OpenHunt for Android is on Google Play — take your plan into the field. Send it to your phone →

Units / Colorado / GMU 33

Unit research · Colorado GMU 33

GMU 33 — Colorado

75% public across 266,312 ac. Road access is easy — only 12% of the public land is more than a mile from a road. Almost none of the public land is landlocked.

Open in map
Watch this unit — freeReturned and leftover tags, new legal closures, fire near the unit, weather warnings — by email. One unit free, no card.
Deer draw odds (10)Elk draw odds (9)Odds and pins: free, no account
GMU 33Full map — ownership, roads, wind →
5,300–11,400 ft

elevation range

75%

public land

12%

of public >1 mi from a road

127 ac

landlocked public

1.85

road miles per mi²

449 mi

maintained trails

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

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

19 limited-entry deer and elk hunts are drawn on GMU 33: apply in the Colorado draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Deer tag · 10 draw hunts (2026)$60.18 resident · $518.41 nonresident
Elk tag · 9 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)

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

USFS 45%BLM 29%SFW 1%□ Private 25%
Unit area266,312 ac
Public land201,035 ac (75%)
Landlocked public127 ac (0.1%)
Deer draw pressure3.0 tags/mi² public (2.2 of total area)
Elk draw pressure3.1 tags/mi² public (2.3 of total area)
Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)770 mi
Maintained trails449 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road24,859 ac (12% of public)
Road density1.85 mi/mi²
Managed byUSFS 120k ac · BLM 76k ac · SFW 3k ac
Elevation5,300–11,400 ft
Median elevation8,000 ft
Median slope14°

Where the ground sits

5,300 ft11,400 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 15%
E 23%
S 31%
W 31%

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

18,553 ac of this gmu has burned — 7% 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

Monthly normal highs and lows, °F35° high11° lowJFMAMJJASOND

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

Measured at EAGLE CO REGIONAL AIRPORT, 62 km from the unit’s center and ~1,500 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2024

14% success

311 taken by 2,161 hunters · 11,387 days afield

175 bulls · 121 cows · 15 calves

Elk hunter success · 2019–2024 · 9% → 14%

Season breakdown · 2024
SeasonSuccessHarvestHunters
1st rifle9%21252
2nd rifle13%98743
3rd rifle16%73443
4th rifle18%26148
Archery16%70436
Muzzleloader8%895

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

Deer · 2024

35% success

429 taken by 1,242 hunters · 7,098 days afield

370 bucks · 57 does · 3 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 21% → 35%

Season breakdown · 2024
SeasonSuccessHarvestHunters
Archery22%30133
Muzzleloader23%34144

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

Pronghorn · 2019

0% success

0 taken by 2 hunters · 2 days afield

0 bucks · 0 does · 0 fawns

Season breakdown · 2019
SeasonSuccessHarvestHunters
Archery0%02

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

Herd-level estimates · 95% CI

deer · DAU D-42 · 2025: 507 harvested (CI 454566) · 45% success

elk · DAU E-6 · 2025: 4,321 harvested (CI 4,0844,572) · 20% success

pronghorn · DAU A-99 · 2025: 6 harvested (CI 312) · 21% 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)

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 3492% public · 14% remoteGMU 2345% public · 2% remoteGMU 4255% public · 13% remoteGMU 2493% public · 57% remoteGMU 3238% public · 3% remoteGMU 2277% public · 2% remote

Ready to scout it?

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

Take GMU 33 into the field

Download Colorado’s pack and this unit works with no signal — boundaries, ownership, roads, elevation. Record your hunt with the screen off. Check what’s visible from any ridge.

Scan to install OpenHunt for Android. Open this page on the phone afterwards and it lands in the app.

QR code for openhuntmaps.com/appGet it on Google Play
Open GMU 33 in the map
Watch this unit — freeReturned and leftover tags, new legal closures, fire near the unit, weather warnings — by email. One unit free, no card.