12,818 ft), North Mountain (12,743 ft), Grayback Mountain (12,612 ft)
Holding ground: Summit Pass (11,780 ft), Blowout Pass (11,762 ft), Willow Park (11,287 ft), Alamosa Canyon STL, Alberta Park Reservoir 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 S29
Bighorn Sheep Success Rates
CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put bighorn sheep success in unit S29 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 ewe only (resident) | 1 | 13 | 7.7% | 3 |
| Rifle — 1st Season ewe only (nonresident) | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | — |
| Rifle — 1st Season ram only (resident) | 2 | 161 | 1.2% | 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 EngineCPW's 2026 draw recap for bighorn sheep in unit S29, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:
- SMS29O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Ram Only, resident: 161 applicants for 2 licences, 1.2% drawn, 3 preference points needed
- SFS29O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Ewe Only, resident: 13 applicants for 1 licences, 7.7% 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 S29?
What is the bighorn sheep success rate in unit S29?
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 S29, 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