Unit research · Colorado · GMU 36

GMU 36 — Colorado

82% public hunting land across 176,161 ac. Real backcountry here — 29% of the public land sits more than a mile from any road. Almost none of the public land is landlocked.

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Deer draw odds (1)Elk draw odds (4)Odds and pins: free, no account

GMU 36Full map — ownership, roads, wind →

6,750–13,120 ft

elevation range

82%

public hunting land

29%

of public >1 mi from a road

300 ac

landlocked public

1.91

road miles per mi²

250 mi

trails on public land

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

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

5 limited-entry deer and elk hunts are drawn on GMU 36: apply in the Colorado draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Deer tag · 1 draw hunt (2026)$60.18 resident · $518.41 nonresident

Elk tag · 4 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 deer →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

■ Forest Service 78%■ BLM 4%■ State wildlife 0%▨ Parks & other public 2%□ Private 16%

Unit area176,161 ac

Public hunting land144,510 ac (82%)

Parks & other public2,759 ac · Water district, City, Private conservation

Landlocked public300 ac (0.2%)

Deer draw pressure0.044 tags/mi² public (0.036 of total area)

Elk draw pressure0.65 tags/mi² public (0.53 of total area)

Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)525 mi

Mapped trails on public land250 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road41,929 ac (29% of public)

Road density1.91 mi/mi²

Managed byForest Service 137k ac · BLM 7k ac · State wildlife 0k ac

Elevation6,750–13,120 ft

Median elevation9,510 ft

Median slope16°

Where the ground sits

6,750 ft13,120 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 20%

E 15%

S 29%

W 35%

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 · Pro, $5 a month or $49 a year

198 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, 39 km from the unit’s center and ~3,000 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2024

15% success

185 taken by 1,196 hunters · 5,845 days afield

123 bulls · 59 cows · 3 calves

Elk hunter success · 2019–2024 · 11% → 15%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
1st rifle	19%	24	126
2nd rifle	10%	32	325
3rd rifle	18%	32	178
4th rifle	50%	12	24
Archery	12%	50	419
Muzzleloader	20%	20	100

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

Deer · 2024

34% success

302 taken by 900 hunters · 3,323 days afield

205 bucks · 97 does · 0 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 19% → 34%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	31%	23	75
Muzzleloader	18%	18	102

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

Pronghorn · 2022

0% success

0 taken by 2 hunters · 9 days afield

0 bucks · 0 does · 0 fawns

Pronghorn hunter success · 2019–2022 · 100% → 0%

Season breakdown · 2022

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	0%	0	2

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

Herd-level estimates · 95% CI

deer · DAU D-8 · 2025: 1,566 harvested (CI 1,447–1,695) · 39% success

elk · DAU E-12 · 2025: 367 harvested (CI 319–422) · 13% success

pronghorn · DAU A-99 · 2025: 6 harvested (CI 3–12) · 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)
# AGPL — read the pipeline →

Computed, not curated: no paid research team, no opinions dressed as data. If a number looks wrong, tell us at support@openhuntmaps.com — the fix ships for everyone.

Nearby GMUs

GMU 36174% public · 0% remote GMU 37185% public · 71% remote GMU 4589% public · 31% remote GMU 3570% public · 4% remote GMU 4478% public · 16% remote GMU 3771% public · 17% remote

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