Idaho Elk Whitetail Moose

Unit 12 (Lolo Zone)

Idaho Hunting Guide — Elk, Whitetail, Moose

Unit 12 lies in Clearwater and Idaho counties and covers about 1,186 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 1,714 to 8,440 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 8%. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Idaho Hunting Guide

⛰️

2,684–6,711 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 12

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Idaho Unit 12 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.

Elk guide Whitetail guide Moose guide

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Elk Hunting in Unit 12

Where to Find Elk in Unit 12

Idaho Fish and Game's material on unit 12 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its elk live. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Clearwater and Idaho counties. It runs to about 1,186 square miles.

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up elk hunting in unit 12

Idaho Fish and Game runs its general elk seasons by elk management zone rather than unit by unit, and puts unit 12 in the Lolo Zone, so the zone's tag rules are the ones that apply here.

The lines of the unit: Smith Creek, Middle Fork and Clearwater River

Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 12 in Clearwater and Idaho counties on a line that runs along Forest Service Road 101 and Forest Service Road 500, and past Smith Creek, Middle Fork, Clearwater River and Papoose Creek, written out corner by corner in its unit boundary descriptions. 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: Shattuck Mountain, Grave Peak and Frog Peak

Named high points inside the unit include Shattuck Mountain at 8,440 feet, Grave Peak at 8,236 feet, Frog Peak at 8,060 feet, Friday Ridge at 7,975 feet and Hidden Creek Ridge at 7,911 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Elk want timber to bed in and open ground to feed on, within a short walk of each other.

Holding ground: Blodgett Pass, Kube Park and Marion Meadows

Below them sit Blodgett Pass at 6,703 feet, Kube Park at 6,692 feet, Marion Meadows at 6,369 feet, Gold Meadows at 6,182 feet and Savage Pass at 6,180 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

Water: Icicle Spring and Jerry Johnson Hot Springs

The water inside the unit line comes to 407 mapped stream reaches, 52 lakes, 79 stock tanks and 1 springs. Named sources include Icicle Spring and Jerry Johnson Hot Springs. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

Reading the land status

Our ownership read for this unit is approximate — it comes out as National Forest 60%, Private / Other 32% and State Trust 8%, so treat it as a starting point and check a current land-status layer before you plan a route. Named ground inside unit 12 runs from 1,714 feet to 8,440 feet — more than 4,000 feet between the named features alone, so the season you draw decides which part of it you hunt.

Unit 12 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

2,684–6,711 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 5,295 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
1,186.4 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 32%

Roughly 68% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

79 tanks
1 springs
407 stream segments
52 lakes

Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Shattuck Mountain (8,440 ft), Grave Peak (8,236 ft), Frog Peak (8,060 ft), Hidden Peak (7,814 ft)

Holding ground: Friday Pass (7,958 ft), Tom Beal Park (6,850 ft), Beaver Meadows (6,821 ft), Icicle Spring, Jerry Johnson Hot Springs

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 Elk in Unit 12

Idaho Fish and Game's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 12 at 8% 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: find the feed, find the timber it backs onto, then watch the seam between them at the edges of the day.

Glassing from Chimney Peak, Williams Peak and Rupe Peak

Take a position on one of Chimney Peak (7,625 ft), Williams Peak (7,623 ft), Rupe Peak (7,621 ft) and Tom Beal Peak (7,554 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, September bugling works where you can get above a drainage and let the thermals carry sound downhill.

Water against feed

There are 407 mapped stream reaches and 79 tanks inside the unit, so water is rarely the limiting factor. Where water is everywhere, feed is what concentrates animals, so hunt the feed and treat water as a convenience. Sitting water works where you can see fresh tracks going in, and nowhere else.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Season normals here run Sep 76/45°F, Oct 60/37°F and Nov 44/30°F. Warm afternoons compress the hunting into the first and last hour, and make meat care the day's real problem rather than the shot. Precipitation runs about 1.4 in. in Sep, 2.7 in. in Oct and 4.1 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: Lolo Trail and FR 500

US 12 is the paved frame, which is also where everyone else starts. FR 500, FR 101 and FR 317 need clearance, and that is usually where the boot tracks thin out. There are roughly 15.9 miles of genuine four-wheel-drive road in the unit, and the country past the end of them is the part worth your legs.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Shattuck Mountain, Grave Peak, Frog Peak and Hidden Peak as places to see from, and Friday Pass, Tom Beal Park, Beaver Meadows and Icicle Spring as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the unit line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Join two of them into a morning: be on the first before light, move to the second once the thermals turn.

