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Units / Wyoming / Elk area 81

Same number, different ground: Deer area 81 → · Antelope area 81 →

Unit research · Wyoming · Elk area 81

Spread Creek — Wyoming

99% public hunting land across 224,619 ac. Real backcountry here — 30% of the public land sits more than a mile from any road. No landlocked public land.

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Elk area 81Full map — ownership, roads, wind →
6,740–10,560 ft

elevation range

99%

public hunting land

30%

of public >1 mi from a road

0 ac

landlocked public

1.46

road miles per mi²

319 mi

trails on public land

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

Tags & season

Tags: check Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

No draw hunts are published for this elk area. Tag type, quotas and season dates are in Wyoming Game and Fish Department's regulations.

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

2026 WGFD Hunting License Application Information (booklet PDF) ↗

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 99%□ Private 1%
Unit area224,619 ac
Public hunting land221,986 ac (99%)
Parks & other public229 ac · National Park Service
Landlocked public0 ac (0.0%)
Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)513 mi
Mapped trails on public land319 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road65,947 ac (30% of public)
Road density1.46 mi/mi²
Managed byForest Service 222k ac
Elevation6,740–10,560 ft
Median elevation8,440 ft
Median slope12°

Where the ground sits

6,740 ft10,560 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 26%
E 24%
S 24%
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 · Pro, $5 a month or $49 a year

35,425 ac of this elk area has burned — 16% of the unit. USGS migration corridors cover 30%. 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, 94 km from the unit’s center and ~700 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2025

27.7% success

147 taken by 531 hunters · 3,035 days afield

142 bulls · 3 spikes · 2 cows · 0 calves

Res 24% · NR 37% success

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

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

Crystal Peak · Elk area 8299% public · 79% remoteSnake River · Elk area 752% public · 0% remoteTeton Park · Elk area 791% public · 18% remoteFish Creek · Elk area 83100% public · 43% remoteBuffalo Fork · Elk area 7099% public · 88% remoteSheep Creek · Elk area 8099% public · 62% remote

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