Unit 317 (Upper Yellowstone East)
Montana Hunting Guide — Elk
Unit 317 lies in Park County and covers about 423 square miles. Ground runs from 4,582 to 9,202 feet. Montana FWP publishes no per-unit elk success figure we can verify for this unit. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 317
Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Montana Unit 317 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.
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Elk Hunting in Unit 317
Unit 317 lies in Park County and covers about 423 square miles. Ground runs from 4,582 to 9,202 feet. Montana FWP publishes no per-unit elk success figure we can verify for this unit. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Where to Find Elk in Unit 317
Montana FWP draws an exact line around unit 317 and says nothing about where the elk stand inside it. 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 Park County. It runs to about 423 square miles.
The lines of the unit: Yellowstone River, Sixmile Creek and Sixmile-Cedar-Mill Creeks Divide
Montana FWP draws unit 317 in Park County with a boundary that runs on Interstate 90 and Highway 540, and on Yellowstone River, Sixmile Creek, Sixmile-Cedar-Mill Creeks Divide and Monitor Peak, walked corner by corner in its hunting district legal descriptions. Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. What it does give you is the way in: the rivers and highways you cross, and the divides that decide which drainage you end up in.
High ground inside the line: Mount Cowen, Black Mountain and Emigrant Peak
Named high points inside the unit include Mount Cowen at 11,124 feet, Black Mountain at 10,932 feet, Emigrant Peak at 10,896 feet, Crow Mountain at 10,693 feet and Mount Wallace at 10,659 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: Conlin Gulch, Emigrant Gulch and Paradise Valley
Below them sit Conlin Gulch at 5,603 feet, Emigrant Gulch at 5,420 feet, Paradise Valley at 4,580 feet, West Baldy Basin at 7,667 feet and Huckleberry Gulch at 7,546 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Two you can watch from a single knob is worth more than five you have to drive between.
Water: Montanapolis Springs and Agate Springs
The water inside the unit line comes to 376 mapped stream reaches, 7 lakes, 56 stock tanks and 1 springs. Named sources include Montanapolis Springs and Agate 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 National Forest 60%, Private / Other 17%, BLM 15% and State Trust 8%, so treat it as a starting point and check a current land-status layer before you plan a route. The unit runs from 4,582 feet to 9,202 feet, averaging 6,895 — that is a lot of vertical to cover, and it means the season you draw decides which half of the unit you hunt.
Unit 317 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
The lay of it
- 4,582–9,202 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 6,895 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
- 422.6 sq mi inside the boundary.
Who owns the ground
- National Forest — 60%
- BLM — 15%
- State Trust — 8%
- Private / Other — 17%
Roughly 83% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.
Water on the ground
- 56 tanks
- 1 springs
- 376 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: Mount Cowen (11,124 ft), Black Mountain (10,932 ft), Emigrant Peak (10,896 ft), Crow Mountain (10,693 ft)
Holding ground: West Baldy Basin (7,667 ft), Huckleberry Gulch (7,546 ft), Montanapolis Springs, Agate 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 317
Elk Success Rates
Montana FWP's 2023 harvest estimates carry no elk row for unit 317 that we can read back to this unit on its own. Where the agency reports a unit inside a grouping, or prints a table our parser cannot resolve to a single column, we leave the number out rather than publish a statewide average as though it had been measured here. Montana FWP's current harvest estimates are the place to check before you apply.
Elk Draw Odds
| Season | Tags | Applicants | Draw % | Pts (n/p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rifle — B License either sex (resident) | 473 | 771 | 61.3% | — |
| Rifle — B License either sex (nonresident) | 24 | 53 | 45.3% | — |
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 EngineMontana FWP's draw recap has no elk record we can tie to unit 317. That usually means the licence is sold over the counter, is issued under a hunt code covering several units, or was not offered in the years we hold. Rather than estimate a point requirement, we leave it blank — check Montana FWP's own draw recap for the hunt code you mean to apply for.
Unit Logistics & Expectations
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Colorado unit 317?
What is the elk success rate in unit 317?
Where do you stay and resupply for a unit 317 hunt?
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Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-10-24.
- Montana FWP Hunting District Legal Descriptions, 2026/2027 — deer-elk hunting districts (pp. 19-35) — Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks · supports: GMU boundary description, Counties the unit lies in · accessed 2026-10-24
- FWP hunting district feature services — deer/elk, antelope, moose, bighorn sheep and mountain goat districts (2026 and 2027 seasons) — Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks · supports: Mapped extent of the unit, Which named ground falls inside the unit line · accessed 2026-10-24