What a day here costs you

1,186 square miles is more country than a week will cover, so pick one drainage and learn it rather than driving the unit. The nearest services are at Pinesdale, about 36 miles out, which is an hour of your morning each way if you sleep there. With 6,726 feet between the lowest and highest ground, the walk back up out of a kill site is the part to plan first. 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.

Getting in and staying out: unit 12

Named routes and what they need

Lolo Trail — 21.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
FR 500 — 14.4 mi · High-clearance
FR 101 — 10.5 mi · High-clearance
FR 317 — 10 mi · High-clearance
FR 107 — 8.5 mi · High-clearance
US 12 — 6.1 mi · Paved (all rigs)

Ratings come from road data, not from a drive this season. Check current conditions with the managing office before you commit a trailer.

Nearest services

Pinesdale — 36.1 mi · groceries
Victor — 38.8 mi · fuel, groceries
Pierce — 40.1 mi · no services listed
Hamilton — 40.2 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
Corvallis — 41.2 mi · fuel, groceries

Developed camps

Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
First Beaver Ridge Spot
Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan37° / 25° · 3.8" precip
Aug88° / 51° · 0.9" precip
Sep76° / 45° · 1.4" precip
Oct60° / 37° · 2.7" precip
Nov44° / 30° · 4.1" precip
Dec36° / 25° · 3.6" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 21% of the unit. Plan on being out of contact and tell someone your route.

Idaho rules that decide your day

Summarised from IDFG 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

Idaho has no general off-road retrieval allowance on federal ground; stay on designated routes.

Tagging

Validate the tag by cutting out the month and day, and attach it to the carcass before moving it.

Leaving meat

Wasting edible meat is illegal.

Where you may not shoot

Occupied structures — No shooting from or across a public highway, and no shooting toward an occupied dwelling.

Elk: 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. That is lungs, and on a quartering-away angle it picks up the far shoulder.

Shots to refuse

No straight-on and no straight-away shots. An elk's chest is deep and the margin is small.
Nothing standing behind or overlapping the animal you picked. A pass-through kills the elk behind it too.
Your maximum range is the farthest you have put three shots in a paper plate off the sticks you are actually carrying. Not the farthest you have ever hit anything.
Scope on 3–4x. A herd fills a 12x field of view and you lose the animal you picked.

Identification:On an antlerless tag, legal means no antler of any kind through the skin. A spike looks exactly like a cow until it turns its head. If you can't see the head, don't shoot.

Plan the carry: roughly 150– 220 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — two to four large coolers, plus bagged ice from town. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Unlock elk tactics for Unit 12

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Elk Success Rates

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 12 at 8% — 20 animals taken by 242 hunters. The hunter count is large enough for the percentage to mean something and small enough that a good or bad year still moves 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 Idaho Fish and Game's current harvest estimates before you read a trend into them.

Elk Draw Odds

Draw odds data not available for this specific unit/species combination in our database.

Search Idaho Draw Odds

Idaho Fish and Game's draw results for 2022 to 2026 carry no first-drawing elk hunt we can tie to unit 12. Rather than estimate, we leave it blank: Idaho Fish and Game's hunt planner lists drawing odds hunt by hunt.

Whitetail Hunting in Unit 12

Unit 12 lies in Clearwater and Idaho counties and covers about 1,186 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 1,714 to 8,440 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put deer success here as high as 27%. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find White-Tailed Deer in Unit 12

Idaho Fish and Game's material on unit 12 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its white-tailed deer live. Every place named below sits inside the unit line. Which of them holds animals in your season is for you to find out. The unit lies in Clearwater and Idaho counties. It runs to about 1,186 square miles.

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up white-tailed deer hunting in unit 12

Idaho Fish and Game keeps a general deer season page for unit 12, and that page is where this year's dates and weapon rules live. It also publishes a white-tailed deer season page for the unit, which it does only where it offers white-tailed deer opportunity.

