Unit research · Colorado GMU 42

GMU 42 — Colorado

55% public across 387,358 ac. Road access is easy — only 13% of the public land is more than a mile from a road. Almost none of the public land is landlocked.

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

GMU 42Full map — ownership, roads, wind →

4,790–11,010 ft

elevation range

55%

public land

13%

of public >1 mi from a road

655 ac

landlocked public

1.47

road miles per mi²

266 mi

maintained trails

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

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

4 limited-entry elk hunts are drawn on GMU 42: apply in the Colorado draw, by the agency's deadline below.

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 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

■ USFS 30%■ BLM 22%■ SFW 3%□ Private 45%

Unit area387,358 ac

Public land214,144 ac (55%)

Landlocked public655 ac (0.3%)

Elk draw pressure1.3 tags/mi² public (0.70 of total area)

Walk-in access102 ac

Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)887 mi

Maintained trails266 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road28,793 ac (13% of public)

Road density1.47 mi/mi²

Managed byUSFS 115k ac · BLM 85k ac · SFW 13k ac

Elevation4,790–11,010 ft

Median elevation7,150 ft

Median slope12°

Where the ground sits

4,790 ft11,010 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 35%

E 20%

S 14%

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

13,063 ac of this gmu has burned — 3% 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 GRAND JUNCTION REGIONAL AIRPORT, 75 km from the unit’s center and ~2,300 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2024

21% success

659 taken by 3,093 hunters · 16,326 days afield

312 bulls · 311 cows · 36 calves

Elk hunter success · 2019–2024 · 16% → 21%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
1st rifle	31%	74	242
2nd rifle	15%	105	716
3rd rifle	25%	157	639
4th rifle	14%	27	197
Archery	12%	102	863
Muzzleloader	17%	30	182

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

Deer · 2024

53% success

453 taken by 849 hunters · 3,859 days afield

444 bucks · 8 does · 0 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 34% → 53%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	0%	0	96
Muzzleloader	29%	20	67

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

Pronghorn · 2023

0% success

0 taken by 2 hunters · 8 days afield

0 bucks · 0 does · 0 fawns

Pronghorn hunter success · 2020–2023 · 33% → 0%

Season breakdown · 2023

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-12 · 2025: 1,504 harvested (CI 1,405–1,609) · 61% success

elk · DAU E-14 · 2025: 2,086 harvested (CI 1,954–2,227) · 18% 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, file an issue — the fix ships for everyone.

Nearby GMUs

GMU 42166% public · 9% remote GMU 3238% public · 3% remote GMU 3375% public · 12% remote GMU 4374% public · 41% remote GMU 52175% public · 36% remote GMU 3492% public · 14% remote

Ready to scout it?

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

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