Unit East Zion

UDWR publishes no per-unit account of Merriam's turkey in unit East Zion, so what follows is a read of the ground inside the unit line. It runs to about 9 square miles.

East Zion is private land, not public ground

East Zion is a Cooperative Wildlife Management Unit — private land enrolled with UDWR under rule R657-37, not public country you can walk onto. UDWR requires a CWMU to hold at least 5,000 contiguous acres to manage deer, pronghorn or turkey, so the unit is one block of ground under one operator rather than a patchwork. This one covers about 9 square miles by UDWR's own polygon. Your permit is valid on this CWMU and nowhere else — UDWR states you may hunt only on the CWMU printed on the permit. So the question is not which drainage to start in. It is whether you can get a permit at all, and then what the operator lets you hunt.

High ground inside the line: Indian Knoll

Named high points inside the unit include Indian Knoll at 6,124 feet. None carries a public-land flag we trust, so settle the ownership question before you plan to stand on one. On open country these animals live on visibility and distance.

What is published about unit East Zion, and what is not

The public datasets name one terrain feature inside this unit, and no agency access property at all. That is the finding. Ground this size held privately is farmed and grazed rather than mapped, and the hunt starts as a conversation with a landowner rather than a route. What the unit does have is 9 square miles of it, and the Merriam's turkey living on it are there whether or not anyone has mapped a name onto the ground.

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.

UDWR's own harvest estimates put Merriam's turkey success in unit East Zion at rifle 30%. That is an ordinary spread for this country, and it rewards whoever scouted. The plan: glass the edges at first and last light, and let the country tell you where to walk.

Getting on the ground here

There are two ways onto a CWMU and they are not the same door. A Utah resident can apply in UDWR's public drawing or take a voucher from the landowner or operator; a nonresident cannot enter the drawing at all and can only get a voucher directly from the operator. UDWR requires the unit to give public hunters opportunity comparable to private hunters, and to make the same acreage available to both — but the operator still sets the rules you hunt under, and UDWR notes a CWMU may limit how many companions you bring. That makes the first call of the season a phone call, not a scouting trip. Ask what the unit's rules are, where you may hunt inside it, what access is provided and what it costs, before you commit to a season. Harvest reporting is not optional and does not depend on success: UDWR requires a report within 30 days of the hunt ending, whether or not you took an animal. Everything below is the ground inside that line. On a CWMU it is background to the conversation with the operator rather than a plan you can execute on your own.

Glassing from Indian Knoll

Take a position on Indian Knoll (6,124 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. Give a basin forty minutes before you decide it is empty. On the rut hunts, the season's timing decides how much daylight movement you will see.

What we can't tell you

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. Settle access before the season rather than during it. Some of the ground named above carries no land-status flag we trust, so check ownership on a current layer before you hunt it.