The lines of the unit: Smith Creek, Middle Fork and Clearwater River

Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 12 in Clearwater and Idaho counties on a line that runs along Forest Service Road 101 and Forest Service Road 500, and past Smith Creek, Middle Fork, Clearwater River and Papoose Creek, written out corner by corner in its unit boundary descriptions. That is a legal description, not a habitat map. 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: Hidden Peak, Hungry Rock and Dan Ridge

Named high points inside the unit include Hidden Peak at 7,814 feet, Hungry Rock at 7,735 feet, Dan Ridge at 7,689 feet, Chimney Peak at 7,625 feet and Williams Peak at 7,623 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. White-tailed deer hold to cover — river bottoms, brushy draws and timber edges — and rarely stray far from it.

Holding ground: Warm Springs Pass, Kooskooskia Meadows and Moon Saddle

Below them sit Warm Springs Pass at 6,132 feet, Kooskooskia Meadows at 6,104 feet, Moon Saddle at 6,100 feet, Indian Meadows at 6,037 feet and Lost Knife Meadows at 6,022 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Work out which of them you can see from one position before you pick a camp.

Water: Icicle Spring and Jerry Johnson Hot Springs

Reading the land status

Unit 12 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

2,684–6,711 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 5,295 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
1,186.4 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 32%

Roughly 68% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

79 tanks
1 springs
407 stream segments
52 lakes

Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Shattuck Mountain (8,440 ft), Grave Peak (8,236 ft), Frog Peak (8,060 ft), Hidden Peak (7,814 ft)

Holding ground: Friday Pass (7,958 ft), Tom Beal Park (6,850 ft), Beaver Meadows (6,821 ft), Icicle Spring, Jerry Johnson Hot Springs

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 White-Tailed Deer in Unit 12

Idaho Fish and Game's own harvest estimates put deer success in unit 12 at 27% across all manners of take. That is an ordinary spread for this country, and it rewards whoever scouted. The plan: find the trails between bedding cover and feed, then sit downwind of them at first and last light.

Glassing from Granite Peak, Eagle Mountain and Beaver Ridge

Take a position on one of Granite Peak (7,536 ft), Eagle Mountain (7,404 ft), Beaver Ridge (7,358 ft) and Sponge Mountain (7,324 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. Give a basin forty minutes before you decide it is empty. On the rut hunts, November bucks travel and check doe groups in daylight, which is when a stand on a travel route pays.

Water against feed

There are 407 mapped stream reaches and 79 tanks inside the unit, so water is rarely the limiting factor. Where water is everywhere, feed is what concentrates animals, so hunt the feed and treat water as a convenience. Check the ground around it before you commit an evening to it.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Getting past the roads: Lolo Trail and FR 500

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Shattuck Mountain, Grave Peak, Frog Peak and Hidden Peak as places to see from, and Friday Pass, Tom Beal Park, Beaver Meadows and Icicle Spring 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

1,186 square miles is more country than a week will cover, so pick one drainage and learn it rather than driving the unit. The nearest services are at Pinesdale, about 36 miles out, which is an hour of your morning each way if you sleep there. With 6,726 feet between the lowest and highest ground, the walk back up out of a kill site is the part to plan first. One good position held through the whole of first light beats three visited in a hurry.

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.

Getting in and staying out: unit 12

Named routes and what they need

Lolo Trail — 21.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
FR 500 — 14.4 mi · High-clearance
FR 101 — 10.5 mi · High-clearance
FR 317 — 10 mi · High-clearance
FR 107 — 8.5 mi · High-clearance
US 12 — 6.1 mi · Paved (all rigs)

Ratings come from road data, not from a drive this season. Check current conditions with the managing office before you commit a trailer.

Nearest services

Pinesdale — 36.1 mi · groceries
Victor — 38.8 mi · fuel, groceries
Pierce — 40.1 mi · no services listed
Hamilton — 40.2 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
Corvallis — 41.2 mi · fuel, groceries

Developed camps

Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
First Beaver Ridge Spot
Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan37° / 25° · 3.8" precip
Aug88° / 51° · 0.9" precip
Sep76° / 45° · 1.4" precip
Oct60° / 37° · 2.7" precip
Nov44° / 30° · 4.1" precip
Dec36° / 25° · 3.6" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 21% of the unit. Plan on being out of contact and tell someone your route.

Idaho rules that decide your day

Summarised from IDFG 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

Idaho has no general off-road retrieval allowance on federal ground; stay on designated routes.

Tagging

Validate the tag by cutting out the month and day, and attach it to the carcass before moving it.

Leaving meat

Wasting edible meat is illegal.

