Unit 68A (Big Desert Zone)

What Idaho Fish and Game publishes for unit 68A is a boundary, not a mule deer 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 Bannock, Bingham, Bonneville and Power counties. It runs to about 447 square miles.

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up mule deer hunting in unit 68A

Idaho Fish and Game's unit layer marks unit 68A "No Regular Deer Tag Opportunity", so deer here are hunted on controlled hunts rather than a general tag.

The lines of the unit: American Falls and Idaho Falls

Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 68A in Bannock, Bingham, Bonneville and Power counties on a line that runs along State Highway 39, U.S. 26, Interstate 15 and U.S. 91, and past American Falls and Idaho Falls, written out corner by corner in its unit boundary descriptions. It tells you the shape of the unit and nothing about its inhabitants. 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: Ferry Butte and Cedar Butte

Named high points inside the unit include Ferry Butte at 4,825 feet and Cedar Butte at 4,470 feet. None carries a public-land flag we trust, so settle the ownership question before you plan to stand on one. Mule deer on open country use every fold and draw there is, and almost none of the flat.

Holding ground: Michaud Flats, Fort Hall Bottoms and Snake River Valley

Below them sit Michaud Flats at 4,443 feet, Fort Hall Bottoms at 4,390 feet, Snake River Valley at 4,357 feet and Little Hole Draw at 4,341 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

Water: Batiste Springs

The water inside the unit line comes to 129 mapped stream reaches, 45 lakes and 60 stock tanks. Named sources include Batiste 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 Private / Other 100%, so treat it as a starting point and check a current land-status layer before you plan a route. Named ground inside unit 68A runs from 4,341 feet to 4,825 feet. Those are the heights of the features GNIS names, which bound the range from inside rather than measure it.

Idaho Fish and Game's own harvest estimates put deer success in unit 68A at 0% 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: glass the broken edges at first light, then sit still and keep glassing the same ground.

The 2026 controlled hunts in unit 68A

Idaho Fish and Game's 2026 rules list one controlled hunt for mule deer on unit 68A under its own number.

• Hunt 1081 — archery only deer, unlimited tags, Aug 30–Dec 19 and Nov 16–Dec 5

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 68A tag

Idaho Fish and Game's first application period for deer, elk and pronghorn runs May 1 to June 5, with results in early July, and a second period runs August 5 to 15 for what is left. A hunter drawn for a limited antlered-only deer hunt sits out the next year's first period for that kind of hunt; unlimited and extra hunts are exempt. Two to four hunters may apply together for the same hunt. Idaho's draw is random, with no preference or bonus points to build.

Glassing from Ferry Butte and Cedar Butte

Take a position on one of Ferry Butte (4,825 ft) and Cedar Butte (4,470 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. A tripod is worth more here than another hour of walking. On the rut hunts, late-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.

Water against feed

There are 129 mapped stream reaches and 60 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

Season normals here run Sep 77/43°F, Oct 61/33°F and Nov 46/24°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, 1 in. in Oct and 0.9 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: ID 39 and I 86 / US 30

ID 39, I 86 / US 30 and I 15 / US 26 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 Ferry Butte and Cedar Butte as places to see from, and Michaud Flats, Fort Hall Bottoms, Batiste Springs and I 15 @ unit boundary 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.