Unit research · Colorado GMU 85

GMU 85 — Colorado

19% public across 751,836 ac. Road access is easy — only 14% 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 (14)Odds and pins: free, no account

GMU 85Full map — ownership, roads, wind →

5,990–13,490 ft

elevation range

19%

public land

14%

of public >1 mi from a road

2,907 ac

landlocked public

1.88

road miles per mi²

139 mi

maintained trails

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

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

21 limited-entry deer and elk hunts are drawn on GMU 85: 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 · 14 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 9%■ BLM 4%■ SLB 3%■ Other public 4%□ Private 81%

Unit area751,836 ac

Public land146,498 ac (19%)

Landlocked public2,907 ac (2.0%)

Deer draw pressure3.6 tags/mi² public (0.69 of total area)

Elk draw pressure6.6 tags/mi² public (1.3 of total area)

Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)2,208 mi

Maintained trails139 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road20,253 ac (14% of public)

Road density1.88 mi/mi²

Managed byUSFS 68k ac · BLM 29k ac · SLB 22k ac

Elevation5,990–13,490 ft

Median elevation7,310 ft

Median slope8°

Where the ground sits

5,990 ft13,490 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 27%

E 30%

S 24%

W 18%

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

96,992 ac of this gmu has burned — 13% 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 PERRY STOKES AIRPORT, 53 km from the unit’s center and ~1,600 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2024

21% success

614 taken by 2,875 hunters · 17,556 days afield

398 bulls · 207 cows · 9 calves

Elk hunter success · 2019–2024 · 21% → 21%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
1st rifle	36%	83	230
2nd rifle	18%	109	605
3rd rifle	8%	28	345
4th rifle	31%	36	117
Archery	17%	183	1,086
Muzzleloader	13%	22	168

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

Deer · 2024

46% success

351 taken by 763 hunters · 4,050 days afield

299 bucks · 52 does · 0 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 41% → 46%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	43%	46	107
Muzzleloader	33%	12	36

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

Pronghorn · 2024

39% success

86 taken by 217 hunters · 666 days afield

59 bucks · 27 does · 0 fawns

Pronghorn hunter success · 2019–2024 · 52% → 39%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	25%	16	65
Muzzleloader	39%	6	15

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

Herd-level estimates · 95% CI

deer · DAU D-32 · 2025: 657 harvested (CI 604–715) · 52% success

elk · DAU E-33 · 2025: 1,278 harvested (CI 1,190–1,372) · 28% success

pronghorn · DAU A-20 · 2025: 444 harvested (CI 405–488) · 48% 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 85113% public · 18% remote GMU 13318% public · 48% remote GMU 834% public · 3% remote GMU 1348% public · 49% remote GMU 86139% public · 25% remote GMU 1408% public · 20% remote

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