Where you may not shoot

Occupied structures — No shooting from or across a public highway, and no shooting toward an occupied dwelling.

Whitetail: 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.

Pro Members Only

Unlock whitetail tactics for Unit 12

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Whitetail Success Rates

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put deer success in unit 12 at 27% — 57 animals taken by 213 hunters. The hunter count is large enough for the percentage to mean something and small enough that a good or bad year still moves it. The figure is IDFG's result for deer in the unit, not for white-tailed deer alone.

Whitetail Draw Odds

Draw odds data not available for this specific unit/species combination in our database.

Search Idaho Draw Odds

Idaho Fish and Game's draw results for 2022 to 2026 carry no first-drawing white-tailed deer hunt we can tie to unit 12. Rather than estimate, we leave it blank: Idaho Fish and Game's hunt planner lists drawing odds hunt by hunt.

Moose Hunting in Unit 12

Unit 12 lies in Clearwater and Idaho counties and covers about 1,186 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 1,714 to 8,440 feet. Idaho Fish and Game publishes no per-unit Shiras moose success figure we can verify for this unit. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Shiras Moose in Unit 12

What Idaho Fish and Game publishes for unit 12 is a boundary, not a Shiras moose 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 Clearwater and Idaho counties. It runs to about 1,186 square miles.

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up Shiras moose hunting in unit 12

Idaho Fish and Game hunts Shiras moose here only by controlled hunt, and draws 5 hunt areas that reach into unit 12: 12-1, 12-2, 12-3, 12-4 and 12-5. Each is its own piece of ground with its own tags, so the tag you draw decides which part of the unit you hunt.

The lines of the unit: Smith Creek, Middle Fork and Clearwater River

Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 12 in Clearwater and Idaho counties on a line that runs along Forest Service Road 101 and Forest Service Road 500, and past Smith Creek, Middle Fork, Clearwater River and Papoose Creek, written out corner by corner in its unit boundary descriptions. That is a legal description, not a habitat map. 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: Rupe Peak, Tom Beal Peak and Granite Peak

Named high points inside the unit include Rupe Peak at 7,621 feet, Tom Beal Peak at 7,554 feet, Granite Peak at 7,536 feet, Eagle Mountain at 7,404 feet and Beaver Ridge at 7,358 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Moose want willow, water and shade, and they rarely leave the drainage that has all three.

Holding ground: Elk Meadows, Lost Park Meadows and Sponge Meadows

Below them sit Elk Meadows at 5,974 feet, Lost Park Meadows at 5,943 feet, Sponge Meadows at 5,928 feet, Sneakfoot Meadows at 5,905 feet and No-see-um Meadows at 5,894 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Reaching the edge of one before light beats reaching its middle at noon.

Water: Icicle Spring and Jerry Johnson Hot Springs

Reading the land status

Unit 12 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

2,684–6,711 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 5,295 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
1,186.4 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 32%

Roughly 68% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

79 tanks
1 springs
407 stream segments
52 lakes

Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Shattuck Mountain (8,440 ft), Grave Peak (8,236 ft), Frog Peak (8,060 ft), Hidden Peak (7,814 ft)

Holding ground: Friday Pass (7,958 ft), Tom Beal Park (6,850 ft), Beaver Meadows (6,821 ft), Icicle Spring, Jerry Johnson Hot Springs

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 Shiras Moose in Unit 12

Idaho Fish and Game publishes no Shiras moose success figure for unit 12 that we can tie to this unit alone, so we won't quote one. The plan: walk the willow bottoms slowly at first and last light and look for fresh browse before you look for the animal.

Applying for a unit 12 tag

Idaho Fish and Game takes moose, bighorn sheep and mountain goat applications together, and anyone who applies for one of the three may not apply for another big game controlled hunt in the same year's first drawing, apart from the unlimited, extra, black bear and depredation hunts IDFG names. A hunter drawn for moose may not apply for a moose tag again for two years except for leftovers, and IDFG allows one antlered and one antlerless moose per hunter in a lifetime. Two hunters may apply together on one application. Idaho's draw is random, with no preference or bonus points to build.

Glassing from Pilot Knob, Skookum Butte and Bear Mountain

Take a position on one of Pilot Knob (7,238 ft), Skookum Butte (7,184 ft), Bear Mountain (7,183 ft) and Saturday Ridge (7,012 ft) and be on it before light. In the dark the air runs downhill. Pick an approach that doesn't send it into the country you want to see, and plan to move once the slope warms. 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 September bulls answer a cow call near water.

