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Units / Wyoming / Elk area 63

Same number, different ground: Antelope area 63 →

Unit research · Wyoming · Elk area 63

Wood River-Gooseberry Creek — Wyoming

70% public hunting land across 234,399 ac. Real backcountry here — 40% of the public land sits more than a mile from any road. Almost none of the public land is landlocked.

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Elk area 63Full map — ownership, roads, wind →
5,400–12,080 ft

elevation range

70%

public hunting land

40%

of public >1 mi from a road

3,550 ac

landlocked public

0.73

road miles per mi²

53 mi

trails on public land

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

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

8 limited-entry elk hunts are drawn on Elk area 63: apply in the Wyoming draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Elk tag · 8 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 36%■ BLM 27%■ State trust 8%□ Private 30%
Unit area234,399 ac
Public hunting land164,259 ac (70%)
Parks & other public9 ac
Landlocked public3,550 ac (2.2%)
Elk draw pressure1.4 tags/mi² public (0.97 of total area)
Walk-in access66,596 ac
Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)267 mi
Mapped trails on public land53 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road66,511 ac (40% of public)
Road density0.73 mi/mi²
Managed byForest Service 84k ac · BLM 62k ac · State trust 18k ac
Elevation5,400–12,080 ft
Median elevation6,980 ft
Median slope15°

Where the ground sits

5,400 ft12,080 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 30%
E 28%
S 19%
W 24%

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

1,727 ac of this elk area has burned — 1% 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, °F31° high8° lowJFMAMJJASOND

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

Measured at WORLAND MUNICIPAL AIRPORT, 82 km from the unit’s center and ~2,800 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2025

51.7% success

278 taken by 538 hunters · 3,996 days afield

159 bulls · 0 spikes · 107 cows · 12 calves

Res 47% · NR 72% success

Elk hunter success · 2021–2025 · 47% → 52%

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

South Greybull River · Elk area 6283% public · 44% remoteNorth Greybull River · Elk area 6169% public · 50% remoteOwl Creek · Elk area 6435% public · 14% remoteBasin · Elk area 6678% public · 14% remoteBoulder Basin · Elk area 5991% public · 89% remoteWigins Fork · Elk area 6790% public · 50% remote

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