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Units / Wyoming / Elk area 36

Same number, different ground: Deer area 36 → · Moose area 36 →

Unit research · Wyoming · Elk area 36

Rock Creek — Wyoming

67% public hunting land across 133,584 ac. Real backcountry here — 42% of the public land sits more than a mile from any road. No landlocked public land.

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Elk area 36Full map — ownership, roads, wind →
4,600–12,770 ft

elevation range

67%

public hunting land

42%

of public >1 mi from a road

0 ac

landlocked public

0.95

road miles per mi²

38 mi

trails on public land

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

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

4 limited-entry elk hunts are drawn on Elk area 36: 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

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

■ Forest Service 53%■ State trust 8%■ State wildlife 6%▨ Parks & other public 1%□ Private 32%
Unit area133,584 ac
Public hunting land90,013 ac (67%)
Parks & other public699 ac · State parks
Landlocked public0 ac (0.0%)
Elk draw pressure2.9 tags/mi² public (2.0 of total area)
Walk-in access2,271 ac
Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)198 mi
Mapped trails on public land38 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road37,876 ac (42% of public)
Road density0.95 mi/mi²
Managed byForest Service 71k ac · State trust 11k ac · State wildlife 8k ac
Elevation4,600–12,770 ft
Median elevation6,940 ft
Median slope9°

Where the ground sits

4,600 ft12,770 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 28%
E 37%
S 22%
W 13%

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

8,515 ac of this elk area has burned — 6% 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

Monthly normal highs and lows, °F36° high14° lowJFMAMJJASOND

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

Measured at SHERIDAN COUNTY AIRPORT, 37 km from the unit’s center and ~3,000 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2025

17.7% success

145 taken by 820 hunters · 5,918 days afield

78 bulls · 3 spikes · 50 cows · 14 calves

Res 16% · NR 22% success

Elk hunter success · 2021–2025 · 18% → 18%

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)

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 elk areas

Hunter Mesa · Elk area 3571% public · 24% remoteGoose · Elk area 3753% public · 37% remotePaint Rock Creek · Elk area 4584% public · 17% remoteNon-Herd Unit · Elk area 12918% public · 8% remoteUpper Powder River · Elk area 3441% public · 7% remoteMedicine Lodge · Elk area 4185% public · 9% remote

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What happens nextNov 2 — Elk point window closes — purchased-only, miss it and the year is gone · details →
Watch this unit — freeReturned and leftover tags, fire near the unit and weather warnings — by email. One unit free, no card.