Idaho Elk Moose

Unit 56 (South Hills Zone)

Idaho Hunting Guide — Elk, Moose

Unit 56 lies in Cassia, Oneida and Power counties and covers about 914 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 4,297 to 7,478 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 23%. Federal land covers about 48% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Idaho Hunting Guide

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48%

Public Land

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4,256–6,916 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 56

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Idaho Unit 56 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 Moose guide

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Elk Hunting in Unit 56

Where to Find Elk in Unit 56

Idaho Fish and Game draws an exact line around unit 56 and says nothing about where the elk stand inside it. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Cassia, Oneida and Power counties. It runs to about 914 square miles.

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up elk hunting in unit 56

Idaho Fish and Game runs its general elk seasons by elk management zone rather than unit by unit, and puts unit 56 in the South Hills Zone, so the zone's tag rules are the ones that apply here.

What bounds unit 56

Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 56 in Cassia, Oneida and Power counties on a line that runs along Interstate 84, Interstate 86 and State Highway 37, 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: Sublett Range, Cedar Creek Peak and Hartley Peak

Named high points inside the unit include Sublett Range at 7,478 feet, Cedar Creek Peak at 7,427 feet, Hartley Peak at 7,424 feet, Quaking Asp Mountain at 7,210 feet and Eyrie Peak at 6,569 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: Donkey Canyon, Cone Canyon and Summit Springs Pass

Below them sit Donkey Canyon at 6,286 feet, Cone Canyon at 6,266 feet, Summit Springs Pass at 6,240 feet, Narrow Canyon at 6,238 feet and Section Corner Canyon at 6,237 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Two you can watch from a single knob is worth more than five you have to drive between.

Water: East Kurtz Spring, Lupe Springs and Wild Horse Spring

The water inside the unit line comes to 39 mapped stream reaches, 3 lakes and 7 stock tanks. Named sources include East Kurtz Spring, Lupe Springs, Wild Horse Spring, Yellow Jacket Spring, Quaking Aspen Spring and Upper Lake Fork 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 56 runs from 4,297 feet to 7,478 feet. Those are the heights of the features GNIS names, which bound the range from inside rather than measure it.

Unit 56 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

4,256–6,916 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 5,202 ft ; peaks can run higher.
914 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

7 tanks
39 stream segments
3 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: Sublett Range (7,478 ft), Cedar Creek Peak (7,427 ft), Hartley Peak (7,424 ft), Quaking Asp Mountain (7,210 ft)

Holding ground: Pine Canyon (6,475 ft), Summit Springs Pass (6,240 ft), North Fork Sheep Canyon (6,107 ft), East Kurtz Spring, Lupe 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 56

Idaho Fish and Game's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 56 at 23% across all manners of take. That is an ordinary spread for this country, and it rewards whoever scouted. 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 Cedar Ridge, South Chapin Mountain and Table Mountain

Take a position on one of Cedar Ridge (5,610 ft), South Chapin Mountain (5,567 ft), Table Mountain (5,527 ft) and North Chapin Mountain (5,505 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. 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 39 mapped stream reaches and 7 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 77/42°F, Oct 62/33°F and Nov 47/24°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 0.9 in. in Sep, 0.9 in. in Oct and 0.8 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: I 84 and I 86 / US 30

I 84, I 86 / US 30 and ID 37 are the paved frame, which is also where everyone else starts. There is little true four-wheel-drive road here, so distance from the gravel is the only thing separating you from the next hunter.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Sublett Range, Cedar Creek Peak, Hartley Peak and Quaking Asp Mountain as places to see from, and Pine Canyon, Summit Springs Pass, North Fork Sheep Canyon and East Kurtz 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

914 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 Roy, about 9 miles out, which is an hour of your morning each way if you sleep there. With 3,181 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 56

Named routes and what they need

I 84 — 39.6 mi · Paved (all rigs)
I 86;US 30 — 38.3 mi · Paved (all rigs)
Hartley Canyon Road — 15.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
ID 37 — 9.9 mi · Paved (all rigs)
Side Canyon Road — 8.3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Old Highway 37 — 8.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)

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

Roy — 8.9 mi · no services listed
Rockland — 15.3 mi · fuel
Malta — 19.1 mi · fuel, groceries
Holbrook — 23.2 mi · no services listed
Albion — 29.3 mi · no services listed

Developed camps

Twin Springs Campground

Season weather and signal

Jan35° / 17° · 1" precip
Aug87° / 50° · 0.7" precip
Sep77° / 42° · 0.9" precip
Oct62° / 33° · 0.9" precip
Nov47° / 24° · 0.8" precip
Dec35° / 18° · 1" 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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Elk Success Rates

Rifle23%

Archery17%

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 56 at 23% — 79 animals taken by 348 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 2024 first drawing for elk in unit 56, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:

Hunt 2092 — residents 174 applicants for 174 tags, 100% drawn; nonresidents 4 applicants for 4 tags, 100% 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 2024. Checked against Idaho Fish and Game's hunt planner draw results on 2026-06-09.

Moose Hunting in Unit 56

Unit 56 lies in Cassia, Oneida and Power counties and covers about 914 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 4,297 to 7,478 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put Shiras moose success here as high as 100%. Federal land covers about 48% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Shiras Moose in Unit 56

Idaho Fish and Game's material on unit 56 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its Shiras moose live. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Cassia, Oneida and Power counties. It runs to about 914 square miles.

