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Colorado GMU 682 mule deer: terrain, access and seasons

Unit 682's terrain, access, seasons and CPW mule deer figures, with Conditions rebuilt nightly.

By Bryson, co-founder Updated

2026 season

Late rifle Sep 1–Dec 31 Private land only

Every section below follows this season.

Decide

The season's licenses, draw results and harvest figures.

At a glance

Late rifle (private land only) runs Sep 1–Dec 31, 2026.

Size
255 sq mi
CPW unit boundary, 2025
County
Saguache
Elevation
7,540–8,030 ft
USGS 3DEP, 2026-10-19
Huntable public land
10%
COMaP, 2026-10-12
Late rifle, private land only license, 2026
Draw either sex
CPW 2026 big game brochure. Colorado has no OTC mule deer license

The Habitat Score grades huntable public ground, so a private-land-only license has none here.

In short

A mid-elevation, open draw-only unit with less far-from-road ground than most units. Almost all of Unit 682 sits between 7,000 and 8,000 feet, mostly shrubland with riparian and wetland ground after it. About a tenth of the unit is huntable public land, and almost none of that ground is more than an hour and a half on foot from a drivable road. CPW's survey counted 19 hunters across all seasons in 2024. Every license here is drawn, as for all Colorado mule deer.

Licenses and draw

Late rifle, private land only in Unit 682, 2026: a draw either sex license (D-E-682-P5-R).

  • D-E-682-P5-R either sex, draw 2026 draw: licenses left over for residents and nonresidents

CPW 2026 big game brochure; CPW primary-draw recap and drawn-out-at reports, 2026–2026, adult licenses. Every year of draw results is under Hunt codes and draw results.

Plan

The map, Conditions, access, hunt codes and draw results for the season, and what the research says.

Map

The interactive map (public land by manager, roads by vehicle class, burns, trailheads, SNOTEL stations, terrain and CPW's mapped ranges) needs JavaScript. The outline shows where Unit 682 sits among its neighbors.

82 681 791 68 86 682

Public data only. The plan lives in the app. Map sources

Conditions

As of Oct 21: no SNOTEL station sits within 6 mi of the unit; extreme drought (D3) on the US Drought Monitor over 100% of the unit.

Rebuilt nightly; sources at the end of the page.

Item Value Data
SNOTEL No SNOTEL station within 6 mi of the unit
Drought D3, Extreme droughtShare of the unit: D0 or worse 100% · D1 or worse 100% · D2 or worse 100% · D3 or worse 100% USDM 2026-10-13 USDM 2026-10-13
Greenness vs normal, Sep 14–29 99% of the September normal (2014–2023), MODIS 16-day composite 2026-09-29 2026-09-29

7-day forecast

Access

Unit 682 has 1 trailhead. Nearly all of the huntable public ground is within a 30-minute walk of a drivable road, and almost none is more than an hour and a half away. Road miles are counted on the main seasons' openers, so none show for this license's dates.

Trailheads
1
COTREX, computed 2026-10-19
Walking time from a drivable road Share of huntable public ground by foot time from the nearest drivable road. Foot time at a standard pace on Glassline's travel model (slope, vegetation, trails), from the nearest highway, road a high-clearance vehicle can drive, or trailhead, with every road open.
Walking time Share
Within 30 min
99.2%
30–60 min
0.8%
60–90 min
0%
Over 90 min
0%

Hunt codes and draw results

1 hunt code for late rifle, private land only, 2026, with CPW's primary-draw results for 2026.

Hunt code Year Licenses Residents Nonresidents
1st-choice applicants Drawn Drawn out at 1st-choice applicants Drawn Drawn out at
D-E-682-P5-R either sex 2026 20 4 8 Leftover 1 1 Leftover

Hunt codes from the CPW 2026 big game brochure. A code valid in several units counts every hunter in all of them.

Draw results are CPW's primary-draw recap and drawn-out-at reports, 2026–2026, adult licenses. "Drawn out at" is the lowest preference-point level that drew a license; "Leftover" means licenses remained after the draw. A code valid in several units counts every applicant for all of them. Source: CPW draw reports, 2026–2026.

What the research says for this season

Findings from published studies and agency work, as tendencies. They describe how mule deer have behaved where they were studied, not where they are in Unit 682.

  • In a Wyoming study, mule deer avoided well pads more as vehicle traffic grew; cutting the traffic shrank the ground the deer avoided.

    Sawyer et al., 2009 Single study

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POIs are terrain candidates — places worth checking, not animal locations.

Reference

Terrain, the multi-year numbers, neighbors and sources. Each opens in place.

Terrain and habitat

7,540–8,030 ft; shrubland 62.7% and riparian & wetland 21.6%; no mapped burns since 2020.

Unit-wide figures, computed 2026-10-19.

