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Colorado GMU 142 elk: terrain, access and seasons

Unit 142's terrain, access, seasons and CPW elk figures, with Conditions rebuilt nightly.

By Bryson, co-founder Updated

2026 season

Second rifle Oct 24–Nov 1

Every section below follows this season.

Decide

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

At a glance

Second rifle runs Oct 24–Nov 1, 2026; CPW's 2024 harvest survey put success at 21% for 46 hunters.

Size
368 sq mi
CPW unit boundary, 2025
County
Las Animas
Elevation
4,370–5,910 ft
USGS 3DEP, 2026-10-19
Huntable public land
0%
COMaP, 2026-10-12
Second rifle license, 2026
OTC bull
CPW 2026 big game brochure
Success
21%
CPW harvest survey, 2024
Hunters
46
CPW harvest survey, 2024
Hunter-days per sq mi
0.4
CPW, 2024
Road miles, any vehicle
5 mi
MVUM + CDOT, open on the Oct 24 opener
Median Habitat Score
0.8 of 5
Ranks 117th of 128 for second rifle. Glassline, v20, 2026-10-19

In short

A low-elevation, open OTC unit with more far-from-road ground than most units and fewer hunters than in 2022. Most of Unit 142 sits between 5,000 and 6,000 feet, mostly grass and meadow with shrubland after it. Almost none of the unit is huntable public land. CPW's survey counted 114 hunters across all seasons in 2024, down from 141 in 2022. Archery sells over-the-counter either-sex and cow licenses to residents only; second and third rifle sell over-the-counter bull licenses; the other seasons are draw only.

Licenses and draw

Second rifle in Unit 142, 2026: an over-the-counter bull license (E-M-000-U2-R).

  • E-M-000-U2-R bull, over the counter

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 142 sits among its neighbors.

147 141 135 134 136 142

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; moderate drought (D1) on the US Drought Monitor over 37.9% 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 D1, Moderate droughtShare of the unit: D0 or worse 62.6% · D1 or worse 37.9% USDM 2026-10-13 USDM 2026-10-13
Greenness vs normal, Sep 14–29 150% of the September normal (2014–2023), MODIS 16-day composite 2026-09-29 2026-09-29

7-day forecast

Access

Unit 142 has no mapped trailhead and about 5 miles of road any vehicle may drive on the second rifle opener. About a tenth of the huntable public ground is within a 30-minute walk of a drivable road, and just under three-fifths is more than an hour and a half away.

Trailheads
0
COTREX, computed 2026-10-19
Road miles open, second rifle opener Oct 24–Nov 1, by the smallest vehicle allowed. MVUM plus county and state roads.
Vehicle Miles
Any vehicle
5 mi
High clearance
0 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
10.7%
30–60 min
13.4%
60–90 min
18.8%
Over 90 min
57.1%

Hunt codes and draw results

1 hunt code for second rifle, 2026; no draw results on file for them.

Hunt code Year Licenses Residents Nonresidents
1st-choice applicants Drawn Drawn out at 1st-choice applicants Drawn Drawn out at
E-M-000-U2-R bull Over the counter: no draw

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 elk have behaved where they were studied, not where they are in Unit 142.

  • In Montana GPS work, rifle-season elk tended to hold about a mile or more from open motorized routes, in blocks of 5,000 acres or more.

    Ranglack et al., 2017 Established finding

  • At Oregon's Starkey Experimental Forest, bulls chose more canopy and kept away from open roads by day during hunts, and the shift was stronger in rifle seasons than in archery.

    Smith et al., 2022 Single study

  • In Montana, collared elk shifted onto ground closed to public hunting once rifle seasons opened, ahead of security cover on public land.

    Proffitt et al., 2013 Established finding

Read next: Colorado second rifle elk, 2026 · How to e-scout a Colorado elk unit

Build a plan for Unit 142, 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

4,370–5,910 ft; grass & meadow 80.3% and shrubland 14.2%; no mapped burns since 2020.

