Idaho Mountain Goat

Unit G61 (Mountain Goat Hunt Area 61)

Idaho Hunting Guide — Mountain Goat

Hunt Area 61 is drawn from unit 61, in Clark and Fremont counties. Named ground inside it runs from 8,038 to 10,254 feet. Idaho Fish and Game publishes no per-unit mountain goat success figure we can verify for this hunt area. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Idaho Hunting Guide

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Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Idaho Unit G61 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.

Mountain Goat guide

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Mountain Goat Hunting in Unit G61

Where to Find Mountain Goat in Hunt Area 61

Idaho Fish and Game's material on hunt area 61 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its mountain goat 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 61 is

Idaho Fish and Game describes mountain goat hunt area 61 as that portion of Unit 61 north and east of Highway 87, and north and west of Highway 20. That makes it a piece of ground drawn for this hunt, not a unit, and the outline on this page is IDFG's own polygon for it rather than a unit outline. The units it is drawn from lie in Clark and Fremont counties. Idaho Fish and Game also uses the code 61 for deer and elk hunts, and in its own words "hunt areas are different for each species" — those are other pieces of ground, and this page is the mountain goat area.

High ground inside the line: Targhee Peak, Black Mountain and Bald Peak

Named high points inside the hunt area include Targhee Peak at 10,254 feet, Black Mountain at 10,188 feet, Bald Peak at 10,164 feet and Henrys Lake Mountains at 8,038 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Goats live above the trees on cliff and talus and come down only when weather makes them.

How high the named ground goes

Named ground inside hunt area 61 runs from 8,038 feet to 10,254 feet. Those are the heights of the features GNIS names, which bound the range from inside rather than measure it.

Unit G61 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Targhee Peak (10,254 ft), Black Mountain (10,188 ft), Bald Peak (10,164 ft), Henrys Lake Mountains (8,038 ft)

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 Mountain Goat in Hunt Area 61

Idaho Fish and Game's per-unit harvest statistics describe general seasons on game management units, so there is no mountain goat success figure we can tie to hunt area 61 alone, and we won't borrow one from a unit. The plan: glass from across the basin, judge the climb honestly, and decide whether a hit animal could be recovered.

The 2025 and 2026 controlled hunts

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 and 2026 rules list one controlled hunt for mountain goat in hunt area 61.

Hunt 6019 — 1 tag, Aug 30–Nov 12

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 61

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. Anyone who has taken a mountain goat in Idaho since 1977 may not apply for a goat tag at all. Two hunters may apply together on one application. Idaho's draw is random, with no preference or bonus points to build.

Glassing from Targhee Peak, Black Mountain and Bald Peak

Take a position on one of Targhee Peak (10,254 ft), Black Mountain (10,188 ft), Bald Peak (10,164 ft) and Henrys Lake Mountains (8,038 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, early hunts find goats higher and later hunts find them pushed down by snow.

The way in: Highway 87 and Highway 20

We have no road inventory for this hunt area, so the only routes we can name are the ones Idaho Fish and Game draws the boundary with: Highway 87 and Highway 20. Those are its edges, not its interior — useful because they are where you leave the pavement, and useless for telling you what the inside is like. Check each of them on a current motor-vehicle-use map before you count on it, because a line on a boundary description is not a promise of public access.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Targhee Peak, Black Mountain, Bald Peak and Henrys Lake Mountains as places to see from. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the hunt-area 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

Decide the night before where you will be at first light, and go there in the dark.

What we can't tell you

We have no mountain goat 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.

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.

Mountain Goat: 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.

Shots to refuse

Nothing behind or overlapping the animal you picked.
Your maximum range is the farthest you have shot a three-shot group into a paper plate from the rest you are carrying.
Pass the shot you are talking yourself into.

Plan the carry: roughly 40– 120 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — two large coolers. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Mountain Goat Success Rates

Idaho Fish and Game's per-unit harvest statistics describe general seasons on game management units, and hunt area 61 is a controlled-hunt area, not a unit, so there is no figure here we can tie to it. A unit's general-season number would describe different hunters on different ground. Idaho Fish and Game's hunt planner reports controlled-hunt results hunt by hunt, which is the figure to check before you apply.

Mountain Goat Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (resident)	1	24	4.0%	—
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (nonresident)	0	7	0.0%	—

Data from 2024 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 2025 first drawing for mountain goat in hunt area 61, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:

Hunt 6019 — residents 23 applicants for 1 tag, 4% drawn; nonresidents 6 applicants for 0 tags, 0% 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

Planning Notes

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Water

No named spring or water source falls inside the hunt area in our water layer, so plan on carrying water or finding it on a scouting trip.

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Terrain Difficulty

Named features inside the hunt area run from 8,038 to 10,254 ft. Named heights only — the ground between and below them can run lower.

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Permit Notes

Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt 6019 (2025 and 2026 rules). Moose, bighorn sheep and mountain goat applications run April 1 to 30. Idaho's draw is random, with no preference or bonus points.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Idaho hunt area 61?

Hunt Area 61 is drawn from unit 61, in Clark and Fremont counties. Idaho Fish and Game describes mountain goat hunt area 61 as that portion of Unit 61 north and east of Highway 87, and north and west of Highway 20.

What is the mountain goat success rate in hunt area 61?

Idaho Fish and Game's per-unit harvest statistics cover general seasons on game management units, and hunt area 61 is a controlled-hunt area, so there is no figure we can tie to it. Idaho Fish and Game's hunt planner reports controlled-hunt results hunt by hunt, and that is the number to check before you apply.

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Sources & Verification

Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-10-24.

Moose, Bighorn Sheep & Mountain Goat 2025 & 2026 Seasons & Rules — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Controlled hunt area description for mountain goat hunt area 61, The game management units the area is drawn from, Controlled hunt numbers, tags and season dates · accessed 2026-10-24
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