Unit 084 (Lower Hoback)
Wyoming Hunting Guide — Elk
Elk Hunt Area 84, which Wyoming Game and Fish names Lower Hoback, covers about 395 square miles in Teton, Lincoln and Sublette counties. It belongs to WGFD's Fall Creek elk herd unit. WGFD's 2025 harvest survey put elk success here at 37.2%, with 1,343 hunters taking 499 elk at about 17.3 days of hunting per animal. Federal land covers about 91% of it. Elk hunters here also need WGFD's Elk Special Management Permit. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
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Elk Hunting in Unit 084
Elk Hunt Area 84, which Wyoming Game and Fish names Lower Hoback, covers about 395 square miles in Teton, Lincoln and Sublette counties. It belongs to WGFD's Fall Creek elk herd unit. WGFD's 2025 harvest survey put elk success here at 37.2%, with 1,343 hunters taking 499 elk at about 17.3 days of hunting per animal. Federal land covers about 91% of it. Elk hunters here also need WGFD's Elk Special Management Permit. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Where to Find Elk in Elk Hunt Area 84
The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission names elk hunt area 84 "Lower Hoback". It runs to about 395 square miles, in Teton (69%), Lincoln (16%) and Sublette (15%) counties. WGFD reports these elk as the Fall Creek herd unit, which also takes in elk hunt area 85. 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: Flat Creek, Cache Creek and Cache Peak
WGFD's 2026 Chapter 7 walks the line around elk hunt area 84 corner by corner. It starts where U.S. Highway 191 crosses Flat Creek at the north edge of the town of Jackson. On the way round it follows U.S. Highway 191 and Wyoming Highway 22, and Flat Creek, Cache Creek, Cache Peak and Granite Creek. 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 84s
WGFD numbers each species' hunt areas on its own grid, so the number 84 also belongs to its deer and antelope hunt areas 84. 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: Horse Creek and Camp Creek
WGFD administers 3 Wildlife Habitat Management Areas inside or across the line, including Horse Creek (332 acres), Camp Creek (149 acres) and South Park (1,006 acres). Public Access Areas such as Von Gontard Landing (28 acres) are public ways onto water and land; check what each allows before you count on it for hunting.
Wilderness inside the line: Gros Ventre Wilderness
About 31% of elk hunt area 84 lies in the Gros Ventre Wilderness. WGFD's 2026 regulations print the rule that matters there: no nonresident may hunt big game in a designated wilderness area unless accompanied by a licensed professional guide or a resident guide, with at least one guide for every two nonresident hunters. Inside the wilderness there are no roads, so every animal there comes out on your back or on a horse.
High ground inside the line: Gros Ventre Range, Palmer Peak and Antoinette Peak
Named high points inside elk hunt area 84 include Gros Ventre Range at 11,396 feet, Palmer Peak at 11,396 feet, Antoinette Peak at 11,354 feet, Corner Peak at 11,190 feet and Pyramid Peak at 11,080 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: Smith Canyon, Little Horsethief Canyon and Wilson Canyon
Below them sit Smith Canyon at 6,086 feet, Little Horsethief Canyon at 6,082 feet, Wilson Canyon at 6,074 feet, South Park at 6,063 feet and Hoback Canyon at 5,889 feet. Those are the basins and bottoms of the area, and they are what you glass into from above.
Unit 084 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up · figures are for GMU 84
The lay of it
- 6,248–10,114 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 7,730 ft ; peaks can run higher.
- 394.8 sq mi inside the boundary.
Who owns the ground
- National Forest — 60%
- State Trust — 8%
- Private / Other — 32%
Roughly 68% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.
