Unit research · Colorado GMU 81

GMU 81 — Colorado

71% public across 777,197 ac. Road access is easy — only 18% of the public land is more than a mile from a road. Almost none of the public land is landlocked.

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Elk draw odds (4)Pronghorn draw odds (2)Odds and pins: free, no account

GMU 81Full map — ownership, roads, wind →

7,390–13,230 ft

elevation range

71%

public land

18%

of public >1 mi from a road

81 ac

landlocked public

1.37

road miles per mi²

703 mi

maintained trails

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

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

6 limited-entry elk and pronghorn hunts are drawn on GMU 81: apply in the Colorado draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Elk tag · 4 draw hunts (2026)$79.33 resident · $856.65 nonresident

Pronghorn tag · 2 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 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

■ USFS 39%■ BLM 23%■ SFW 8%■ Other public 1%□ Private 29%

Unit area777,197 ac

Public land553,326 ac (71%)

Landlocked public81 ac (0.0%)

Elk draw pressure0.34 tags/mi² public (0.24 of total area)

Pronghorn draw pressure0.065 tags/mi² public (0.046 of total area)

Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)1,663 mi

Maintained trails703 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road101,975 ac (18% of public)

Road density1.37 mi/mi²

Managed byUSFS 305k ac · BLM 178k ac · SFW 62k ac

Elevation7,390–13,230 ft

Median elevation8,880 ft

Median slope5°

Where the ground sits

7,390 ft13,230 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 25%

E 31%

S 24%

W 19%

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

1,143 ac of this gmu has burned — 0% of the unit. USGS migration corridors cover 4%. 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 SAN LUIS VALLEY REGIONAL AIRPORT, 43 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

24% success

882 taken by 3,726 hunters · 20,920 days afield

580 bulls · 276 cows · 26 calves

Elk hunter success · 2019–2024 · 14% → 24%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
1st rifle	53%	129	242
2nd rifle	17%	243	1,411
3rd rifle	21%	122	582
4th rifle	58%	55	95
Archery	18%	218	1,182
Muzzleloader	34%	35	101

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

Deer · 2024

50% success

295 taken by 585 hunters · 2,848 days afield

261 bucks · 33 does · 1 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 37% → 50%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	30%	35	119
Muzzleloader	48%	66	138

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

Pronghorn · 2024

77% success

47 taken by 61 hunters · 196 days afield

42 bucks · 5 does · 0 fawns

Pronghorn hunter success · 2019–2024 · 72% → 77%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	45%	7	16
Muzzleloader	100%	3	3

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

Herd-level estimates · 95% CI

deer · DAU D-35 · 2025: 594 harvested (CI 548–644) · 51% success

elk · DAU E-32 · 2025: 1,298 harvested (CI 1,218–1,384) · 18% success

pronghorn · DAU A-16 · 2025: 94 harvested (CI 88–101) · 72% 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 8059% public · 6% remote GMU 7863% public · 43% remote GMU 834% public · 3% remote GMU 7912% public · 1% remote GMU 7974% public · 2% remote GMU 8270% public · 35% remote

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