Units / Wyoming / Elk area 116

Same number, different ground: Deer area 116 →

Unit research · Wyoming Elk area 116

North Black Hills — Wyoming

21% public across 1,470,135 ac. Road access is easy — only 12% of the public land is more than a mile from a road. Watch the checkerboard: 35,086 ac of public land has no public route in.

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

Elk area 116Full map — ownership, roads, wind →

3,110–6,620 ft

elevation range

21%

public land

12%

of public >1 mi from a road

35,086 ac

landlocked public

1.40

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.

2 limited-entry elk hunts are drawn on Elk area 116: apply in the Wyoming draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Elk tag · 2 draw hunts (2026)$62.00 resident · $707.00 nonresident

Season dates: see Wyoming Game and Fish Department's regulations

2026 WGFD Hunting License Application Information (booklet PDF) ↗

Wyoming elk draw calendar

Nov 2, 2026 — point window closes — purchased-only, miss it and the year is gone

WGFD license fee list ↗Draw odds for Wyoming elk →How the Wyoming draw works →

Fees and draw dates from Wyoming Game and Fish Department, 2026, verified 2026-08-05 — past its verify-by date, confirm with the agency. Tag type from the agency's published draw statistics: a elk area that appears in none of them has no limited-entry hunt we know of. Source: 2026 WGFD Hunting License Application Information (booklet PDF) · WGFD license fee list · WGFD preference points · WGFD application dates & deadlines.

Land & access

■ USFS 7%■ SLB 7%■ BLM 6%■ Other public 1%□ Private 79%

Unit area1,470,135 ac

Public land304,064 ac (21%)

Landlocked public35,086 ac (11.5%)

Elk draw pressure0.24 tags/mi² public (0.044 of total area)

Walk-in access4,987 ac

Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)3,217 mi

Maintained trails139 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road36,858 ac (12% of public)

Road density1.40 mi/mi²

Managed byUSFS 101k ac · SLB 100k ac · BLM 85k ac

Elevation3,110–6,620 ft

Median elevation4,110 ft

Median slope4°

Where the ground sits

3,110 ft6,620 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 26%

E 25%

S 24%

W 25%

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

38,576 ac of this elk area has burned — 3% 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 ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, 130 km from the unit’s center and ~800 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2025

33.3% success

451 taken by 1,353 hunters · 11,651 days afield

233 bulls · 23 spikes · 153 cows · 42 calves

Res 30% · NR 39% success

Elk hunter success · 2021–2025 · 28% → 33%

WGFD estimates harvest statistics from a voluntary hunter survey run with the University of Wyoming Survey & Analysis Center. "Hunters" are active hunters (license holders who actually hunted). Hunt areas are species-specific geographies. Source: WGFD Annual Harvest Reports (per species-year PDFs) · WGFD Job Completion Reports (per herd unit: population, harvest, success).

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 elk areas

Black Hills · Elk area 186% public · 1% remote South Black Hills · Elk area 11722% public · 4% remote Non-Herd Unit · Elk area 12918% public · 8% remote Black Thunder · Elk area 12332% public · 3% remote Lost Springs · Elk area 12618% public · 4% remote Fortification · Elk area 233% public · 23% remote

Ready to scout it?

Everything on this page, live on the map — ownership, boundaries, roads, and your own waypoints.

Open Elk area 116 in the map

What happens nextNov 2 — Elk point window closes — purchased-only, miss it and the year is gone · details →