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Colorado GMU 87 mule deer: terrain, access and seasons

Unit 87's terrain, access, seasons and CPW mule deer figures, with Conditions rebuilt nightly.

By Bryson, co-founder Updated

2026 season

Archery Oct 1–23

Every section below follows this season.

Decide

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

At a glance

Archery runs Oct 1–23, 2026; CPW's 2024 harvest survey put success at 17% for 18 hunters.

Size
1,116 sq mi
CPW unit boundary, 2025
Counties
Larimer, Weld
Elevation
4,820–6,390 ft
USGS 3DEP, 2026-10-19
Huntable public land
16%
COMaP, 2026-10-12
Archery license, 2026
Draw either sex
CPW 2026 big game brochure. Colorado has no OTC mule deer license
Success
17%
CPW harvest survey, 2024
Hunters
18
CPW harvest survey, 2024
Hunter-days per sq mi
0.3
CPW, 2024
Road miles, any vehicle
881 mi
MVUM + CDOT, open on the Oct 1 opener
Median Habitat Score
0 of 5
Ranks 157th of 162 for archery. Glassline, v4, 2026-10-19

In short

A low-elevation, open draw-only unit with less far-from-road ground than most units and fewer hunters than in 2022. Almost all of Unit 87 sits between 5,000 and 6,000 feet, mostly grass and meadow with farmland after it. Just under a fifth 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 450 hunters across all seasons in 2024, down from 685 in 2022. Every license here is drawn, as for all Colorado mule deer.

Licenses and draw

Archery in Unit 87, 2026: a draw either sex license (D-E-087-O1-A).

  • D-E-087-O1-A either sex, draw 2026 draw: drawn out at 0 points for residents and nonresidents

CPW 2026 big game brochure; CPW primary-draw recap and drawn-out-at reports, 2024–2026, 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 87 sits among its neighbors.

9 951 88 94 191 87

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 17% 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 98.3% · D2 or worse 58.4% · D3 or worse 17% · D4 1.5% USDM 2026-10-13 USDM 2026-10-13
Greenness vs normal, Sep 14–29 122% of the September normal (2014–2023), MODIS 16-day composite 2026-09-29 2026-09-29

7-day forecast

Access

Unit 87 has 2 trailheads and about 881 miles of road any vehicle may drive on the archery opener, plus 126 more that need high clearance. 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.

Trailheads
2
COTREX, computed 2026-10-19
Road miles open, archery opener Oct 1–23, by the smallest vehicle allowed. MVUM plus county and state roads.
Vehicle Miles
Any vehicle
881 mi
High clearance
126 mi
4x4
0 mi
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
98.6%
30–60 min
1.4%
60–90 min
0%
Over 90 min
0%

Hunt codes and draw results

1 hunt code for archery, 2026, with CPW's primary-draw results for 2024–2026.

Hunt code Year Licenses Residents Nonresidents
1st-choice applicants Drawn Drawn out at 1st-choice applicants Drawn Drawn out at
D-E-087-O1-A either sex 2024 70 49 51 Choice 2 0 0 None Drawn
2025 60 58 39 0 points 3 2 0 points
2026 60 42 39 0 points 1 1 0 points

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, 2024–2026, 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, 2024–2026.

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 87.

  • 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

  • Across Utah and Nevada, GPS-collared mule deer avoided high-severity burns at fine scale for up to 30 years after a fire.

    Mills et al., 2026 Single study

Build a plan for Unit 87, free.

Start free

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

4,820–6,390 ft; grass & meadow 87.3% and farmland 7%; burns: Iron Ladies Fire, Wildhorse 5 Fire and Wild Horse 4 Fire (2025 and 2024).