Water on the ground
- 228 tanks
- 6 springs
- 427 stream segments
- 13 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: Gros Ventre Range (11,396 ft), Antoinette Peak (11,354 ft), Corner Peak (11,190 ft), Pyramid Peak (11,080 ft)
Holding ground: Horse Heaven Meadows (9,124 ft), Camp Creek Saddle (6,761 ft), Salt Lick Draw (6,683 ft), South Park WHMA, Horse Creek WHMA
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 Elk Hunt Area 84
Elk Success Rates
Wyoming Game and Fish's 2025 harvest report estimates 37.2% elk success in elk hunt area 84: 499 animals taken by 1,343 active hunters over 8,632 days of hunting, or 17.3 days per animal. By residency, residents 31.9% (307 taken by 962) and nonresidents 50.4% (192 taken by 381).
These are WGFD's own estimates from its hunter survey, for this hunt area and season only — not a statewide average. One season isn't a trend, so check the current report before you read one into it.
Elk Draw Odds
| Season | Tags | Applicants | Draw % | Pts (n/p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rifle — General Type 1 either sex (resident) | 84 | 28 | 100.0% | — |
| Rifle — General Type 1 either sex (nonresident) | 2 | 39 | 5.1% | — |
Data from 2026 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number. This agency publishes no point thresholds, so the Pts column stays blank and these are pool odds, not what a point total draws.
Open in Draw Odds EngineWyoming Game and Fish's 2026 demand report for elk in elk hunt area 84, residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different license pools:
- Type 1 (any elk), nonresidents: 39 first-choice applicants for 2 licenses, 5.1% drawn
- Type 1 (any elk), residents: 28 first-choice applicants for 84 licenses, 100% drawn
Wyoming residents draw elk licenses without preference points; nonresidents draw part of their quota on points, highest balance first (Chapter 44, Section 19), and the nonresident figures above are from WGFD's random draw. WGFD publishes no preference-point level at which a hunt draws, so none is given here. Every figure was checked against WGFD's demand-report PDFs on 2026-08-10.
Unit Logistics & Expectations
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Wyoming elk hunt area 84?
What is the elk success rate in elk hunt area 84?
Is elk hunt area 84 the same ground as deer hunt area 84?
What do you need besides a license to hunt elk hunt area 84?
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Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-10-25.
- Chapter 7 — Elk Hunting Seasons (2026) — Wyoming Game and Fish Commission · supports: Name and legal boundary of elk hunt area 84, Season dates, license types and limitations by hunt area, Elk Special Management Permit areas (Section 7) · accessed 2026-10-25
- Elk 2025 Harvest Report — Wyoming Game and Fish Department · supports: Hunters, harvest, percent success and days per animal for elk in elk hunt area 84, The same by license type and residency · accessed 2026-10-25
- WGFD draw results and odds — demand reports 2021-2026 — Wyoming Game and Fish Department · supports: First-choice applicants, licenses and percent drawn, by license type, residency and year · accessed 2026-08-10
- Chapter 44 — Regulation for Issuance of Licenses, Permits, Stamps, Tags, Preference Points and Competitive Raffle Chances — Wyoming Game and Fish Commission · supports: Which licenses are drawn on preference points (Section 19), When preference points are deleted · accessed 2026-10-25
- Chapter 2 — General Hunting Regulation (2026) — Wyoming Game and Fish Commission · supports: Mandatory CWD sample submission (Section 17) · accessed 2026-10-25
- 2026 Antelope, Deer and Elk Hunting Regulations — Wyoming Game and Fish Commission · supports: Nonresident guide requirement in designated wilderness · accessed 2026-10-25
- WGFD ArcGIS feature services — hunt areas by species, CWD sampling areas, WHMAs, Public Access Areas, Hunter Management Areas, Walk-In Hunting Areas — Wyoming Game and Fish Department · supports: Mapped outline of the hunt area, Herd unit and square miles, 2026 CWD mandatory and priority sampling areas, WHMAs, Public Access Areas, Hunter Management Areas and Walk-In Areas inside the area · accessed 2026-10-25
- TIGERweb State_County — Wyoming county boundaries (used only to measure which counties a hunt area lies in) — U.S. Census Bureau · supports: Which counties the hunt area lies in, and in what share · accessed 2026-10-25