Unit E75-1 (Elk Hunt Area 75-1)

Idaho Fish and Game's material on hunt area 75-1 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its elk live. So the ground below is the unit's own and the read on where to start is ours, labelled as such.

What hunt area 75-1 is

Idaho Fish and Game describes elk hunt area 75-1 as all of Units 75, 77, and 78. That is whole units, so the outline on this page follows unit lines all the way round. The units it is drawn from lie in Bear Lake, Caribou and Franklin counties.

High ground inside the line: Sherman Peak, Paris Peak and Wilderness Peak

Named high points inside the hunt area include Sherman Peak at 9,675 feet, Paris Peak at 9,535 feet, Wilderness Peak at 9,458 feet, Andrew Nyman Mountain at 9,416 feet and Midnight Mountain at 9,322 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: Copenhagen Basin, Cub Basin and Green Pass

Below them sit Copenhagen Basin at 8,259 feet, Cub Basin at 8,241 feet, Green Pass at 8,151 feet, Horse Flat at 8,115 feet and North Ant Basin at 8,113 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this hunt area has, and they are what you glass into from above. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

Water: King Canyon Spring, Self Help Spring and Paul Jones Spring

Named sources include King Canyon Spring, Self Help Spring, Paul Jones Spring, Chatterton Spring, Aspen Spring and Hells Kitchen Spring. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

How high the named ground goes

Named ground inside hunt area 75-1 runs from 4,631 feet to 9,675 feet — more than 4,000 feet between the named features alone, so the season you draw decides which part of it you hunt.

Idaho Fish and Game's per-unit harvest statistics describe general seasons on game management units, so there is no elk success figure we can tie to hunt area 75-1 alone, and we won't borrow one from a unit. The plan: find the feed, find the timber it backs onto, then watch the seam between them at the edges of the day.

The 2026 controlled hunts

Idaho Fish and Game's 2026 rules list one controlled hunt for elk in hunt area 75-1.

• Hunt 2045 — antlered elk, 25 tags, Oct 1–Oct 14. Motorized Hunting Rule Applies

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 hunt area 75-1

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 elk 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 Hogsback Ridge, South Hill and Poulsen Ridge

Take a position on one of Hogsback Ridge (7,657 ft), South Hill (7,137 ft), Poulsen Ridge (6,723 ft) and Devils Hill (6,710 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. 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.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Sherman Peak, Paris Peak, Wilderness Peak and Midnight Mountain as places to see from, and Red Sinks, Danish Pass, South Ant Basin and King Canyon Spring as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the hunt-area 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

With 5,044 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. We have no elk success figure for this hunt area that survives checking against Idaho Fish and Game's own harvest and hunter counts, and we would rather say so than print a statewide average as though it were measured here.