Unit research · Colorado · GMU 56

GMU 56 — Colorado

69% public hunting land across 152,171 ac. Road access is easy — only 15% of the public land is more than a mile from a road. No landlocked public land.

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Deer draw odds (3)Elk draw odds (11)Odds and pins: free, no account

GMU 56Full map — ownership, roads, wind →

7,000–14,130 ft

elevation range

69%

public hunting land

15%

of public >1 mi from a road

0 ac

landlocked public

2.11

road miles per mi²

181 mi

trails on public land

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

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

14 limited-entry deer and elk hunts are drawn on GMU 56: apply in the Colorado draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Deer tag · 3 draw hunts (2026)$60.18 resident · $518.41 nonresident

Elk tag · 11 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 61%■ BLM 6%■ State wildlife 5%□ Private 30%

Unit area152,171 ac

Public hunting land105,449 ac (69%)

Parks & other public704 ac · State trust, State parks, City

Landlocked public0 ac (0.0%)

Deer draw pressure0.17 tags/mi² public (0.12 of total area)

Elk draw pressure2.2 tags/mi² public (1.5 of total area)

Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)501 mi

Mapped trails on public land181 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road15,904 ac (15% of public)

Road density2.11 mi/mi²

Managed byForest Service 92k ac · BLM 9k ac · State wildlife 7k ac

Elevation7,000–14,130 ft

Median elevation9,620 ft

Median slope13°

Where the ground sits

7,000 ft14,130 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 26%

E 34%

S 26%

W 14%

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

Burn history, migration coverage, and terrain for this gmu — 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, 64 km from the unit’s center and ~2,000 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2024

24% success

99 taken by 421 hunters · 2,229 days afield

57 bulls · 41 cows · 1 calves

Elk hunter success · 2019–2024 · 23% → 24%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
1st rifle	32%	12	38
2nd rifle	19%	16	84
3rd rifle	22%	19	88
4th rifle	31%	12	39
Archery	15%	12	80
Muzzleloader	21%	13	63

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

Deer · 2024

32% success

111 taken by 344 hunters · 1,476 days afield

97 bucks · 14 does · 0 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 37% → 32%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	19%	8	41
Muzzleloader	43%	13	30

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

Pronghorn · 2024

0% success

0 taken by 5 hunters · 24 days afield

0 bucks · 0 does · 0 fawns

Pronghorn hunter success · 2019–2024 · 10% → 0%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	0%	0	1
Muzzleloader	0%	0	2

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

Herd-level estimates · 95% CI

deer · DAU D-15 · 2025: 441 harvested (CI 396–491) · 42% success

elk · DAU E-17 · 2025: 430 harvested (CI 400–463) · 26% success

pronghorn · DAU A-39 · 2025: 31 harvested (CI 26–37) · 29% 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 56191% public · 9% remote GMU 5773% public · 11% remote GMU 48179% public · 41% remote GMU 55187% public · 3% remote GMU 5847% public · 12% remote GMU 5589% public · 17% remote

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