Unit 55 (South Hills Zone)
Idaho Hunting Guide — Mule Deer, Moose
Unit 55 lies in Cassia County and covers about 1,013 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 4,408 to 10,316 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put deer success here as high as 14%. Federal land covers about 48% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
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Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 55
Unit 55 lies in Cassia County and covers about 1,013 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 4,408 to 10,316 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put deer success here as high as 14%. Federal land covers about 48% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 55
What Idaho Fish and Game publishes for unit 55 is a boundary, not a mule deer map. 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 Cassia County. It runs to about 1,013 square miles.
How Idaho Fish and Game sets up mule deer hunting in unit 55
Idaho Fish and Game keeps a general deer season page for unit 55, and that page is where this year's dates and weapon rules live.
What bounds unit 55
Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 55 in Cassia County on a line that runs along State Highway 27 and State Highway 81, and past Oakley-Goose 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: Independence Mountain, Cache Peak and Mount Independence
Named high points inside the unit include Independence Mountain at 10,316 feet, Cache Peak at 10,313 feet, Mount Independence at 9,936 feet, Mount Harrison at 9,253 feet and Graham Peak at 8,856 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Mule deer bed on broken ground with a view and feed on the brush below it.
Holding ground: Pinnacle Pass, Lyman Pass and Emery Canyon
Below them sit Pinnacle Pass at 6,259 feet, Lyman Pass at 6,175 feet, Emery Canyon at 6,137 feet, Howell Canyon at 5,976 feet and Echo Hollow at 5,949 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: Howell Creek Spring, Parke Spring and Bennett Spring
The water inside the unit line comes to 62 mapped stream reaches, 4 lakes and 6 stock tanks. Named sources include Howell Creek Spring, Parke Spring, Bennett Spring, Womack Canyon Spring, Keg Hollow Spring and Kane Spring. 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 55 runs from 4,408 feet to 10,316 feet — more than 4,000 feet between the named features alone, so the season you draw decides which part of it you hunt.
Unit 55 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
The lay of it
- 4,243–8,280 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 5,691 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
- 1,013 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
- 6 tanks
- 62 stream segments
- 4 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: Independence Mountain (10,316 ft), Mount Harrison (9,253 ft), Albion Mountains (8,597 ft), Middle Mountain (8,447 ft)
Holding ground: Stines Pass (8,311 ft), Connor Flat (7,848 ft), Basin-Elba Pass (7,090 ft), Howell Creek Spring, Parke 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 Mule Deer in Unit 55
Mule Deer Success Rates
Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put deer success in unit 55 at 14% — 5 animals taken by 36 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 mule deer alone.
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.
Mule Deer Draw Odds
| Season | Tags | Applicants | Draw % | Pts (n/p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (resident) | 23 | 559 | 4.0% | — |
| Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (nonresident) | 2 | 105 | 2.0% | — |
| Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (resident) | 1 | 125 | 1.0% | — |
| Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (nonresident) | 0 | 19 | 0.0% | — |
Data from 2025 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 EngineIdaho Fish and Game's 2025 first drawing for mule deer in unit 55, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:
- Hunt 1045 — residents 2,011 applicants for 292 tags, 15% drawn; nonresidents 308 applicants for 28 tags, 9% drawn
- Hunt 1044 — residents 559 applicants for 23 tags, 4% drawn; nonresidents 105 applicants for 2 tags, 2% drawn
- Hunt 1062 — residents 203 applicants for 98 tags, 48% drawn; nonresidents 3 applicants for 2 tags, 67% drawn
Idaho draws at random with no point system, so these are what that year happened to look like, not a requirement to build toward. Idaho Fish and Game reuses hunt numbers for different areas between years, so the figures are matched on the area each hunt had in 2025. Checked against Idaho Fish and Game's hunt planner draw results on 2026-06-09.
Unit Logistics & Expectations
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Idaho unit 55?
What is the mule deer success rate in unit 55?
Where do you stay and resupply for a unit 55 hunt?
What is the Shiras moose success rate in unit 55?
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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, Controlled hunt numbers, tags and season dates · accessed 2026-10-24
- IDFG general deer season page for unit 55 — 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 deer in unit 55 · 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
- 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