Unit 048 (Upper Nowood)

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission names elk hunt area 48 "Upper Nowood". It runs to about 931 square miles, in Natrona (30%), Fremont (26%), Washakie (26%) and Hot Springs (18%) counties. WGFD reports these elk as the South Bighorn herd unit, which also takes in elk hunt areas 33, 34, 47, 49 and 120. 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.

The line: Bridger Creek, Kirby Creek and Hot Springs

WGFD's 2026 Chapter 7 walks the line around elk hunt area 48 corner by corner. It starts at the town of Moneta and U.S. Highway 20-26. On the way round it follows U.S. Highway 20-26, Fremont County Road 176, Fremont County Road 117 and Fremont County Road 259, and Bridger Creek, Kirby Creek, Hot Springs and Black Mountain. Read it as the legal edge of your license rather than as a hint about animals. 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 48s

WGFD numbers each species' hunt areas on its own grid, so the number 48 also belongs to its antelope hunt area 48. None of it 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: Upper Nowood and Deep Creek

Its Access Yes program enrolls 2 Hunter Management Areas here that list elk among their species — Upper Nowood (3,982 acres) and Deep Creek (2,000 acres). WGFD also lists 2 Walk-In Areas covering about 5,602 acres open for elk, among them Fremont 30 and Natrona 19. 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 Badwater Ranch (10,211 acres) are public ways onto water and land; check what each allows before you count on it for hunting.

High ground inside the line: Cherry Creek Hill, Devils Slide and Lysite Mountain

Named high points inside elk hunt area 48 include Cherry Creek Hill at 8,497 feet, Devils Slide at 7,526 feet, Lysite Mountain at 7,217 feet, Klondike Peak at 7,178 feet and Battle Mountain at 7,067 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: Stove Creek Canyon, Sand Draw and Maxwell Draw

Below them sit Stove Creek Canyon at 6,137 feet, Sand Draw at 5,924 feet, Maxwell Draw at 5,643 feet, South Fork Frenchie Draw at 5,569 feet and Greer Draw at 5,552 feet. Those are the basins and bottoms of the area, and they are what you glass into from above.

Wyoming Game and Fish's 2025 harvest survey estimates 1,040 hunters took 420 elk in elk hunt area 48 — 40.4% success, at about 16.6 days of hunting for every animal taken. Residents ran 39% and nonresidents 42.4% 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 48 for 2025

WGFD's 2025 survey breaks the elk harvest in elk hunt area 48 down by license type.

• Type 1 — 353 licenses in use, 45.3% success, 16.3 days per animal
• Type 4 — 64 licenses in use, 18.8% success, 33.6 days per animal
• Type 6 — 467 licenses in use, 39.8% success, 16.5 days per animal
• Type 7 — 219 licenses in use, 28.3% success, 14.5 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.

Glassing from Black Mountain, Arapahoe Butte and Needles Eye Butte

Take a position on one of Black Mountain (6,193 ft), Arapahoe Butte (6,110 ft), Needles Eye Butte (6,099 ft) and Noble Ridge (5,635 ft) and be on it before light. Cold air slides downhill in the dark, so keep your scent out of the bowl you mean to watch, and expect the thermals to turn uphill an hour after the sun reaches the slope. 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.

Reading the South Bighorn herd, not just the area

WGFD's harvest report also tabulates elk by herd unit, and elk hunt area 48 shares the South Bighorn herd unit with elk hunt areas 33, 34, 47, 49 and 120. The animals cross those lines without noticing them, so a neighbouring area in the same herd is the fairest comparison for a season here.

Getting past the roads: Lost Cabin Road and Nowater Road

Lost Cabin Road, Nowater Road and US 20 / US 26 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 we can't tell you

Some named ground above carries no land-status flag we trust, so check ownership on a current layer before you hunt it.