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Units / Wyoming / Elk area 55

Same number, different ground: Antelope area 55

Unit research · Wyoming Elk area 55

Grinnell — Wyoming

100% public across 251,107 ac. Real backcountry here — 87% of the public land sits more than a mile from any road. No landlocked public land.

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Elk draw odds (4)Odds and pins: free, no account
Elk area 55Full map — ownership, roads, wind →
5,970–11,900 ft

elevation range

100%

public land

87%

of public >1 mi from a road

0 ac

landlocked public

0.15

road miles per mi²

88 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 55: 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, 2026point 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

USFS 100%NPS 0%□ Private 0%
Unit area251,107 ac
Public land250,933 ac (100%)
Landlocked public0 ac (0.0%)
Elk draw pressure0.22 tags/mi² public (0.22 of total area)
Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)59 mi
Maintained trails88 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road217,729 ac (87% of public)
Road density0.15 mi/mi²
Managed byUSFS 251k ac · NPS 0k ac
Elevation5,970–11,900 ft
Median elevation8,760 ft
Median slope24°

Where the ground sits

5,970 ft11,900 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 23%
E 26%
S 25%
W 26%

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

55,970 ac of this elk area has burned — 22% 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, °F24° high6° lowJFMAMJJASOND

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

Measured at YELLOWSTONE, 42 km from the unit’s center and ~1,000 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2025

44% success

40 taken by 91 hunters · 744 days afield

38 bulls · 0 spikes · 2 cows · 0 calves

Res 37% · NR 70% success

Elk hunter success · 2021–2025 · 31% → 44%

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, file an issue — the fix ships for everyone.

Nearby elk areas

Wapiti Ridge · Elk area 5688% public · 82% remoteThorofare · Elk area 60100% public · 100% remoteSunlight-Crandall · Elk area 5198% public · 59% remoteBoulder Basin · Elk area 5991% public · 89% remoteBald Ridge · Elk area 5468% public · 32% remoteSage Creek · Elk area 5833% public · 1% remote

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