Unit research · Colorado · GMU 59

GMU 59 — Colorado

33% public hunting land across 414,037 ac. Road access is easy — only 24% of the public land is more than a mile from a road. Almost none of the public land is landlocked.

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Deer draw odds (5)Elk draw odds (11)Pronghorn draw odds (3)Odds and pins: free, no account

GMU 59Full map — ownership, roads, wind →

4,770–14,110 ft

elevation range

33%

public hunting land

24%

of public >1 mi from a road

602 ac

landlocked public

2.43

road miles per mi²

197 mi

trails on public land

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

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

19 limited-entry deer, elk and pronghorn hunts are drawn on GMU 59: apply in the Colorado draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Deer tag · 5 draw hunts (2026)$60.18 resident · $518.41 nonresident

Elk tag · 11 draw hunts (2026)$79.33 resident · $856.65 nonresident

Pronghorn tag · 3 draw hunts (2026)$60.18 resident · $518.41 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 →Draw odds for Colorado pronghorn →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 20%■ BLM 10%■ State wildlife 3%▨ Parks & other public 5%□ Private 62%

Unit area414,037 ac

Public hunting land138,282 ac (33%)

Parks & other public19,682 ac · State trust, City, County

Landlocked public602 ac (0.4%)

Deer draw pressure1.7 tags/mi² public (0.55 of total area)

Elk draw pressure2.9 tags/mi² public (0.95 of total area)

Pronghorn draw pressure0.12 tags/mi² public (0.039 of total area)

Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)1,575 mi

Mapped trails on public land197 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road32,638 ac (24% of public)

Road density2.43 mi/mi²

Managed byForest Service 83k ac · BLM 42k ac · State wildlife 13k ac

Elevation4,770–14,110 ft

Median elevation7,150 ft

Median slope9°

Where the ground sits

4,770 ft14,110 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 20%

E 32%

S 25%

W 23%

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

1,347 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 BUTTS AAF AIRPORT, 16 km from the unit’s center and ~1,300 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2024

19% success

135 taken by 704 hunters · 3,841 days afield

79 bulls · 56 cows · 0 calves

Elk hunter success · 2019–2024 · 14% → 19%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
1st rifle	29%	16	53
2nd rifle	10%	13	126
3rd rifle	11%	8	78
4th rifle	0%	0	48
Archery	14%	36	258
Muzzleloader	29%	13	45

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

Deer · 2024

32% success

54 taken by 166 hunters · 654 days afield

40 bucks · 13 does · 1 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 34% → 32%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	25%	10	39
Muzzleloader	23%	4	18

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

Pronghorn · 2024

52% success

3 taken by 6 hunters · 18 days afield

3 bucks (bucks only) · 0 fawns

Pronghorn hunter success · 2019–2024 · 17% → 52%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	50%	2	4
Muzzleloader	100%	4	4

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

Herd-level estimates · 95% CI

deer · DAU D-50 · 2025: 504 harvested (CI 475–536) · 58% success

elk · DAU E-23 · 2025: 370 harvested (CI 320–427) · 10% success

pronghorn · DAU A-31 · 2025: 19 harvested (CI 14–27) · 36% 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 5910% public · 0% remote GMU 58139% public · 13% remote GMU 1183% public · 36% remote GMU 5120% public · 0% remote GMU 51161% public · 1% remote GMU 6935% public · 14% remote

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