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

Elevation Acres per 1,000 ft band. USGS 3DEP.
  1. 4k–5k ft 114,310 ac
  2. 5k–6k ft 573,960 ac
  3. 6k–7k ft 21,640 ac
Table view
BandAcres
4,000–5,000 ft114,310 ac
5,000–6,000 ft573,960 ac
6,000–7,000 ft21,640 ac
Slope Share of the unit per slope class.
  1. Under 5° 92.9%
  2. 5–15° 6.5%
  3. 15–25° 0.5%
  4. 25–35° 0.1%
  5. 35°+ 0%
Table view
Slope classShare
Flat (under 5°)92.9%
Gentle (5–15°)6.5%
Moderate (15–25°)0.5%
Steep (25–35°)0.1%
Very steep (35° and up)0%
Aspect Share of non-flat ground facing each way.
  1. N 9%
  2. NE 17.7%
  3. E 13.4%
  4. SE 8.1%
  5. S 13.1%
  6. SW 19.7%
  7. W 12%
  8. NW 7%
Table view
AspectShare
North9%
Northeast17.7%
East13.4%
Southeast8.1%
South13.1%
Southwest19.7%
West12%
Northwest7%
Vegetation LF2024 existing vegetation, groups of 1% or more.
  1. Grass & meadow 87.3%
  2. Farmland 7%
  3. Developed 2.6%
  4. Shrubland 2.1%
Table view
Vegetation groupShare
Grass & meadow87.3%
Farmland7%
Developed2.6%
Shrubland2.1%
Item Value Data
Burned 0–3 years ago 2,900 acIron Ladies Fire (2025), 1,400 acWildhorse 5 Fire (2024), 1,200 acWild Horse 4 Fire (2024), 100 acWild Horse 6 Fire (2024), 100 ac NIFC since 2020 NIFC since 2020
Openings in timber 6 openings of 1–40 ac, from lidar covering 99.8% of the unit 2026-10-19 2026-10-19
Habitat Score, archery Share of 113,200 ac of huntable public ground in each score band. Median 0. Scoring v4, computed 2026-10-19.
Table view
ScoreShare of scored ground
0–0.593.4%
0.5–16.6%
1–1.50%
1.5–20%
2–2.50%
2.5–30%
3–3.50%
3.5–40%
4–4.50%
4.5–50%

Glassline's Habitat Score grades terrain and habitat for the season on food, water, breeding and shelter. Shown here as one distribution for the whole unit, never a map: it grades ground, not animal locations.

The numbers

CPW harvest estimates 2022–2024 for the chosen season and all seasons, the North Tablelands herd (D-5) estimate for 2025 and hunter density, 2024.

CPW counted 18 archery hunters in 2024; on so few, the success rate swings widely from year to year. Across all seasons, hunters fell by about a third between 2022 and 2024. Unit 87 is one of 5 units in CPW's North Tablelands mule deer herd (DAU D-5), estimated at about 2,100 mule deer after the 2025 hunt, with 38 bucks per 100 does.

Hunters, harvest and success
Season Year Hunters Harvest Success
Archery 2022 23 0 0%
2023 14 4 25%
2024 18 3 17%
All seasons 2022 685 163 24%
2023 581 100 17%
2024 450 152 34%

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

Item Value Data
Hunter density 3 hunter-days per sq mi, all seasons CPW 2024 CPW 2024
Herd estimate (North Tablelands, D-5) 2,130 post-hunt · 3,170 in 2019 CPW 2025 CPW 2025
Buck:doe ratio 38 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 North Tablelands herd unit (D-5), which also takes in Units 88, 89, 90 and 95: CPW manages herds, not units. Source: CPW post-hunt population estimate, 2025.

Neighbors

Units 9, 951, 88, 94 and 191, 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

21 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. 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.
  8. 3DEP lidar point clouds (canopy height model) — U.S. Geological Survey
  9. COTREX: Colorado Trail Explorer — Colorado Parks and Wildlife On the map: trailheads, 2024.
  10. 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.
  11. Highways and major roads — Colorado Department of Transportation On the map: highways, mapped 2026-07-31.
  12. U.S. Drought Monitor — National Drought Mitigation Center, 2026-10-13
  13. MOD13Q1 vegetation indices (NDVI), 250 m 16-day — NASA LP DAAC, 2026-09-29
  14. Influence of well pad activity on winter habitat selection patterns of mule deer — Sawyer, Kauffman and Nielson, Journal of Wildlife Management 73(7), 2009
  15. Long-term benefits of burns for large mammal habitat undermined by large, severe fires in the American West — Mills, Leclerc, Ditmer, Steel, Stoner, Sexton and others, Ecography 2026 (read via the Northern Rockies Fire Science Network summary), 2026
  16. Sex-specific behaviors of hunted mule deer during rifle season — Rodgers, Sawyer, Mong, Stephens and Kauffman, Journal of Wildlife Management 85(2), 2021
  17. Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) fact sheet — USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Colorado, Fact sheet, March 2000, 2000
  18. Timing of seasonal migration in mule deer: effects of climate, plant phenology, and life-history characteristics — Monteith, Bleich, Stephenson, Pierce, Conner, Klaver and Bowyer, Ecosphere 2(4), 2011
  19. SNOTEL network: daily snow depth and snow water equivalent — USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service On the map: SNOTEL stations.
  20. Gazetteer files, places — U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 On the map: towns, 2024.
  21. 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.