Elevation Acres per 1,000 ft band. USGS 3DEP.
  1. 7k–8k ft 162,150 ac
Table view
BandAcres
7,000–8,000 ft162,150 ac
Slope Share of the unit per slope class.
  1. Under 5° 99.7%
  2. 5–15° 0.2%
  3. 15–25° 0.1%
  4. 25–35° 0%
  5. 35°+ 0%
Table view
Slope classShare
Flat (under 5°)99.7%
Gentle (5–15°)0.2%
Moderate (15–25°)0.1%
Steep (25–35°)0%
Very steep (35° and up)0%
Aspect Share of non-flat ground facing each way.
  1. N 5.9%
  2. NE 11.5%
  3. E 17.2%
  4. SE 14.3%
  5. S 16.2%
  6. SW 14.5%
  7. W 10%
  8. NW 10.4%
Table view
AspectShare
North5.9%
Northeast11.5%
East17.2%
Southeast14.3%
South16.2%
Southwest14.5%
West10%
Northwest10.4%
Vegetation LF2024 existing vegetation, groups of 1% or more.
  1. Shrubland 62.7%
  2. Riparian & wetland 21.6%
  3. Grass & meadow 6.7%
  4. Farmland 6.1%
  5. Developed 2.1%
Table view
Vegetation groupShare
Shrubland62.7%
Riparian & wetland21.6%
Grass & meadow6.7%
Farmland6.1%
Developed2.1%
Item Value Data
Burns No burned acres in the unit since 2020 NIFC NIFC
Openings in timber 3 openings of 1–40 ac, from lidar covering 100% of the unit 2026-10-19 2026-10-19

The Habitat Score grades huntable public ground, so a private-land-only license has no distribution here.

The numbers

CPW harvest estimates 2022–2024 for the chosen season and all seasons, the Saguache herd (D-26) estimate for 2025 and hunter density, 2024.

CPW reports no late rifle harvest figures for the unit. Unit 682 is one of 3 units in CPW's Saguache mule deer herd (DAU D-26), estimated at about 5,800 mule deer after the 2025 hunt, with 28 bucks per 100 does.

Hunters, harvest and success
Season Year Hunters Harvest Success
All seasons 2022 29 4 13%
2023 13 10 76%
2024 19 6 31%

CPW deer harvest reports, 2022–2024. A dash: not reported.

Item Value Data
Hunter density 0 hunter-days per sq mi, all seasons CPW 2024 CPW 2024
Herd estimate (Saguache, D-26) 5,760 post-hunt · 6,050 in 2019 CPW 2025 CPW 2025
Buck:doe ratio 28 bucks per 100 does CPW 2025 CPW 2025

CPW harvest figures are survey estimates, not counts, and they cover the whole unit, private land included. Source: CPW harvest reports, 2022–2024.

Herd numbers cover the whole Saguache herd unit (D-26), which also takes in Units 68 and 681: CPW manages herds, not units. Source: CPW post-hunt population estimate, 2025.

Neighbors

Units 82, 681, 791, 68 and 86, nearest first.

From each unit's own page; dates there.

What this page can't tell you

Closures, private ground, this year's pressure and animal locations.
  • Closures. Forest, fire and road closure orders change through the season and aren't checked here. The managing agency's current order governs.
  • Private ground. Land with no public hunting access is hunted only with the owner's permission, and the public-land share above leaves it out.
  • This year's pressure. CPW's hunter numbers run a year or more behind the season you're planning.
  • Animal locations. These are terrain, access, harvest and herd figures, and CPW's mapped ranges are range lines; none of them places an animal.

Sources

17 datasets and studies, dated where the source dates them.
  1. Deer statistics: population estimates and harvest reports — Colorado Parks and Wildlife
  2. Colorado big game hunting: brochure, seasons and hunt codes — Colorado Parks and Wildlife
  3. Game Management Unit boundaries (Hunting Atlas) — Colorado Parks and Wildlife On the map: unit boundaries, 2025.
  4. COMaP: Colorado Ownership, Management and Protection — Colorado Natural Heritage Program, 2026-10-12 On the map: public land by manager, mapped 2026-07-29.
  5. 3D Elevation Program (3DEP), 1/3 arc-second — U.S. Geological Survey On the map: shaded relief from 5 m and 10 m lidar elevation, mapped 2026-10-04; elevation bands and slope, mapped 2026-10-04.
  6. LANDFIRE Existing Vegetation Type (LF 2024) — U.S. Geological Survey / USDA Forest Service, LF2024
  7. 3DEP lidar point clouds (canopy height model) — U.S. Geological Survey
  8. COTREX: Colorado Trail Explorer — Colorado Parks and Wildlife On the map: trailheads, 2024.
  9. U.S. Drought Monitor — National Drought Mitigation Center, 2026-10-13
  10. MOD13Q1 vegetation indices (NDVI), 250 m 16-day — NASA LP DAAC, 2026-09-29
  11. Influence of well pad activity on winter habitat selection patterns of mule deer — Sawyer, Kauffman and Nielson, Journal of Wildlife Management 73(7), 2009
  12. Motor Vehicle Use Maps (MVUM) — USDA Forest Service On the map: roads by vehicle class, drawn as open on the selected season's opener, mapped 2026-08-22.
  13. Highways and major roads — Colorado Department of Transportation On the map: highways, mapped 2026-07-31.
  14. Wildland Fire Interagency Geospatial Services (WFIGS) fire perimeters — National Interagency Fire Center On the map: burns over 100 acres since 2020, mapped 2026-06-29.
  15. SNOTEL network: daily snow depth and snow water equivalent — USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service On the map: SNOTEL stations.
  16. Gazetteer files, places — U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 On the map: towns, 2024.
  17. Species Activity Mapping: mule deer seasonal ranges — Colorado Parks and Wildlife, 2025 On the map: CPW mapped ranges, 2025.

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POIs are terrain candidates — places worth checking, not animal locations.