Unit San Juan Bull Elk
Utah Hunting Guide — Elk
Unit San Juan Bull Elk lies in Grand and San Juan counties and covers about 4,367 square miles. Ground runs from 3,750 to 7,637 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 San Juan Bull Elk
Unit San Juan Bull Elk lies in Grand and San Juan counties and covers about 4,367 square miles. Ground runs from 3,750 to 7,637 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 San Juan Bull Elk
UDWR draws an exact line around unit San Juan Bull Elk and says nothing about where the elk stand inside it. So the ground below is the unit's own and the read on where to start is ours, labelled as such. The unit lies in Grand and San Juan counties. It runs to about 4,367 square miles.
The lines of the unit: Colorado River, Kane Springs Creek and San Juan River
UDWR draws unit San Juan Bull Elk in Grand and San Juan counties with a boundary that runs on Colorado River, Kane Springs Creek and San Juan River, 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: Abajo Peak, Horsehead Peak and Jackson Ridge
Named high points inside the unit include Abajo Peak at 11,339 feet, Horsehead Peak at 11,182 feet, Jackson Ridge at 11,085 feet, South Peak at 11,047 feet and West Mountain at 11,009 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Elk on low, open country live on distance and visibility, so they see you first.
Holding ground: Buckboard Flat, Aspen Flat and Sego Flat
Below them sit Buckboard Flat at 9,041 feet, Aspen Flat at 8,777 feet, Sego Flat at 8,751 feet, North Canyon at 8,706 feet and Redd Pasture at 8,532 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Work out which of them you can see from one position before you pick a camp.
Water: Rustler Spring, Jackson Spring and Sop Spring
The water inside the unit line comes to 1,196 mapped stream reaches, 33 lakes, 628 stock tanks and 276 springs. Named sources include Rustler Spring, Jackson Spring, Sop Spring, Soda Spring, Trout Water Canyon Spring and Cave 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 3,750 feet to 7,637 feet, averaging 5,572 — enough relief to separate summer range from winter range.
Unit San Juan Bull Elk terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
The lay of it
- 3,750–7,637 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 5,572 ft ; peaks can run higher.
- 4,366.6 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.
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
- 628 tanks
- 276 springs
- 1,196 stream segments
- 33 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: Abajo Peak (11,339 ft), Horsehead Peak (11,182 ft), South Peak (11,047 ft), West Mountain (11,009 ft)
Holding ground: Cooley Pass (10,708 ft), Robertson Pasture (9,527 ft), Buckboard Flat (9,041 ft), Rustler Spring, Jackson 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 San Juan Bull Elk
Elk Success Rates
UDWR's 2023 harvest estimates carry no elk row for unit San Juan Bull Elk 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) | 9 | 16 | 56.3% | 17 |
| Archery — Limited Entry bull/buck only (nonresident) | 1 | 19 | 5.3% | 17 |
| Rifle — Limited Entry bull/buck only (resident) | 28 | 448 | 6.3% | 14 |
| Rifle — Limited Entry bull/buck only (nonresident) | 3 | 288 | 1.0% | 14 |
| Muzzleloader — Limited Entry bull/buck only (resident) | 15 | 197 | 7.6% | 27 |
| Muzzleloader — Limited Entry bull/buck only (nonresident) | 2 | 253 | 0.8% | 27 |
| Any Legal Weapon — Limited Entry bull/buck only (resident) | 31 | 365 | 8.5% | 26 |
| Any Legal Weapon — Limited Entry bull/buck only (nonresident) | 2 | 250 | 0.8% | 26 |
| Any Legal Weapon — Multi-season bull/buck only (resident) | 3 | 315 | 1.0% | 30 |
| Any Legal Weapon — Multi-season bull/buck only (nonresident) | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | 30 |
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 San Juan Bull Elk, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:
- Any Legal Weapon, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, nonresident: 1,669 applicants for 1 licences, 0.1% drawn, 29 bonus points needed
- Any Legal Weapon, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, resident: 1,366 applicants for 10 licences, 0.7% drawn, 29 bonus points needed
- Archery, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, nonresident: 848 applicants for 3 licences, 0.4% drawn, 28 bonus points needed
- Any Legal Weapon, Multi-season, Bull/Buck Only, resident: 315 applicants for 3 licences, 1% drawn, 30 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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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