Unit 49 sits in the Sangre de Cristo high country south and southeast of Taos, and despite touching four counties—Taos, Colfax, Mora, and Rio Arriba—it's really one thing: steep, timbered Carson National Forest mountains, about 425 square miles of them with several peaks punching past 10,000 feet and the high point over 11,000. This is the good kind of public-land problem to have, somewhere around 80 percent open, mostly Carson NF with a slice of BLM, and the access roads off NM 518 through the Tres Ritos corridor get you into a lot of it. But "good access" here does'nt mean easy—the country is steep and heavily timbered, the kind of place where guys will tell you to leave the spotting scope in the truck and just cover ground looking for fresh sign, because you wont be glassing elk across an open basin a mile off. The forest road network is real but rough, and once you drop off the pavement your cell bars go with it. HARD FLAG—tribal land. The southern end of this unit holds Picuris Pueblo and pueblo ground tied to Taos that is closed to your state tag; Native land sits outside NMDGF jurisdiction entirely, so you hunt it only with the pueblo's own permission, and most do-it-yourselfers simply stay off it. Know exactly where those lines fall before you wander south. The flip side of the steep timber is that it keeps the country honest—the unit has a quiet reputation for mature bulls in the 280-320 range precisely because it makes you work, and the guys willing to climb and still-hunt the dark timber do better than the road hunters. Taos is your full-service town for fuel, food, and a bed on the northwest side. When October weather rolls through, those unimproved forest roads turn greasy fast, so a 4x4 and a willingness to walk out is the difference between a hunt and a recovery operation.