Unit D102 (Aspen Mountain)

Wyoming Game and Fish's 2025 harvest survey estimates 148 hunters took 132 mule deer in deer hunt area 102 — 89.2% success, at about 6.7 days of hunting for every animal taken. Residents ran 91.4% and nonresidents 81.2% that year. Most hunters who held a license here filled it, so the real question is the draw, not the hunting. The plan: glass the broken edges at first light, then sit still and keep glassing the same ground.

License types WGFD reported in deer hunt area 102 for 2025

WGFD's 2025 survey breaks the mule deer harvest in deer hunt area 102 down by license type.

• Type 1 — 148 licenses in use, 89.2% success, 6.7 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 6, so read the line for the license you hold rather than assume it matches another area's.

Glassing from Mellor Mountain, Lion Bluffs and Potter Mountain

Take a position on one of Mellor Mountain (8,553 ft), Lion Bluffs (8,390 ft), Potter Mountain (8,373 ft) and Big Ridge (8,282 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. Late-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.

Reading the South Rock Springs herd, not just the area

WGFD's harvest report also tabulates mule deer by herd unit, and deer hunt area 102 shares the South Rock Springs herd unit with deer hunt area 101. The animals cross those lines without noticing them, so a neighbouring area in the same herd is the fairest comparison for a season here.

The way in: Interstate Highway 80 and Wyoming Highway 430

We hold no road inventory for deer hunt area 102, so the only routes we can name are the ones WGFD draws its boundary with: Interstate Highway 80 and Wyoming Highway 430. Those are its edges, not its interior — where you leave the pavement, not what the inside is like. Check each on a current motor-vehicle-use map before you count on it, because a road in a legal description isn't a promise of public access.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Pine Mountain, Little Mountain and Tepee Mountains as places to see from, and The Narrows, Buckskin Basin and Big Pasture as ground to work. Each pin is a named feature or a WGFD access property placed inside the area line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Join two of them into a morning: be on the first before light, move to the second once the thermals turn.

What a day here costs you

1,211 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 6.7 days of hunting per animal is the one to budget against. With 3,502 feet between the lowest and highest named ground, plan the walk back out of a kill site before the shot. Decide the night before where you will be at first light, and go there in the dark.