Unit Southwest Desert, North
Utah Hunting Guide — Elk
Unit Southwest Desert, North lies in Beaver, Iron and Millard counties and covers about 2,531 square miles. Ground runs from 4,525 to 7,537 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 Southwest Desert, North
Unit Southwest Desert, North lies in Beaver, Iron and Millard counties and covers about 2,531 square miles. Ground runs from 4,525 to 7,537 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 Southwest Desert, North
UDWR draws an exact line around unit Southwest Desert, North 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 Beaver, Iron and Millard counties. It runs to about 2,531 square miles.
What bounds unit Southwest Desert, North
UDWR has unit Southwest Desert, North Boundary begins at the Utah-Nevada state line and US-6/50; east on US-6/50 to SR-257; south on SR-257 to SR-21; west on SR-21 to the Utah-Nevada state line. Excludes all CWMUs. Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. 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: Frisco Peak, San Francisco Mountains and Tunnel Spring Mountains
Named high points inside the unit include Frisco Peak at 9,634 feet, San Francisco Mountains at 9,634 feet, Tunnel Spring Mountains at 8,444 feet, King Top at 8,342 feet and Confusion Range at 8,298 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: Barrel Spring Canyon, Juniper Pass and Cowboy Pass
Below them sit Barrel Spring Canyon at 6,917 feet, Juniper Pass at 6,791 feet, Cowboy Pass at 6,765 feet, Cedar Pass at 6,537 feet and Frisco Summit at 6,477 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: Clay Spring, Cricket Seeps and Crystal Spring
The water inside the unit line comes to 52 mapped stream reaches, 12 lakes, 20 stock tanks and 8 springs. Named sources include Clay Spring, Cricket Seeps, Crystal Spring, Tub Spring, Armstrong Spring and High Rock Spring. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.
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 4,525 feet to 7,537 feet, averaging 5,495 — enough relief to separate summer range from winter range.
Unit Southwest Desert, North terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
The lay of it
- 4,525–7,537 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 5,495 ft ; peaks can run higher.
- 2,531 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
- 20 tanks
- 8 springs
- 52 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: Frisco Peak (9,634 ft), Tunnel Spring Mountains (8,444 ft), King Top (8,342 ft), Cricket Mountains (7,189 ft)
Holding ground: Horse Heaven (7,543 ft), Little Horse Heaven (7,328 ft), Big Jensen Pass (7,171 ft), Clay Spring, Cricket Seeps
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 Southwest Desert, North
Elk Success Rates
UDWR's 2023 harvest estimates carry no elk row for unit Southwest Desert, North 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) | 16 | 93 | 17.2% | 14 |
| Archery — Limited Entry bull/buck only (nonresident) | 2 | 81 | 2.5% | 14 |
| Rifle — Limited Entry bull/buck only (resident) | 12 | 88 | 13.6% | 15 |
| Rifle — Limited Entry bull/buck only (nonresident) | 1 | 18 | 5.6% | 15 |
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 Southwest Desert, North, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:
- Archery, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, resident: 93 applicants for 16 licences, 17.2% drawn, 14 bonus points needed
- Archery, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, nonresident: 81 applicants for 2 licences, 2.5% 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. 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