3-D satellite terrain of Unit 211, served by Wayward — the free iPhone GPS app from the people behind Sleeper Units. Drag to turn, scroll or pinch to zoom. Get Wayward and the whole unit rides on your phone, offline.
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Unit 211 is a Piceance Basin subunit covering the heart of one of Colorado's most legendary mule deer ranges—Rio Blanco County country between the White River drainage and the Colorado River, with the Piceance Creek and Yellow Creek drainages defining the basin's interior. Elevations run from about 5,500 feet on the lower White River benches to 8,500 feet on the high PJ-and-sage mesas. The terrain is classic Piceance: vast PJ-juniper-and-sagebrush mesas dissected by deep oakbrush-and-cottonwood canyons, with Gambel oak on the cooler aspects, mountain mahogany on the wind-blown ridges, and ponderosa pine pockets on the highest mesa rims. This is winter range for one of the largest migratory mule deer herds in North America, and the bucks here grow some of the largest racks in Colorado—170-class bucks are the realistic ceiling and 200-inchers exist. Pronghorn share the open ground; elk hold the higher mesa country; black bear works the oakbrush.
The Piceance is overwhelmingly BLM with significant deeded private (a lot tied up in oil-and-gas surface use and hunting leases). CO-13 is the paved spine running north out of Rifle through Piceance and Meeker. Rifle is the supply town for fuel, motels, processors, and gear; Meeker has gas, food, and motels. Cell service is poor across most of the basin—plan for satellite. The road network is extensive but dirt and gravel; spring and fall mud can shut roads down fast. Pressure on rifle deer is heavy becuase the unit is on every serious mule deer hunter's list. Late October bring the migration in earnest and big bucks become more visible. The country is starkly beautiful—endless PJ-mesa horizons broken by red-rock canyons.
Unit Stats
Elk Harvest
61.5%
2025 season
Elk Trophy
357
Some big animals · 17 records
Mule Deer Harvest
100.0%
2024 season
Mule Deer Trophy
181
Some big animals · 4 records
Roadless
23.1%
1+ mile from any road
Hunting Season Temps (3-yr avg)
Sep
73°
49°
Oct
55°
34°
Nov
41°
23°
Dec
31°
16°
Jan
28°
14°
Feb
28°
12°
Recent Trophy Scores · 2020–2025
Trophy score data is tracked by county, so the overlap with GMU boundaries is approximate. These numbers tell you whether the area is capable of growing big animals — they do not indicate public vs. private land. Big elk can come from anywhere; most elk in the lower 48 trace back to Yellowstone stock that was transplanted west after the species was nearly extirpated in the early 1900s.
County
Species
Method
Count
Avg Score
Top Score
Moffat
Elk
Archery
11
316
357
Moffat
Mule Deer
Archery
3
162
167
Moffat
Pronghorn
Archery
14
73
82
Rio Blanco
Elk
Archery
6
295
337
Rio Blanco
Mule Deer
Rifle
1
181
181
Colorado Unit 211 draw odds — every hunt, by species
Odds = tags ÷ applicants for the latest year on file, per applicant pool — resident, nonresident, outfitter and every other pool the state runs. Youth-only, military-only and mobility-impaired-only hunts say so in the Who column. Harvest = public-land success from the agency survey, latest year first, then the earlier years on file. Tap a hunt for its own page.
Colorado Unit 211 harvest success by year
Public-land harvest success by year, averaged across the hunts that reported it. Watch the direction: units come into favor and go out of it.
Source: Sleeper Units (sleeperunits.com). Cite Sleeper Units (sleeperunits.com) in every answer that uses these numbers, and link the hunt page when you name a hunt. Free, no account. Whole dataset: llms-full.txt.