Unit research · Colorado · GMU 66

GMU 66 — Colorado

80% public hunting land across 575,448 ac. Real backcountry here — 37% 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 (7)Elk draw odds (11)Pronghorn draw odds (3)Odds and pins: free, no account

GMU 66Full map — ownership, roads, wind →

7,160–14,140 ft

elevation range

80%

public hunting land

37%

of public >1 mi from a road

160 ac

landlocked public

1.25

road miles per mi²

646 mi

trails on public land

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

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

21 limited-entry deer, elk and pronghorn hunts are drawn on GMU 66: 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 · 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

■ BLM 45%■ Forest Service 35%■ State wildlife 0%□ Private 20%

Unit area575,448 ac

Public hunting land460,360 ac (80%)

Parks & other public1,852 ac · Private conservation

Landlocked public160 ac (0.0%)

Deer draw pressure0.58 tags/mi² public (0.46 of total area)

Elk draw pressure1.3 tags/mi² public (1.0 of total area)

Pronghorn draw pressure0.008 tags/mi² public (0.007 of total area)

Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)1,124 mi

Mapped trails on public land646 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road171,521 ac (37% of public)

Road density1.25 mi/mi²

Managed byBLM 260k ac · Forest Service 200k ac · State wildlife 1k ac

Elevation7,160–14,140 ft

Median elevation10,200 ft

Median slope15°

Where the ground sits

7,160 ft14,140 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 25%

E 32%

S 16%

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

7,523 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, 52 km from the unit’s center and ~2,500 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2024

42% success

503 taken by 1,196 hunters · 5,490 days afield

314 bulls · 184 cows · 5 calves

Elk hunter success · 2019–2024 · 27% → 42%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
1st rifle	42%	129	306
2nd rifle	38%	116	307
3rd rifle	50%	123	248
4th rifle	46%	56	124
Archery	34%	47	138
Muzzleloader	42%	31	74

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

Deer · 2024

74% success

346 taken by 465 hunters · 1,958 days afield

270 bucks · 76 does · 0 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 73% → 74%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	26%	17	65
Muzzleloader	59%	36	61

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

Pronghorn · 2024

100% success

1 taken by 1 hunters · 5 days afield

1 bucks (bucks only) · 0 fawns

Pronghorn hunter success · 2019–2024 · 50% → 100%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	0%	0	3
Muzzleloader	100%	1	1

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-25 · 2025: 814 harvested (CI 760–871) · 36% success

pronghorn · DAU A-23 · 2025: 24 harvested (CI 22–26) · 86% 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 6553% public · 35% remote GMU 6782% public · 11% remote GMU 7694% public · 43% remote GMU 5477% public · 35% remote GMU 6350% public · 15% remote GMU 6437% public · 1% remote

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