Unit Book Cliffs, Bitter Creek/east (Book Cliffs, Bitter Creek/East)
Utah Hunting Guide — Elk
Unit Book Cliffs, Bitter Creek/east lies in Grand and Uintah counties and covers about 3,049 square miles. Ground runs from 4,619 to 8,736 feet. UDWR's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 28%. Most of the unit is private, so access comes before tactics. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
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Elk Hunting in Unit Book Cliffs, Bitter Creek/east
Unit Book Cliffs, Bitter Creek/east lies in Grand and Uintah counties and covers about 3,049 square miles. Ground runs from 4,619 to 8,736 feet. UDWR's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 28%. Most of the unit is private, so access comes before tactics. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Where to Find Elk in Unit Book Cliffs, Bitter Creek/east
What UDWR publishes for unit Book Cliffs, Bitter Creek/east is a boundary, not a elk map. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Grand and Uintah counties. It runs to about 3,049 square miles.
The lines of the unit: White River, Green River and Sego Canyon
UDWR draws unit Book Cliffs, Bitter Creek/east in Grand and Uintah counties with a boundary that runs on I-70, and on White River, Green River, Sego Canyon and Thompson Canyon, walked corner by corner in its hunting district legal descriptions. That is a legal description, not a habitat map. Those features are what you will check against the map all week, and the divides among them are the ones that matter.
High ground inside the line: Wagon Road Ridge, Mormon Ridge and Wilcox Point
Named high points inside the unit include Wagon Road Ridge at 9,503 feet, Mormon Ridge at 9,404 feet, Wilcox Point at 9,373 feet, Steer Ridge at 9,349 feet and Post Canyon Ridge at 9,304 feet. None carries a public-land flag we trust, so settle the ownership question before you plan to stand on one. Elk on low, open country live on distance and visibility, so they see you first.
Holding ground: Burnt Draw, Nelson Draw and Steer Gulch
Below them sit Burnt Draw at 7,866 feet, Nelson Draw at 7,834 feet, Steer Gulch at 7,810 feet, Ballard Draw at 7,790 feet and Short Canyon at 7,722 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.
Water: Sweet Water Spring, Indian Spring and West Spring
The water inside the unit line comes to 2,172 mapped stream reaches, 12 lakes, 198 stock tanks and 65 springs. Named sources include Sweet Water Spring, Indian Spring, West Spring, Moonwater Springs, Pioche Spring and Oak Springs. On ground with that many tanks, knowing which two or three hold water in your season is the most useful thing a scouting trip can tell you.
Before you apply: who owns this unit
A UDWR permit does not authorise hunting on Native American trust lands, on a CWMU without that CWMU's own permit, or on National Park land, and written permission is required to hunt private land. Our ownership read for this unit is approximate — it comes out as Private / Other 85% and BLM 15%, so treat it as a starting point and check a current land-status layer before you plan a route. The unit runs from 4,619 feet to 8,736 feet, averaging 6,437 — that is a lot of vertical to cover, and it means the season you draw decides which half of the unit you hunt.
Unit Book Cliffs, Bitter Creek/east terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
The lay of it
- 4,619–8,736 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 6,437 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
- 3,049.1 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.
Who owns the ground
- BLM — 15%
- Private / Other — 85%
Roughly 15% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.
Water on the ground
- 198 tanks
- 65 springs
- 2,172 stream segments
- 12 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: Went Ridge (9,291 ft), Little Creek Ridge (9,118 ft), Tenmile Knoll (8,882 ft), Diamond Ridge (8,863 ft)
Holding ground: Bogart Canyon (7,972 ft), Ballard Draw (7,790 ft), Surveyors Hole (7,692 ft), Sweet Water Spring, Indian Spring
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 Book Cliffs, Bitter Creek/east
Elk Success Rates
UDWR's 2023 harvest estimates carry no elk row for unit Book Cliffs, Bitter Creek/east 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. UDWR's current harvest estimates are the place to check before you apply.
Elk Draw Odds
| Season | Tags | Applicants | Draw % | Pts Req |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archery — Limited Entry bull/buck only (resident) | 4 | 14 | 28.6% | 6 |
| Archery — Limited Entry bull/buck only (nonresident) | 1 | 5 | 20.0% | 6 |
| Rifle — Limited Entry bull/buck only (resident) | 3 | 150 | 2.0% | 12 |
| Rifle — Limited Entry bull/buck only (nonresident) | 2 | 97 | 2.1% | 11 |
| Muzzleloader — Limited Entry bull/buck only (resident) | 12 | 184 | 6.5% | 20 |
| Muzzleloader — Limited Entry bull/buck only (nonresident) | 1 | 40 | 2.5% | 20 |
| Any Legal Weapon — Limited Entry bull/buck only (resident) | 23 | 395 | 5.8% | 20 |
| Any Legal Weapon — Limited Entry bull/buck only (nonresident) | 2 | 79 | 2.5% | 20 |
| Any Legal Weapon — Multi-season bull/buck only (resident) | 3 | 111 | 2.7% | 25 |
| Any Legal Weapon — Multi-season bull/buck only (nonresident) | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | 25 |
Data from 2025 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number.
Open in Draw Odds EngineUDWR's 2025 draw recap for elk in unit Book Cliffs, Bitter Creek/east, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:
- Any Legal Weapon, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, resident: 851 applicants for 8 licences, 0.9% drawn, 24 bonus points needed
- Any Legal Weapon, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, nonresident: 227 applicants for 1 licences, 0.4% drawn, 24 bonus points needed
- Muzzleloader, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, resident: 184 applicants for 12 licences, 6.5% drawn, 20 bonus points needed
- Archery, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, resident: 179 applicants for 19 licences, 10.6% drawn, 14 bonus points needed
Utah draws on bonus points in a weighted random draw, not in point order, so the figure above is what it happened to take that year rather than a threshold you can plan to reach. More points buy more chances, never a turn. There are 3 further season-and-residency combinations in the recap for this unit. These are the figures as published in UDWR's own draw recap; we have not yet checked them back against the agency row by row, so confirm the hunt you mean to apply for before you count on a number.
Unit Logistics & Expectations
Frequently Asked Questions
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Upgrade to Pro — $49/yrSources & Verification
Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-10-24.
- UDWR Hunt Boundaries — boundary descriptions from the Hunt Planner boundary layer — Utah Division of Wildlife Resources · supports: GMU boundary description, Counties the unit lies in, UDWR's private-land note for the unit · accessed 2026-10-24
- UDWR DWR_Hunt_Boundaries_combined feature service — all 687 published hunt boundaries, including the CWMUs — Utah Division of Wildlife Resources · supports: Mapped extent of the unit, Which named ground falls inside the unit line · accessed 2026-10-24