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up Shiras moose hunting in unit 56

Idaho Fish and Game hunts Shiras moose here only by controlled hunt, and describes its moose hunt area 56 as all of Unit 56.

What bounds unit 56

Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 56 in Cassia, Oneida and Power counties on a line that runs along Interstate 84, Interstate 86 and State Highway 37, written out corner by corner in its unit boundary descriptions. Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. 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: Eagle Point, Badger Peak and Lookout Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Eagle Point at 6,536 feet, Badger Peak at 6,417 feet, Lookout Mountain at 6,072 feet, Cedar Ridge at 5,610 feet and South Chapin Mountain at 5,567 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: Parke Canyon, North Fork Sheep Canyon and Big Rock Canyon

Below them sit Parke Canyon at 6,128 feet, North Fork Sheep Canyon at 6,107 feet, Big Rock Canyon at 6,045 feet, Mistletoe Canyon at 6,041 feet and Eyrie Canyon at 6,026 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: South Heglar Spring, Bruce Young Spring and Palmer Spring

The water inside the unit line comes to 39 mapped stream reaches, 3 lakes and 7 stock tanks. Named sources include South Heglar Spring, Bruce Young Spring, Palmer Spring, Indian Spring, Mud Spring and Clint Palmer Spring. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

Reading the land status

Unit 56 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

4,256–6,916 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 5,202 ft ; peaks can run higher.
914 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

7 tanks
39 stream segments
3 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: Sublett Range (7,478 ft), Cedar Creek Peak (7,427 ft), Hartley Peak (7,424 ft), Quaking Asp Mountain (7,210 ft)

Holding ground: Pine Canyon (6,475 ft), Summit Springs Pass (6,240 ft), North Fork Sheep Canyon (6,107 ft), East Kurtz Spring, Lupe 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 56

Idaho Fish and Game's own harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 56 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: walk the willow bottoms slowly at first and last light and look for fresh browse before you look for the animal.

The 2025 and 2026 controlled hunts in unit 56

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 and 2026 rules list one controlled hunt for Shiras moose on unit 56 under its own number.

Hunt 3058 — 3 tags, Aug 30–Nov 23

Dates and tag numbers are IDFG's as printed for that season, and IDFG changes hunt areas between years, so check the current booklet before you apply.

Applying for a unit 56 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 Stone Hills, Table Mountain and Mollys Nipple

Take a position on one of Stone Hills (5,466 ft), Table Mountain (5,446 ft), Mollys Nipple (5,176 ft) and Little Table Mountain (5,044 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. Give a basin forty minutes before you decide it is empty. On the rut hunts, late September bulls answer a cow call near water.

Water against feed

There are 39 mapped stream reaches and 7 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: I 84 and I 86 / US 30

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 56

Named routes and what they need

I 84 — 39.6 mi · Paved (all rigs)
I 86;US 30 — 38.3 mi · Paved (all rigs)
Hartley Canyon Road — 15.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
ID 37 — 9.9 mi · Paved (all rigs)
Side Canyon Road — 8.3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Old Highway 37 — 8.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)

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

Roy — 8.9 mi · no services listed
Rockland — 15.3 mi · fuel
Malta — 19.1 mi · fuel, groceries
Holbrook — 23.2 mi · no services listed
Albion — 29.3 mi · no services listed

Developed camps

Twin Springs Campground

Season weather and signal

Jan35° / 17° · 1" precip
Aug87° / 50° · 0.7" precip
Sep77° / 42° · 0.9" precip
Oct62° / 33° · 0.9" precip
Nov47° / 24° · 0.8" precip
Dec35° / 18° · 1" 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.

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Moose Success Rates

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 56 at 100% — 3 animals taken by 3 hunters. On a sample that small the percentage moves several points with one animal, so read the hunter count beside it.

Moose Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (resident)	2	47	4.0%	—
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (nonresident)	1	41	2.0%	—

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 2026 first drawing for Shiras moose in unit 56, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:

Hunt 3058 — residents 47 applicants for 2 tags, 4% drawn; nonresidents 41 applicants for 1 tag, 2% 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 2026. Checked against Idaho Fish and Game's hunt planner draw results on 2026-06-09.

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

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Camp Sites

1 developed campground in or beside the unit, including Twin Springs Campground.

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Road Conditions

I 84, I 86 / US 30 and Hartley Canyon Road are the named routes in the unit. Roughly 120 mi paved, 56 mi gravel and 0 mi four-wheel-drive.

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Terrain Difficulty

Named features from 4,297 to 7,478 ft. Named heights only — the ground between and below them can run lower.

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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.

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Weather

Season normals: Sep 77/42°F, 0.9 in.; Oct 62/33°F, 0.9 in.; Nov 47/24°F, 0.8 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

Roy (9 mi), Rockland (15 mi), Malta (19 mi)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Idaho unit 56?

Unit 56 lies in Cassia, Oneida and Power counties. Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 56 on a line that runs along Interstate 84, Interstate 86 and State Highway 37, written out corner by corner in its unit boundary descriptions. It covers about 914 square miles.

What is the elk success rate in unit 56?

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 56 at 23% 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 56 hunt?

The nearest services our logistics pipeline finds for unit 56 are at Roy, about 9 miles from the unit's centre, with Rockland at about 15 miles. There are also 1 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit.

What is the Shiras moose success rate in unit 56?

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 56 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 2026-10-24.

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 South Hills 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 56 · 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