Colorado Bighorn Sheep

Unit S70 (Fossil Ridge)

Colorado Hunting Guide — Bighorn Sheep

Unit S70 lies in Gunnison County. CPW bounds it by USFS 765 and CR 76 among others. CPW's harvest estimates put bighorn sheep success here as high as 100%. Federal land covers about 21% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Colorado Hunting Guide

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21%

Public Land

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Bighorn Sheep guide

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Bighorn Sheep Hunting in Unit S70

Where to Find Bighorn Sheep in Unit S70

CPW draws an exact line around unit S70 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 765, CR 76 and USFS 763 (Waunita Pass Rd.)

CPW has unit S70 bounded on the north by New Mexico Principal Meridian/6th Principal Meridian divide; on the east by USFS 765, CR 76, USFS 763 (Waunita Pass Rd.) and CR 887 (Waunita Hot Springs Rd.); on the south by U.S. 50; on the west by CR 76, BLM Rd. 3103 (North Parlin Flats), USFS 583 and western Fossil Ridge Wilderness boundary. 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: Henry Mountain, Fairview Peak and Square Top Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Henry Mountain at 13,255 feet, Fairview Peak at 13,205 feet, Square Top Mountain at 12,977 feet, Broncho Mountain at 12,829 feet and Fossil Mountain at 12,751 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: Chicago Park, New Dollar Gulch and Halls Gulch

Below them sit Chicago Park at 10,259 feet, New Dollar Gulch at 10,214 feet, Halls Gulch at 9,986 feet, Snowslide Gulch at 9,948 feet and Browns Gulch at 9,851 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

Water: East Side Wood Gulch Spring, Line Spring and Powertime Spring

Named sources include East Side Wood Gulch Spring, Line Spring and Powertime 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 S70 is one piece of it. The rest of RBS-23 is unit S26. 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 S70 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Henry Mountain (13,255 ft), Fairview Peak (13,205 ft), Broncho Mountain (12,829 ft), Fossil Ridge (12,623 ft)

Holding ground: Gunsight Pass (12,177 ft), Payne Gulch (10,961 ft), Jackson Gulch (10,594 ft), East Side Wood Gulch 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 S70

CPW's own harvest estimates put bighorn sheep success in unit S70 at 100% 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 Terrible Mountain, Shaw Ridge and Quartz Dome

Take a position on one of Terrible Mountain (12,117 ft), Shaw Ridge (12,090 ft), Quartz Dome (11,293 ft) and Lookout Mountain (11,096 ft) and be on it before light. Work the morning with the air falling away from you, then accept that by mid-morning the wind has reversed and the plan has to change with it. Glass the edges first, then the shaded timber, then the edges again as the light goes. 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 S70 sits inside RBS-23

Across RBS-23, CPW's 2023 bighorn sheep success runs 100% in unit S70 and 0% in unit S26. Unit S70 is the best of them on that measure, which usually means fewer tags rather than more animals. Success inside one herd moves with tag numbers and season length as much as with animals, so read the licence count alongside it.

The way in: USFS 765, CR 76 and USFS 763

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones CPW draws the boundary with: USFS 765, CR 76, USFS 763, CR 887 and U.S. 50. 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. Pick the edge nearest the country you mean to hunt and work in from it on foot, rather than driving the perimeter looking for a way through.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Henry Mountain, Fairview Peak, Broncho Mountain and Fossil Ridge as places to see from, and Gunsight Pass, Payne Gulch, Jackson Gulch and Pitkin SFU 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

163 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 take100%

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put bighorn sheep success in unit S70 at 100% — 1 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)	1	54	1.9%	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 S70, by hunt code, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:

SMS70O1R — Rifle, 1st Season, Ram Only, resident: 54 applicants for 1 licences, 1.9% 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 only.

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Road Conditions

Remote access from trailheads. Significant hiking required.

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Terrain Difficulty

Extreme. Technical sheep terrain requiring peak physical conditioning.

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Hunting Pressure

Essentially none given three tags over three years.

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Weather

Plan for all weather conditions. Snow likely by October in alpine terrain.

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Cell Service

None in sheep terrain. Satellite communicator required.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit S70?

Unit S70 lies in Gunnison County, and CPW has it bounded on the north by New Mexico Principal Meridian/6th Principal Meridian divide; on the east by USFS 765, CR 76, USFS 763 (Waunita Pass Rd.) and CR 887 (Waunita Hot Springs Rd.); on the south by U.S. 50; on the west by CR 76, BLM Rd. 3103 (North Parlin Flats), USFS 583 and western Fossil Ridge Wilderness boundary.

What is the bighorn sheep success rate in unit S70?

CPW's 2023 harvest estimates put bighorn sheep success in unit S70 at 100% 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 S70, 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