Unit West Desert, Deep Creek
Utah Hunting Guide — Elk
Unit West Desert, Deep Creek lies in Juab and Tooele counties and covers about 655 square miles. Ground runs from 4,389 to 9,432 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 West Desert, Deep Creek
Unit West Desert, Deep Creek lies in Juab and Tooele counties and covers about 655 square miles. Ground runs from 4,389 to 9,432 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 West Desert, Deep Creek
UDWR's material on unit West Desert, Deep Creek stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its elk live. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Juab and Tooele counties. It runs to about 655 square miles.
The lines of the unit: Salt Springs and Blue Lake
UDWR draws unit West Desert, Deep Creek in Juab and Tooele counties with a boundary that runs on Salt Springs and Blue Lake, walked corner by corner in its hunting district legal descriptions. 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: Deep Creek Range, Ibapah Peak and Haystack Peak
Named high points inside the unit include Deep Creek Range at 12,026 feet, Ibapah Peak at 12,026 feet, Haystack Peak at 11,996 feet, Red Mountain at 11,529 feet and Rocky Peak at 10,725 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Elk want timber to bed in and open ground to feed on, within a short walk of each other.
Holding ground: Queen of Sheba Canyon, North Canyon and Dry Fork Johnson Canyon
Below them sit Queen of Sheba Canyon at 7,599 feet, North Canyon at 7,583 feet, Dry Fork Johnson Canyon at 7,546 feet, Dry Fork Johnson Canyon at 7,513 feet and The Delle at 7,306 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: Willow Spring, Cane Spring and Chicken Springs
The water inside the unit line comes to 42 mapped stream reaches, 1 lakes, 3 stock tanks and 164 springs. Named sources include Willow Spring, Cane Spring, Chicken Springs, Skinner Spring, Rock Springs and Chadman 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 4,389 feet to 9,432 feet, averaging 6,161 — that is a lot of vertical to cover, and it means the season you draw decides which half of the unit you hunt.
Unit West Desert, Deep Creek terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
The lay of it
- 4,389–9,432 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 6,161 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
- 654.6 sq mi inside the boundary.
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
- 3 tanks
- 164 springs
- 42 stream segments
- 1 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: Deep Creek Range (12,026 ft), Haystack Peak (11,996 ft), Red Mountain (11,529 ft), Rocky Peak (10,725 ft)
Holding ground: The Meadows (9,261 ft), Open A (7,954 ft), North Pass (7,616 ft), Willow Spring, Cane 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 West Desert, Deep Creek
Elk Success Rates
UDWR's 2023 harvest estimates carry no elk row for unit West Desert, Deep Creek 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) | 13 | 100 | 13.0% | 14 |
| Archery — Limited Entry bull/buck only (nonresident) | 1 | 65 | 1.5% | 14 |
| Rifle — Limited Entry bull/buck only (resident) | 12 | 77 | 15.6% | 10 |
| Rifle — Limited Entry bull/buck only (nonresident) | 1 | 20 | 5.0% | 10 |
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 West Desert, Deep Creek, with resident and nonresident kept apart because the two draw from different licence pools:
- Archery, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, resident: 100 applicants for 13 licences, 13% drawn, 14 bonus points needed
- Archery, Limited Entry, Bull/Buck Only, nonresident: 65 applicants for 1 licences, 1.5% 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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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