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Units / Colorado / GMU 97

Unit research · Colorado · GMU 97

GMU 97 — Colorado

0% public hunting land across 378,980 ac. Road access is easy — only 0% of the public land is more than a mile from a road. No landlocked public land.

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Deer draw odds (4)Pronghorn draw odds (2)Odds and pins: free, no account
GMU 97Full map — ownership, roads, wind →
3,970–4,750 ft

elevation range

0%

public hunting land

0%

of public >1 mi from a road

0 ac

landlocked public

1.33

road miles per mi²

0 mi

trails on public land

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

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

6 limited-entry deer and pronghorn hunts are drawn on GMU 97: apply in the Colorado draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Deer tag · 4 draw hunts (2026)$60.18 resident · $518.41 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) ↗

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

▨ Parks & other public 14%□ Private 86%
Unit area378,980 ac
Public hunting land36 ac (0%)
Parks & other public52,514 ac · State trust
Landlocked public0 ac (0.0%)
Deer draw pressure803 tags/mi² public (0.076 of total area)
Pronghorn draw pressure446 tags/mi² public (0.042 of total area)
Walk-in access2,055 ac
Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)788 mi
Mapped trails on public land0 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road0 ac (0% of public)
Road density1.33 mi/mi²
Managed by—
Elevation3,970–4,750 ft
Median elevation4,400 ft
Median slope1°

Where the ground sits

3,970 ft4,750 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 20%
E 31%
S 10%
W 39%

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

Burn history, migration coverage, and terrain for this gmu — 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

Monthly normal highs and lows, °F41° high19° lowJFMAMJJASOND

Normals for 2000–2025 — tap or hover for a month

Measured at COLORADO PLAINS RGNL ARPT, 19 km from the unit’s center. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2022

0% success

0 taken by 5 hunters · 5 days afield

0 bulls · 0 cows · 0 calves

Deer · 2024

47% success

37 taken by 79 hunters · 250 days afield

22 bucks · 14 does · 2 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 51% → 47%

Season breakdown · 2024
SeasonSuccessHarvestHunters
Archery0%07
Muzzleloader0%04

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

Pronghorn · 2024

77% success

28 taken by 36 hunters · 80 days afield

22 bucks · 6 does · 0 fawns

Pronghorn hunter success · 2019–2024 · 53% → 77%

Season breakdown · 2024
SeasonSuccessHarvestHunters
Archery50%47
Muzzleloader100%11

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

Herd-level estimates · 95% CI

deer · DAU D-54 · 2025: 585 harvested (CI 542–630) · 40% success

elk · DAU E-99 · 2025: 384 harvested (CI 341–432) · 23% success

pronghorn · DAU A-4 · 2025: 58 harvested (CI 50–68) · 44% 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)

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 964% public · 0% remoteGMU 1000% public · 0% remoteGMU 952% public · 0% remoteGMU 9118% public · 0% remoteGMU 894% public · 0% remoteGMU 980% public · 0% remote

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