State Unit 106 good bet for general-tag elk
Wyoming hunting map feature
EVANSTON, Wyo. — Part foothills, part irrigated bottomland, part rank desert, the extreme southwestern corner of Wyoming is a lot like a hundred other corners of the Rockies.
Except that it contains elk more regularly than a lot of other spots. This is Wyoming Unit 106, and it's one of the state's most consistent general-tag elk areas.
Last year, for instance, about 27 percent of hunters bagged an elk. The success rate was significantly higher — close to 44 percent — for hunters who applied for a limited-entry cow tag in this Unita Unit.
The general-tag success was about 22 percent last year. In 2004 success was even better, with about 38 percent of all hunters dropping an elk.
Like many of Wyoming's elk units, 106 is managed for both recreation and hunter harvest. The recreation side of the coin is general-tag bull hunting.
The season this year opened Oct. 15 and general-tag hunters are limited to taking antlered bulls.
The special cow season — about 150 antler-less tags are issued here — begins Nov. 15. And another limited-entry season, for any elk, opens Nov. 15 in the western and northern portion of the unit.
Access is mixed in this hunting unit, which borders the Utah state line on the west and the south. The unit's northern boundary is Interstate 80 and the east border is Highways 410 and 414.
Much of the southern portion of the unit is the Wasatch National Forest, and that timbered land is by far the best elk habitat. But as elsewhere in the West, elk don't stay put, and they frequently roam north into the Blacks Fork, Smiths Fork and Muddy Creek bottoms and they also gather in the Bear River valley on occasion.
Public land, mostly in the form of state and BLM sections, is interspersed with private ground over much of the hunting district, so knowing where you are — and getting permission if you're hunting private land — is critical to being successful here.
There's a surprising amount of water in this unit, not only in the perennial streams that run out of the Unita Range, but also in the dozens of BLM reservoirs scattered on the benches that drop into the rivers and larger creeks.
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