Water against feed

There are 407 mapped stream reaches and 79 tanks inside the unit, so water is rarely the limiting factor. Where water is everywhere, feed is what concentrates animals, so hunt the feed and treat water as a convenience. A tank with no tracks is a tank with no reason to sit on it.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Getting past the roads: Lolo Trail and FR 500

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Shattuck Mountain, Grave Peak, Frog Peak and Hidden Peak as places to see from, and Friday Pass, Tom Beal Park, Beaver Meadows and Icicle Spring 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.

Getting in and staying out: unit 12

Named routes and what they need

Lolo Trail — 21.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
FR 500 — 14.4 mi · High-clearance
FR 101 — 10.5 mi · High-clearance
FR 317 — 10 mi · High-clearance
FR 107 — 8.5 mi · High-clearance
US 12 — 6.1 mi · Paved (all rigs)

Ratings come from road data, not from a drive this season. Check current conditions with the managing office before you commit a trailer.

Nearest services

Pinesdale — 36.1 mi · groceries
Victor — 38.8 mi · fuel, groceries
Pierce — 40.1 mi · no services listed
Hamilton — 40.2 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
Corvallis — 41.2 mi · fuel, groceries

Developed camps

Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
First Beaver Ridge Spot
Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan37° / 25° · 3.8" precip
Aug88° / 51° · 0.9" precip
Sep76° / 45° · 1.4" precip
Oct60° / 37° · 2.7" precip
Nov44° / 30° · 4.1" precip
Dec36° / 25° · 3.6" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 21% of the unit. Plan on being out of contact and tell someone your route.

Idaho rules that decide your day

Summarised from IDFG 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

Idaho has no general off-road retrieval allowance on federal ground; stay on designated routes.

Tagging

Validate the tag by cutting out the month and day, and attach it to the carcass before moving it.

Leaving meat

Wasting edible meat is illegal.

Where you may not shoot

Occupied structures — No shooting from or across a public highway, and no shooting toward an occupied dwelling.

Moose: where to put the shot

Broadside, behind the shoulder and a third up. Moose look slow to react — the first shot has to count.

Shots to refuse

Where it falls decides your next two days. Avoid shots that drop a moose in water or a bog.
A .30-06 class cartridge minimum, with a bullet built for heavy bone.

Plan the carry: roughly 350– 500 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — four or more large coolers, or a processor. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

Pro Members Only

Unlock moose tactics for Unit 12

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Moose Success Rates

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 general-hunt harvest statistics carry no Shiras moose success figure for unit 12 with a hunter count behind it, so we leave the number out rather than print one we cannot read back to this unit. Idaho Fish and Game's hunt planner is the place to check before you apply.

Moose Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (resident)	1	5	20.0%	—
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (nonresident)	0	5	0.0%	—

Data from 2026 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number. This agency publishes no point thresholds, so the Pts column stays blank and these are pool odds, not what a point total draws.

Open in Draw Odds Engine

Idaho Fish and Game's draw results for 2022 to 2026 carry no first-drawing Shiras moose hunt we can tie to unit 12. Rather than estimate, we leave it blank: Idaho Fish and Game's hunt planner lists drawing odds hunt by hunt.

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

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Camp Sites

41 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit, including First Beaver Ridge Spot, Bear camp and giant cedar.

🛣️

Road Conditions

Lolo Trail, FR 500 and FR 101 are the named routes in the unit. Roughly 6 mi paved, 73 mi gravel and 16 mi four-wheel-drive.

🥾

Terrain Difficulty

Named features from 1,714 to 8,440 ft. More than 4,000 feet between the named features alone, so plan the pack-out before the shot.

👥

Hunting Pressure

Our land-status read for this unit is approximate, so treat any pressure estimate from it with suspicion and check a current ownership layer.

🌦️

Weather

Season normals: Sep 76/45°F, 1.4 in.; Oct 60/37°F, 2.7 in.; Nov 44/30°F, 4.1 in..

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Cell Service

Verizon 21%, AT&T 14%, T-Mobile 7% of the unit area — modelled coverage, not measured. Assume no signal off the paved road.

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Nearest Town

Pinesdale (36 mi), Victor (39 mi), Pierce (40 mi)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Idaho unit 12?

