Unit research · Colorado GMU 61

GMU 61 — Colorado

85% public across 589,824 ac. Road access is easy — only 4% 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 (7)Elk draw odds (13)Odds and pins: free, no account

GMU 61Full map — ownership, roads, wind →

4,570–10,010 ft

elevation range

85%

public land

of public >1 mi from a road

180 ac

landlocked public

2.27

road miles per mi²

1,026 mi

maintained trails

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

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

20 limited-entry deer and elk hunts are drawn on GMU 61: apply in the Colorado draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Deer tag · 7 draw hunts (2026)$60.18 resident · $518.41 nonresident

Elk tag · 13 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

■ USFS 49%■ BLM 36%■ SLB 0%□ Private 15%

Unit area589,824 ac

Public land500,649 ac (85%)

Landlocked public180 ac (0.0%)

Deer draw pressure0.37 tags/mi² public (0.31 of total area)

Elk draw pressure1.4 tags/mi² public (1.2 of total area)

Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)2,092 mi

Maintained trails1,026 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road17,604 ac (4% of public)

Road density2.27 mi/mi²

Managed byUSFS 289k ac · BLM 210k ac · SLB 1k ac

Elevation4,570–10,010 ft

Median elevation7,430 ft

Median slope7°

Where the ground sits

4,570 ft10,010 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 18%

E 15%

S 34%

W 33%

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

91,754 ac of this gmu has burned — 16% 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, 81 km from the unit’s center and ~2,600 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2024

56% success

727 taken by 1,296 hunters · 6,541 days afield

299 bulls · 398 cows · 30 calves

Elk hunter success · 2019–2024 · 45% → 56%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
1st rifle	56%	111	199
2nd rifle	49%	133	273
3rd rifle	66%	148	225
4th rifle	42%	107	257
Archery	67%	61	90
Muzzleloader	58%	46	79

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

Deer · 2024

57% success

137 taken by 240 hunters · 1,286 days afield

137 bucks (bucks only) · 0 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 42% → 57%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	18%	9	49
Muzzleloader	37%	7	19

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

Pronghorn · 2020

0% success

0 taken by 6 hunters · 28 days afield

0 bucks · 0 does · 0 fawns

Season breakdown · 2020

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	0%	0	6

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

Herd-level estimates · 95% CI

deer · DAU D-19 · 2025: 877 harvested (CI 817–941) · 50% success

elk · DAU E-20 · 2025: 1,799 harvested (CI 1,690–1,915) · 27% 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 6270% public · 9% remote GMU 7070% public · 9% remote GMU 6082% public · 9% remote GMU 41162% public · 10% remote GMU 6445% public · 4% remote GMU 4062% public · 18% remote

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