Unit 213 (Monte Cristo Range)

Springs and guzzlers when the fall stays dry

NDOW's sheet for Unit 213 opens with a condition. If the weather stays warm and dry, bighorn may still be tied to water when the November season arrives, and a set of named areas comes into play: Cottonwood Spring, Trough Spring, Cook Spring, Outlaw Springs, Shovel Springs, the Monte Cristo #1 guzzler and the Gilbert area. All are good places to hunt under those conditions.

Monte Cristo #1 and #5, and Shovel Spring Basin

The range has five wildlife water developments, but NDOW says only two get regular use. Those are Monte Cristo #1 and #5, which sit in the northwest part of the range and in Shovel Spring Basin. If you're going to sit water, start with those two rather than the other three.

The sheet is honest that the dry-fall pattern isn't the usual one. More often, cooler temperatures and precipitation have scattered the sheep by November, and they can be seen across much of the range. In that case the named springs matter less than covering country. The two-track roads running through the mountain help with that, because they give you plenty of places to stop and glass.

The ground NDOW draws for this tag

A bighorn sheep tag for this group is good in unit 213, about 599 square miles measured on NDOW's own boundary, in Esmeralda County and Mineral County. The one named range inside the line is Monte Cristo Range. The highest named points are Doyle Peak (7,050 ft), Castle Peak (6,084 ft) and Rock Hill (4,824 ft), and the lowest named ground sits near 4,824 feet. We don't print a land-status split for Nevada groups, because the figures we held didn't come from BLM's surface-management data; check BLM's current map for private parcels before you cross a fence or a cattle guard. GNIS names 4 springs inside it, Crow Springs, Outlaw Springs, Cook Spring and Salt Marsh Spring among them.

Open access and a two-track network

Access to the Monte Cristo Range is largely unrestricted, NDOW says, except by the terrain itself. A network of two-track dirt roads runs through the mountain and gives hunters ample opportunity to glass for rams. That changes how you spend your days. Much of the early work can happen from vantage points along those roads, and the walking starts once you've found a ram worth going after.

Planning around the weather

Check conditions in the weeks before the hunt opens in late November. A warm, dry fall points you to the springs NDOW names and to the two guzzlers that see regular use, Monte Cristo #1 and #5, in the northwest part of the range and in Shovel Spring Basin. A cool, wet fall means sheep are likely spread over much of the range, and driving the two-tracks to glass widely makes more sense than sitting water.

The hunt runs to New Year's Day, so there's time to switch plans if the first days don't match what you expected. If sheep aren't showing at water, move to glassing. If the country is bone dry, settle in near the developments.

Full services are only in Tonopah, and Dyer and Goldfield have limited services. Fill up and carry water before you head in.

The 2025 season in NDOW's own numbers

NDOW's 2025 Big Game Hunt Data is the hunter survey behind these figures: who drew, who went, who filled a tag. Success there is NDOW's own figure, successful hunters over hunters afield.

• Any ram, any legal weapon, Nov 20 - Jan 01: 4 resident and 1 nonresident tags. 1 hunter went afield and 1 filled the tag (100%).

Roads in and the nearest towns

The longest named roads through the group are US 6;US 95, Crow Springs Road, US 95 and Columbus Road. Our road inventory counts roughly 37 miles of pavement, 28 of gravel and 184 of high-clearance or four-wheel-drive track. The nearest towns are Mina (26 mi), Tonopah (27 mi) and Silver Peak Town (32 mi), measured from the centre of the closest unit in the group.