Unit research · Colorado GMU 181

GMU 181 — Colorado

60% public across 116,458 ac. Road access is easy — only 5% of the public land is more than a mile from a road. No landlocked public land.

Open in map

Elk draw odds (5)Odds and pins: free, no account

GMU 181Full map — ownership, roads, wind →

7,300–11,510 ft

elevation range

60%

public land

of public >1 mi from a road

0 ac

landlocked public

1.79

road miles per mi²

161 mi

maintained trails

Computed from primary government data by the open pipeline. See the code →

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

5 limited-entry elk hunts are drawn on GMU 181: apply in the Colorado draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Elk tag · 5 draw hunts (2026)$79.33 resident · $856.65 nonresident

Plus: Qualifying license (annual small game, cheapest adult route)$38.49 resident · $104.86 nonresident

Season dates: see Colorado Parks & Wildlife's regulations

2026 Colorado Big Game brochure (rev. 2026-03-18) ↗

Colorado Parks & Wildlife — licenses and tags ↗Draw odds for Colorado elk →How the Colorado draw works →

Fees and draw dates from Colorado Parks & Wildlife, 2026, verified 2026-08-05 — past its verify-by date, confirm with the agency. Tag type from the agency's published draw statistics: a gmu that appears in none of them has no limited-entry hunt we know of. Source: 2026 Colorado Big Game brochure (rev. 2026-03-18) · CPW primary draw · CPW refunds, reversals and exchanges · Chapter W-2 (2 CCR 406-2), approved 2025-05-07.

Land & access

■ BLM 32%■ USFS 17%■ SFW 10%■ Other public 1%□ Private 40%

Unit area116,458 ac

Public land69,938 ac (60%)

Landlocked public0 ac (0.0%)

Elk draw pressure0.86 tags/mi² public (0.52 of total area)

Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)326 mi

Maintained trails161 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road3,726 ac (5% of public)

Road density1.79 mi/mi²

Managed byBLM 37k ac · USFS 20k ac · SFW 12k ac

Elevation7,300–11,510 ft

Median elevation8,250 ft

Median slope9°

Where the ground sits

7,300 ft11,510 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 15%

E 23%

S 32%

W 30%

Share of ground steeper than 5° — flat ground has no facing

North slopes hold shade, cover and snow; south slopes open first.

USGS 3DEP 1 arc-second (30 m), slope at native resolution in a local metric projection, sampled on a 200 m grid. See the code →

Unit intelligence report

357 ac of this gmu has burned — 0% of the unit. The full report assembles it into one printable document and keeps it current as the facts change.

Open the report →

Season conditions — measured, not vibes

Historical temperatures · 2000–2025

Normals for 2000–2025 — tap or hover for a month

Measured at EAGLE CO REGIONAL AIRPORT, 79 km from the unit’s center and ~1,800 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2024

14% success

205 taken by 1,462 hunters · 6,061 days afield

68 bulls · 124 cows · 13 calves

Elk hunter success · 2019–2024 · 7% → 14%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
1st rifle	21%	30	144
2nd rifle	8%	20	254
3rd rifle	17%	42	245
4th rifle	20%	77	386
Archery	3%	10	302
Muzzleloader	0%	0	80

Which season is the value play here — same ground, different odds.

Deer · 2024

27% success

43 taken by 159 hunters · 559 days afield

38 bucks · 5 does · 0 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 32% → 27%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	0%	0	10
Muzzleloader	0%	0	16

Which season is the value play here — same ground, different odds.

Pronghorn · 2024

11% success

16 taken by 145 hunters · 421 days afield

4 bucks · 12 does · 0 fawns

Pronghorn hunter success · 2019–2024 · 29% → 11%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	0%	0	18
Muzzleloader	0%	0	33

Which season is the value play here — same ground, different odds.

Herd-level estimates · 95% CI

deer · DAU D-9 · 2025: 1,084 harvested (CI 979–1,200) · 31% success

elk · DAU E-8 · 2025: 505 harvested (CI 429–594) · 9% success

pronghorn · DAU A-37 · 2025: 133 harvested (CI 113–156) · 26% success

CPW’s stratified-survey estimates for the whole herd unit (DAU) this GMU belongs to — published with the uncertainty the per-GMU tables can’t carry.

CPW estimates harvest, hunters, success and recreation days from its Big Game Harvest Survey. Unit tables run 2019-2024; the 2025 report switched to per-hunt-code tables without unit totals, so unit series end at 2024 and 2025 success rates appear on the draw-odds tables instead. Source: CPW Statewide Harvest Estimates (per species-year PDFs on the species statistics pages).

How these numbers are made

public_land_pct = public_area / unit_area
landlocked = public ∖ reachable(roads, corners)
remote = public ∖ buffer(roads, 1 mi)
# AGPL — read the pipeline →

Computed, not curated: no paid research team, no opinions dressed as data. If a number looks wrong, file an issue — the fix ships for everyone.

Nearby GMUs

GMU 2755% public · 3% remote GMU 1763% public · 9% remote GMU 1566% public · 22% remote GMU 1888% public · 40% remote GMU 17169% public · 5% remote GMU 1652% public · 21% remote

Ready to scout it?

Everything on this page, live on the map — ownership, boundaries, roads, and your own waypoints.

Open GMU 181 in the map