Unit research · Colorado · GMU 54

GMU 54 — Colorado

77% public hunting land across 374,044 ac. Real backcountry here — 35% 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 (11)Elk draw odds (12)Odds and pins: free, no account

GMU 54Full map — ownership, roads, wind →

7,170–12,970 ft

elevation range

77%

public hunting land

35%

of public >1 mi from a road

668 ac

landlocked public

1.24

road miles per mi²

410 mi

trails on public land

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

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

23 limited-entry deer and elk hunts are drawn on GMU 54: apply in the Colorado draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Deer tag · 11 draw hunts (2026)$60.18 resident · $518.41 nonresident

Elk tag · 12 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 60%■ BLM 13%■ State wildlife 4%▨ Parks & other public 1%□ Private 22%

Unit area374,044 ac

Public hunting land288,145 ac (77%)

Parks & other public5,096 ac · Private conservation, State trust, City

Landlocked public668 ac (0.2%)

Deer draw pressure1.1 tags/mi² public (0.85 of total area)

Elk draw pressure2.2 tags/mi² public (1.7 of total area)

Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)726 mi

Mapped trails on public land410 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road100,819 ac (35% of public)

Road density1.24 mi/mi²

Managed byForest Service 226k ac · BLM 48k ac · State wildlife 15k ac

Elevation7,170–12,970 ft

Median elevation9,320 ft

Median slope14°

Where the ground sits

7,170 ft12,970 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 17%

E 32%

S 25%

W 26%

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

5,418 ac of this gmu has burned — 1% 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 GUNSN-CRSTED BUTTE RGL APT, 21 km from the unit’s center and ~1,700 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2024

22% success

498 taken by 2,242 hunters · 11,597 days afield

393 bulls · 103 cows · 2 calves

Elk hunter success · 2019–2024 · 15% → 22%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
1st rifle	28%	61	214
2nd rifle	15%	161	1,039
3rd rifle	21%	115	541
4th rifle	39%	36	92
Archery	27%	52	191
Muzzleloader	23%	17	74

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

Deer · 2024

57% success

371 taken by 651 hunters · 3,323 days afield

272 bucks · 95 does · 5 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 46% → 57%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	27%	20	74
Muzzleloader	32%	19	60

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

Pronghorn · 2024

0% success

0 taken by 2 hunters · 7 days afield

0 bucks · 0 does · 0 fawns

Pronghorn hunter success · 2019–2024 · 0% → 0%

Season breakdown · 2024

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-57 · 2025: 1,559 harvested (CI 1,508–1,612) · 66% success

elk · DAU E-5 · 2025: 1,019 harvested (CI 936–1,110) · 19% 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 5377% public · 48% remote GMU 5589% public · 17% remote GMU 6350% public · 15% remote GMU 6782% public · 11% remote GMU 52175% public · 36% remote GMU 6680% public · 37% remote

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