Unit 006 (Pole Mountain)

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission names elk hunt area 6 "Pole Mountain", though its own map layer still labels it Iron Mountain. It runs to about 2,176 square miles, in Laramie (46%), Albany (36%) and Platte (18%) counties. WGFD reports these elk as the Iron Mountain herd unit, and no other hunt area shares it. What WGFD publishes for the area is its boundary and its harvest; where the elk stand inside it is our reading of the ground, and the two are kept apart below.

Where elk hunt area 6 begins and ends

WGFD's 2026 Chapter 7 walks the line around elk hunt area 6 corner by corner. It starts at the city of Laramie and U.S. Highway 30-287. On the way round it follows U.S. Highway 30-287, Wyoming Highway 34, Interstate Highway 25 and U.S. Highway 287. It is the description your license is good inside, so it is worth reading once in full before you go. The full text is in Section 9 of that chapter, with this year's season dates and license limitations in Section 2.

Not the same ground as the other hunt area 6s

WGFD numbers each species' hunt areas on its own grid, so the number 6 also belongs to its deer, antelope, moose and bighorn sheep hunt areas 6. None of them shares a county with this one. A license is good only in the hunt area of its own species, so this page is about the elk area, and the cards at the foot of the page link the others.

Ground WGFD opens: Pilot Hill and John/Annie Woodhouse

WGFD administers 2 Wildlife Habitat Management Areas inside or across the line, including Pilot Hill (3,012 acres) and John/Annie Woodhouse (679 acres). Its Access Yes program enrolls 3 Hunter Management Areas here that list elk among their species — Lone Tree Creek (15,312 acres), North Crow (6,215 acres) and Pilot Hill (3,099 acres). WGFD's 2026 regulations open Access Yes land only for the species and dates listed for each area, with each area's own rules on WGFD's site and no motorized travel unless WGFD says otherwise. Public Access Areas such as Leazenby Lake are public ways onto water and land; check what each allows before you count on it for hunting.

High ground inside the line: Pole Mountain, Sherman Mountains and Point Crawford

Named high points inside elk hunt area 6 include Pole Mountain at 9,013 feet, Sherman Mountains at 8,975 feet, Point Crawford at 8,855 feet, Pilot Hill at 8,850 feet and Green Mountain at 8,752 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: McKechnie Meadow, Telephone Canyon and Government Gulch

Below them sit McKechnie Meadow at 7,508 feet, Telephone Canyon at 7,492 feet, Government Gulch at 7,477 feet, Roger Canyon at 7,461 feet and Sawmill Canyon at 7,422 feet. That is the low ground — where animals drop when they are pushed or when the weather turns.

Wyoming Game and Fish's 2025 harvest survey estimates 1,236 hunters took 614 elk in elk hunt area 6 — 49.7% success, at about 13.7 days of hunting for every animal taken. Residents ran 35.6% and nonresidents 81.3% that year. Fewer than half the hunters here filled a license, which makes scouting time the difference between the two groups. The plan: find the feed, find the timber it backs onto, then watch the seam between them at the edges of the day.

License types WGFD reported in elk hunt area 6 for 2025

WGFD's 2025 survey breaks the elk harvest in elk hunt area 6 down by license type.

• Type 1 — 44 licenses in use, 54.5% success, 32.7 days per animal
• Type 4 — 26 licenses in use, 15.4% success, 62.2 days per animal
• Type 8 — 505 licenses in use, 49.1% success, 11.4 days per animal
• General — 738 licenses in use, 45.8% success, 13.4 days per animal

What each type allows — antlered, antlerless, archery-only, where it is valid — and this year's dates are set area by area in Section 2 of WGFD's 2026 Chapter 7, so read the line for the license you hold rather than assume it matches another area's.

A CWD priority area in 2026

WGFD's 2026 CWD map lists elk hunt area 6 as a priority area for chronic wasting disease sampling, where it wants samples to meet its testing goals. Chapter 2's mandatory-sample rule applies where the Department designates an area mandatory; this one is listed as priority, and a sample from your animal is still the most useful thing you can hand in.

Glassing from King Mountain, Laramie Mountains and Markley Hill

Take a position on one of King Mountain (8,562 ft), Laramie Mountains (8,531 ft), Markley Hill (8,502 ft) and Sherman Hill (8,483 ft) and be on it before light. Work the morning with the air falling away from you, then accept that by mid-morning the wind has reversed and the plan has to change with it. September bugling works where you can get above a drainage and let the thermals carry sound downhill.

Hunting the Access Yes ground

Hunter Management Areas and Walk-In Areas are private land opened through WGFD's Access Yes program, and the 2026 regulations open each one only for the species and dates listed for it. Read the area's page on WGFD's site before you go — its rules, its dates and whether it needs anything more than your license. Anything else on that land, or any species not listed, needs the landowner's permission, so treat the Access Yes line as the edge of what you were given.

Getting past the roads: I 25 / US 87 and WY 34

I 25 / US 87, WY 34 and US 287 are the named routes in our road inventory for the area. The country past the end of the gravel is the part worth your legs.

What a day here costs you

2,173 square miles is more country than a season will cover, so pick one drainage and learn it rather than driving the area. WGFD's figure of 13.7 days of hunting per elk is the one to budget against. Decide the night before where you will be at first light, and go there in the dark.