Unit 12 lies in Clearwater and Idaho counties. Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 12 on a line that runs along Forest Service Road 101 and Forest Service Road 500, and past Smith Creek, Middle Fork, Clearwater River and Papoose Creek, written out corner by corner in its unit boundary descriptions. It covers about 1,186 square miles.

What is the elk success rate in unit 12?

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 12 at 8% across all manners of take. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

Where do you stay and resupply for a unit 12 hunt?

The nearest services our logistics pipeline finds for unit 12 are at Pinesdale, about 36 miles from the unit's centre, with Victor at about 39 miles. There are also 41 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit.

What is the white-tailed deer success rate in unit 12?

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put deer success in unit 12 at 27% across all manners of take. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

What is the Shiras moose success rate in unit 12?

Idaho Fish and Game publishes no Shiras moose success figure we can tie to unit 12 on its own — the 2025 harvest tables either omit the unit or report it in a grouping we could not read back to it reliably. Rather than quote a statewide average as though it were measured here, we say so. Check Idaho Fish and Game's current harvest estimates before you apply.

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Sources & Verification

Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-10-24.

Idaho Big Game 2026 Seasons & Rules — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Game management unit boundary description, Counties the unit lies in · accessed 2026-10-24
IDFG Lolo Zone elk tag limits — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Season structure for the unit · accessed 2026-10-24
IDFG Hunt Planner — 2025 general hunt harvest statistics — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Harvest, hunters and percent success for elk in unit 12 · accessed 2026-10-19
IDFG Hunt Planner — controlled hunt drawing odds — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Applicants, tags and percent drawn by hunt, year and residency · accessed 2026-06-09
IDFG GameManagementUnits and ControlledHunts_All feature services — game management units and every species' controlled-hunt areas — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Mapped extent of the unit or hunt area, Which named ground falls inside its line · accessed 2026-10-24
IDFG general deer season page for unit 12 — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Season structure for the unit · accessed 2026-10-24
IDFG white-tailed deer season page for unit 12 — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Season structure for the unit · accessed 2026-10-24
Moose, Bighorn Sheep & Mountain Goat 2025 & 2026 Seasons & Rules — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Controlled hunt application periods and eligibility rules · accessed 2026-10-24

Unit 12 (Lolo Zone)

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 12

Elk Hunting in Unit 12

Where to Find Elk in Unit 12

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up elk hunting in unit 12

The lines of the unit: Smith Creek, Middle Fork and Clearwater River

High ground inside the line: Shattuck Mountain, Grave Peak and Frog Peak

Holding ground: Blodgett Pass, Kube Park and Marion Meadows

Water: Icicle Spring and Jerry Johnson Hot Springs

Reading the land status

Unit 12 terrain and land status

The lay of it

Who owns the ground

Water on the ground

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt Elk in Unit 12

Elk Success Rates

Elk Draw Odds

Whitetail Hunting in Unit 12

Where to Find White-Tailed Deer in Unit 12

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up white-tailed deer hunting in unit 12

The lines of the unit: Smith Creek, Middle Fork and Clearwater River

High ground inside the line: Hidden Peak, Hungry Rock and Dan Ridge

Holding ground: Warm Springs Pass, Kooskooskia Meadows and Moon Saddle

Water: Icicle Spring and Jerry Johnson Hot Springs

Reading the land status

Unit 12 terrain and land status

The lay of it

Who owns the ground

Water on the ground

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt White-Tailed Deer in Unit 12

Whitetail Success Rates

Whitetail Draw Odds

Moose Hunting in Unit 12

Where to Find Shiras Moose in Unit 12

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up Shiras moose hunting in unit 12

The lines of the unit: Smith Creek, Middle Fork and Clearwater River

High ground inside the line: Rupe Peak, Tom Beal Peak and Granite Peak

Holding ground: Elk Meadows, Lost Park Meadows and Sponge Meadows

Water: Icicle Spring and Jerry Johnson Hot Springs

Reading the land status

Unit 12 terrain and land status

The lay of it

Who owns the ground

Water on the ground

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt Shiras Moose in Unit 12

Moose Success Rates

Moose Draw Odds

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Explore Related Units

Unit 10 — Priest Lake Elk

Unit 16A — Clearwater Elk

Unit 12 — Whitetail

Unit 10A — Clearwater Moose

Frequently Asked Questions

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Sources & Verification