Unit 66 (Tex Creek Zone)
Idaho Hunting Guide — Mule Deer
Unit 66 lies in Bingham and Bonneville counties and covers about 350 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 5,321 to 9,456 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put deer success here as high as 15%. Federal land covers about 85% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
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Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 66
Unit 66 lies in Bingham and Bonneville counties and covers about 350 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 5,321 to 9,456 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put deer success here as high as 15%. Federal land covers about 85% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 66
Idaho Fish and Game's material on unit 66 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its mule 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 Bingham and Bonneville counties. It runs to about 350 square miles.
How Idaho Fish and Game sets up mule deer hunting in unit 66
Idaho Fish and Game keeps a general deer season page for unit 66, and that page is where this year's dates and weapon rules live.
The lines of the unit: Snake River, Fall Creek and Skyline Ridge
Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 66 in Bingham and Bonneville counties on a line that runs along U.S. 26, Forest Service Road 077 and Forest Service Road 087, and past Snake River, Fall Creek, Skyline Ridge and Brockman Creek, written out corner by corner in its unit boundary descriptions. Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. 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: Big Elk Mountain, Chicken Ridge and Red Ridge
Named high points inside the unit include Big Elk Mountain at 9,456 feet, Chicken Ridge at 9,010 feet, Red Ridge at 8,903 feet, Little Elk Mountain at 8,761 feet and Red Peak at 8,741 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: Long Canyon, Bates Canyon and Blacktail Canyon
Below them sit Long Canyon at 5,997 feet, Bates Canyon at 5,928 feet, Blacktail Canyon at 5,720 feet, Bear Wallow Canyon at 5,655 feet and Rash Canyon at 5,649 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Work out which of them you can see from one position before you pick a camp.
Water: White Spring
The water inside the unit line comes to 52 mapped stream reaches, 7 lakes, 2 stock tanks and 3 springs. Named sources include White 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 66 runs from 5,321 feet to 9,456 feet — more than 4,000 feet between the named features alone, so the season you draw decides which part of it you hunt.
Unit 66 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
The lay of it
- 5,476–8,014 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 6,712 ft ; peaks can run higher.
- 349.8 sq mi inside the boundary.
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
- 2 tanks
- 3 springs
- 52 stream segments
- 7 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: Big Elk Mountain (9,456 ft), Chicken Ridge (9,010 ft), Red Ridge (8,903 ft), Little Elk Mountain (8,761 ft)
Holding ground: Golden Gate (7,648 ft), Jensen Meadow (6,562 ft), Caribou Basin (6,387 ft), White 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 66
Mule Deer Success Rates
Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put deer success in unit 66 at 15% — 119 animals taken by 804 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) | 9 | 269 | 3.0% | — |
| Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (nonresident) | 1 | 30 | 3.0% | — |
| Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (resident) | 1 | 142 | 1.0% | — |
| Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (nonresident) | 0 | 11 | 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 66, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:
- Hunt 1051 — residents 269 applicants for 9 tags, 3% drawn; nonresidents 30 applicants for 1 tag, 3% 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 66?
What is the mule deer success rate in unit 66?
Where do you stay and resupply for a unit 66 hunt?
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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 66 — 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 66 · 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