Unit S3 (Wapiti Ridge)

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission names bighorn sheep hunt area 3 "Wapiti Ridge". It runs to about 712 square miles, entirely in Park County. WGFD reports these bighorn sheep as the Absaroka herd unit, which also takes in bighorn sheep hunt areas 1, 2, 4, 5 and 22. WGFD prints the line and counts the harvest. It doesn't say where inside the line the bighorn sheep live, so that part is our read of the ground, labelled as such.

The line: North Fork, Shoshone River and South Fork

WGFD's 2026 Chapter 9 walks the line around bighorn sheep hunt area 3 corner by corner. It starts where U.S. Highway 14-16-20 intersects the east boundary of Yellowstone National Park. On the way round it follows U.S. Highway 14-16-20, Wyoming Highway 120, U.S. Highway 14A and Wyoming Highway 291, and North Fork, Shoshone River, South Fork and Deer Creek. 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 6 of that chapter, with this year's season dates and license limitations in Section 3.

Not the same ground as the other hunt area 3s

WGFD numbers each species' hunt areas on its own grid, so the number 3 also belongs to its elk, deer, antelope, moose and mountain goat hunt areas 3. Only the mountain goat area 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 bighorn sheep area, and the cards at the foot of the page link the others.

Ground WGFD opens: Public Access Areas

Public Access Areas such as South Fork Shoshone River-Andy Martin Hill (29 acres) and South Fork Shoshone River-Cody Canal (72 acres) are public ways onto water and land; check what each allows before you count on it for hunting.

Wilderness inside the line: Washakie Wilderness and Teton Wilderness

About 48% of bighorn sheep hunt area 3 lies in the Washakie Wilderness and 18% of bighorn sheep hunt area 3 lies in the Teton 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: Wapiti Ridge, Ptarmigan Mountain and Sheep Mesa

Named high points inside bighorn sheep hunt area 3 include Wapiti Ridge at 12,049 feet, Ptarmigan Mountain at 12,042 feet, Sheep Mesa at 11,995 feet, Fortress Mountain at 11,995 feet and Citadel Mountain at 11,904 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Sheep need rock to escape into and will not stand far from it.

Holding ground: Paradise Valley, Fishhawk Meadows and Eagle Creek Meadows

Below them sit Paradise Valley at 8,259 feet, Fishhawk Meadows at 7,625 feet, Eagle Creek Meadows at 7,476 feet, Cut Coulee at 7,425 feet and Bear Gulch at 6,860 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past.