Unit Kaiparowits

UDWR's material on unit Kaiparowits stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its pronghorn live. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Garfield and Kane counties. It runs to about 3,252 square miles.

What bounds unit Kaiparowits

UDWR has unit Kaiparowits Boundary begins at the Paria River and the Utah-Arizona state line; north along the Paria River to SR-12; east on SR-12 to the Burr Trail road at Boulder; southeast on this road to Lake Powell; southwest along the shore of Lake Powell to the Utah-Arizona state line; west along this state line to the Paria River. That is a legal description, not a habitat map. 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: Canaan Peak, Death Ridge and Fiftymile Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Canaan Peak at 9,302 feet, Death Ridge at 7,956 feet, Fiftymile Mountain at 7,638 feet, Bull Ridge at 7,609 feet and Cougar Knoll at 7,606 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Pronghorn live in the open and trust their eyes, which is the whole problem.

Holding ground: Lake Pasture, Aspen Patch and Spencer Flat

Below them sit Lake Pasture at 7,391 feet, Aspen Patch at 7,384 feet, Spencer Flat at 7,299 feet, Georgie Hollow at 7,277 feet and Harry Colwes Draw at 7,241 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

Water: Cave Spring, Soda Spring and Mossy Dell Spring

The water inside the unit line comes to 3,683 mapped stream reaches, 8 lakes, 127 stock tanks and 116 springs. Named sources include Cave Spring, Soda Spring, Mossy Dell Spring, Relishen Seep, Cottonwood Spring and Rock Spring. 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 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 3,707 feet to 8,091 feet, averaging 5,627 — that is a lot of vertical to cover, and it means the season you draw decides which half of the unit you hunt.

UDWR publishes no pronghorn success figure for unit Kaiparowits that we can tie to this unit alone, so we won't quote one. The plan: spot from a vehicle or a rise at distance, then plan a stalk that uses the only cover there is — the curve of the ground.

Glassing from Buck Ridge, Burnt Ridge and Navajo Point

Take a position on one of Buck Ridge (7,436 ft), Burnt Ridge (7,406 ft), Navajo Point (7,368 ft) and Straight Cliffs (7,305 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. Glass the edges first, then the shaded timber, then the edges again as the light goes. On the rut hunts, early-season bucks hold does and can be decoyed where the law allows it.

Water against feed

There are 3,683 mapped stream reaches and 127 tanks inside the unit, so water is rarely the limiting factor. Where water is everywhere, feed is what concentrates animals, so hunt the feed and treat water as a convenience. A tank with no tracks is a tank with no reason to sit on it.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Season normals here run Sep 85/54°F, Oct 71/43°F and Nov 56/31°F. Warm afternoons compress the hunting into the first and last hour, and make meat care the day's real problem rather than the shot. Precipitation runs about 0.9 in. in Sep, 1.1 in. in Oct and 0.5 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: SR 12 and CR 0598

SR 12, US 89 and SR 276 are the paved frame, which is also where everyone else starts. FR 146 needs clearance, and that is usually where the boot tracks thin out. There are roughly 8.5 miles of genuine four-wheel-drive road in the unit, and the country past the end of them is the part worth your legs.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Canaan Peak, Death Ridge, Fiftymile Mountain and Steer Point as places to see from, and Canaan Bottom, Bull Flat, Lonesome Pine Flat and Cave Spring as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the unit line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Walk between two of them rather than driving between four, and you will learn more in a day.

What a day here costs you

3,252 square miles is more country than a week will cover, so pick one drainage and learn it rather than driving the unit. The nearest services are at Escalante, about 27 miles out, which is an hour of your morning each way if you sleep there. With 4,384 feet between the lowest and highest ground, the walk back up out of a kill site is the part to plan first. Leave the truck earlier than you want to and you will hunt the best half-hour of the day.