Unit S5 (Franc's Peak)

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission names bighorn sheep hunt area 5 "Franc's Peak". It runs to about 2,649 square miles, in Park (48%), Hot Springs (44%) and Fremont (9%) counties. WGFD reports these bighorn sheep as the Absaroka herd unit, which also takes in bighorn sheep hunt areas 1, 2, 3, 4 and 22. What WGFD publishes for the area is its boundary and its harvest; where the bighorn sheep stand inside it is our reading of the ground, and the two are kept apart below.

The line: Needle Creek, South Fork and Shoshone River

WGFD's 2026 Chapter 9 walks the line around bighorn sheep hunt area 5 corner by corner. It starts where Needle Creek enters the South Fork of the Shoshone River. On the way round it follows Park County Road 6Q, Wyoming Highway 291, U.S. Highway 14-16-20 and Wyoming Highway 120, and Needle Creek, South Fork, Shoshone River and Bighorn River. 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 5s

WGFD numbers each species' hunt areas on its own grid, so the number 5 also belongs to its deer, antelope, moose and mountain goat hunt areas 5. 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: Sunshine

WGFD administers the Sunshine Wildlife Habitat Management Area (4,616 acres) inside or across the line. 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

About 17% of bighorn sheep hunt area 5 lies in the Washakie 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: Francs Peak, Absaroka Range and Jojo Mountain

Named high points inside bighorn sheep hunt area 5 include Francs Peak at 13,090 feet, Absaroka Range at 13,088 feet, Jojo Mountain at 12,557 feet, Dome Mountain at 12,445 feet and Mount Crosby at 12,440 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: Brown Basin, Galena Basin and Piney Pass

Below them sit Brown Basin at 10,541 feet, Galena Basin at 10,351 feet, Piney Pass at 10,247 feet, Meadow Creek Basin at 10,243 feet and Black Canyon at 9,626 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past.