Unit 091 (Salt River)

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission names elk hunt area 91 "Salt River". It runs to about 465 square miles, entirely in Lincoln County. WGFD reports these elk as the Afton herd unit, which also takes in elk hunt areas 88, 89 and 90. The boundary and the harvest figures are WGFD's. The read of the country inside them is ours, and it says so where it starts.

The line: McCoy Creek, Stewart Creek and Salt River

WGFD's 2026 Chapter 7 walks the line around elk hunt area 91 corner by corner. It starts at the point where the McCoy Creek Road crosses the Wyoming-Idaho state line. On the way round it follows U.S. Highway 89, and McCoy Creek, Stewart Creek, Salt River and Greys River. 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 91s

WGFD numbers each species' hunt areas on its own grid, so the number 91 also belongs to its antelope hunt area 91. 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: Lincoln 1 and Lincoln 3

WGFD also lists 4 Walk-In Areas covering about 1,735 acres open for elk, among them Lincoln 1, Lincoln 3 and Lincoln 4. 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 Salt River-Clark's Barn (29 acres) and Salt River-Burton's Upper (40 acres) are public ways onto water and land; check what each allows before you count on it for hunting.

High ground inside the line: Rock Lake Peak, Mount Wagner and Red Top Mountain

Named high points inside elk hunt area 91 include Rock Lake Peak at 10,684 feet, Mount Wagner at 10,680 feet, Red Top Mountain at 10,389 feet, Prater Mountain at 10,056 feet and Haystack Peak at 10,054 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: Quaking Aspen Hollow, Churchhouse Hollow and Steves Canyon

Below them sit Quaking Aspen Hollow at 6,980 feet, Churchhouse Hollow at 6,959 feet, Steves Canyon at 6,885 feet, Forest Dell at 6,880 feet and Mud Hollow at 6,878 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past.

Water: Periodic Spring

Named water inside the line includes Periodic Spring. Nothing in the data says which of it runs in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

Wyoming Game and Fish's 2025 harvest survey estimates 1,283 hunters took 516 elk in elk hunt area 91 — 40.2% success, at about 17.7 days of hunting for every animal taken. Residents ran 39.9% and nonresidents 41.9% 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 91 for 2025

WGFD's 2025 survey breaks the elk harvest in elk hunt area 91 down by license type.

• Type 1 — 97 licenses in use, 60.8% success, 15.5 days per animal
• Type 6 — 283 licenses in use, 60.4% success, 13.9 days per animal
• Type 7 — 86 licenses in use, 58.1% success, 8.9 days per animal
• General — 912 licenses in use, 25.9% success, 22.8 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.

The Elk Special Management Permit

WGFD's 2026 Chapter 7 requires an Elk Special Management Permit, on top of the license, of anyone hunting elk in hunt areas 70, 71, 75, 77, 78 and 80 to 98 — this area among them. The permit pays for the Department's elk feedground program, must be in your possession while you hunt, and has to be produced when a Game and Fish officer asks for it.

A CWD priority area in 2026

WGFD's 2026 CWD map lists elk hunt area 91 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 Salt River Range, Haderlie Knoll and Rock Lake Peak

Take a position on one of Salt River Range (7,315 ft), Haderlie Knoll (6,090 ft), Rock Lake Peak (10,684 ft) and Mount Wagner (10,680 ft) and be on it before light. In the dark the air runs downhill. Pick an approach that doesn't send it into the country you want to see, and plan to move once the slope warms. 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.

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.