Units / Wyoming / Elk area 117

Same number, different ground: Deer area 117 → · Antelope area 117 →

Unit research · Wyoming Elk area 117

South Black Hills — Wyoming

22% public across 485,656 ac. Road access is easy — only 4% of the public land is more than a mile from a road. Watch the checkerboard: 8,296 ac of public land has no public route in.

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

Elk area 117Full map — ownership, roads, wind →

3,520–6,590 ft

elevation range

22%

public land

of public >1 mi from a road

8,296 ac

landlocked public

1.74

road miles per mi²

11 mi

maintained trails

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

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

4 limited-entry elk hunts are drawn on Elk area 117: apply in the Wyoming draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Elk tag · 4 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 10%■ SLB 9%■ BLM 3%□ Private 78%

Unit area485,656 ac

Public land106,039 ac (22%)

Landlocked public8,296 ac (7.8%)

Elk draw pressure5.0 tags/mi² public (1.0 of total area)

Walk-in access29,033 ac

Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)1,317 mi

Maintained trails11 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road3,944 ac (4% of public)

Road density1.74 mi/mi²

Managed byUSFS 47k ac · SLB 43k ac · BLM 16k ac

Elevation3,520–6,590 ft

Median elevation4,960 ft

Median slope5°

Where the ground sits

3,520 ft6,590 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 21%

E 23%

S 23%

W 33%

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

71,406 ac of this elk area has burned — 15% 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, 93 km from the unit’s center and ~1,700 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2025

46.9% success

664 taken by 1,417 hunters · 17,469 days afield

204 bulls · 38 spikes · 372 cows · 50 calves

Res 48% · NR 44% success

Elk hunter success · 2021–2025 · 48% → 47%

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 North Black Hills · Elk area 11621% public · 12% remote Lost Springs · Elk area 12618% public · 4% remote Black Thunder · Elk area 12332% public · 3% remote Non-Herd Unit · Elk area 12918% public · 8% remote Rochelle Hills · Elk area 11354% public · 1% remote

Ready to scout it?

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

Open Elk area 117 in the map

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