Unit Southwest Desert, South
Utah Hunting Guide — Elk
Unit Southwest Desert, South lies in Beaver, Iron and Millard counties and covers about 2,669 square miles. Ground runs from 5,078 to 7,267 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, South
Unit Southwest Desert, South lies in Beaver, Iron and Millard counties and covers about 2,669 square miles. Ground runs from 5,078 to 7,267 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, South
What UDWR publishes for unit Southwest Desert, South is a boundary, not a elk map. Every place named below sits inside the unit line. Which of them holds animals in your season is for you to find out. The unit lies in Beaver, Iron and Millard counties. It runs to about 2,669 square miles.
What bounds unit Southwest Desert, South
UDWR draws unit Southwest Desert, South in Beaver, Iron and Millard counties with a boundary that runs on I-15, and on Wah Wah Mountains, walked corner by corner in its hunting district legal descriptions. It tells you the shape of the unit and nothing about its inhabitants. 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: Indian Peak Range, Indian Peak and Mountain Home Range
Named high points inside the unit include Indian Peak Range at 9,761 feet, Indian Peak at 9,761 feet, Mountain Home Range at 9,472 feet, Wah Wah Mountains at 9,380 feet and Steamboat Mountain at 8,586 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: Little Horse Valley, Spike Hollow and North Canyon
Below them sit Little Horse Valley at 7,234 feet, Spike Hollow at 7,152 feet, North Canyon at 7,143 feet, Burnt Stump Canyon at 7,048 feet and Johnny Canyon at 7,027 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Reaching the edge of one before light beats reaching its middle at noon.
Water: Big Basket Spring, Little Basket Springs and Ryan Spring
The water inside the unit line comes to 94 mapped stream reaches, 10 lakes, 221 stock tanks and 51 springs. Named sources include Big Basket Spring, Little Basket Springs, Ryan Spring, Peaks Spring, Rock Spring and Needle Point 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 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 5,078 feet to 7,267 feet, averaging 5,976 — enough relief to separate summer range from winter range.
Unit Southwest Desert, South terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
The lay of it
- 5,078–7,267 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 5,976 ft ; peaks can run higher.
- 2,668.7 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
- 221 tanks
- 51 springs
- 94 stream segments
- 10 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: Indian Peak Range (9,761 ft), Mountain Home Range (9,472 ft), Wah Wah Mountains (9,380 ft), Steamboat Mountain (8,586 ft)
Holding ground: Ofer Basin (7,687 ft), Horse Valley (7,657 ft), Arrowhead Pass (7,642 ft), Big Basket Spring, Ryan 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 Southwest Desert, South
Elk Success Rates
UDWR's 2023 harvest estimates carry no elk row for unit Southwest Desert, South 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 | 15 | 60.0% | 8 |
| Archery — Limited Entry bull/buck only (nonresident) | 1 | 9 | 11.1% | 8 |
| Rifle — Limited Entry bull/buck only (resident) | 38 | 381 | 10.0% | 10 |
| Rifle — Limited Entry bull/buck only (nonresident) | 4 | 111 | 3.6% | 10 |
| Muzzleloader — Limited Entry bull/buck only (resident) | 22 | 149 | 14.8% | 22 |
| Muzzleloader — Limited Entry bull/buck only (nonresident) | 2 | 83 | 2.4% | 22 |
| Any Legal Weapon — Limited Entry bull/buck only (resident) | 42 | 401 | 10.5% | 24 |
| Any Legal Weapon — Limited Entry bull/buck only (nonresident) | 4 | 128 | 3.1% | 24 |
| Any Legal Weapon — Multi-season bull/buck only (resident) | 5 | 151 | 3.3% | 26 |
| Any Legal Weapon — Multi-season bull/buck only (nonresident) | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | 26 |
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, South, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:
- Any Legal Weapon, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, resident: 864 applicants for 14 licences, 1.6% drawn, 25 bonus points needed
- Any Legal Weapon, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, nonresident: 272 applicants for 2 licences, 0.7% drawn, 25 bonus points needed
- Archery, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, resident: 217 applicants for 37 licences, 17.1% drawn, 12 bonus points needed
- Any Legal Weapon, Multi-season, Bull/Buck Only, resident: 151 applicants for 5 licences, 3.3% drawn, 26 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