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

Elevation Acres per 1,000 ft band. USGS 3DEP.
  1. 4k–5k ft 49,810 ac
  2. 5k–6k ft 184,710 ac
Table view
BandAcres
4,000–5,000 ft49,810 ac
5,000–6,000 ft184,710 ac
Slope Share of the unit per slope class.
  1. Under 5° 81.5%
  2. 5–15° 11.8%
  3. 15–25° 4%
  4. 25–35° 2.1%
  5. 35°+ 0.6%
Table view
Slope classShare
Flat (under 5°)81.5%
Gentle (5–15°)11.8%
Moderate (15–25°)4%
Steep (25–35°)2.1%
Very steep (35° and up)0.6%
Aspect Share of non-flat ground facing each way.
  1. N 13.9%
  2. NE 13.9%
  3. E 13.7%
  4. SE 13.2%
  5. S 11.7%
  6. SW 10.5%
  7. W 10.7%
  8. NW 12.4%
Table view
AspectShare
North13.9%
Northeast13.9%
East13.7%
Southeast13.2%
South11.7%
Southwest10.5%
West10.7%
Northwest12.4%
Vegetation LF2024 existing vegetation, groups of 1% or more.
  1. Grass & meadow 80.3%
  2. Shrubland 14.2%
  3. Pinyon-juniper 4.6%
Table view
Vegetation groupShare
Grass & meadow80.3%
Shrubland14.2%
Pinyon-juniper4.6%
Item Value Data
Burns No burned acres in the unit since 2020 NIFC NIFC
Openings in timber 172 openings of 1–40 ac, from lidar covering 100% of the unit 2026-10-19 2026-10-19
Habitat Score, second rifle Share of 200 ac of huntable public ground in each score band. Median 0.8. Scoring v20, computed 2026-10-19.
Table view
ScoreShare of scored ground
0–0.54.8%
0.5–161.4%
1–1.533.7%
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 Apishipa herd (E-53) estimate for 2025 and hunter density, 2024.

CPW counted 46 second rifle hunters in 2024; on so few, the success rate swings widely from year to year. Across all seasons, hunters fell by about a fifth between 2022 and 2024. Unit 142 is one of 5 units in CPW's Apishipa herd unit (E-53), estimated at about 1,500 elk after the 2025 hunt, with 32 bulls per 100 cows.

Hunters, harvest and success
Season Year Hunters Harvest Success
Second rifle 2022 62 24 39%
2023 33 15 46%
2024 46 10 21%
All seasons 2022 141 47 33%
2023 147 38 26%
2024 114 33 29%

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

Item Value Data
Hunter density 1 hunter-days per sq mi, all seasons CPW 2024 CPW 2024
Herd estimate (Apishipa, E-53) 1,510 post-hunt · 1,110 in 2019 CPW 2025 CPW 2025
Bull:cow ratio 32 bulls per 100 cows 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 Apishipa herd unit (E-53), which also takes in Units 133, 134, 135 and 141: CPW manages herds, not units. Source: CPW post-hunt population estimate, 2025.

Neighbors

Units 147, 141, 135, 134 and 136, 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. Finding elk is still your job.

Sources

21 datasets and studies, dated where the source dates them.
  1. Elk 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. 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.
  10. Highways and major roads — Colorado Department of Transportation On the map: highways, mapped 2026-07-31.
  11. U.S. Drought Monitor — National Drought Mitigation Center, 2026-10-13
  12. MOD13Q1 vegetation indices (NDVI), 250 m 16-day — NASA LP DAAC, 2026-09-29
  13. Effects of bull age on conception dates and pregnancy rates of cow elk — Noyes, Johnson, Bryant, Findholt and Thomas, Journal of Wildlife Management 60(3), 1996
  14. Security areas for elk during archery and rifle hunting seasons — Ranglack, Proffitt, Canfield, Gude, Rotella and Garrott, Journal of Wildlife Management 81(5), 2017
  15. Behavioral responses of male elk to hunting risk — Smith, Spitz, Brown, Wisdom, Rowland, Forrester, Johnson and Clark, Journal of Wildlife Management 86, 2022
  16. Effects of hunter access and habitat security on elk habitat selection in landscapes with a public and private land matrix — Proffitt, Gude, Hamlin and Messer, Journal of Wildlife Management 77(3), 2013
  17. Plasticity in elk migration timing is a response to changing environmental conditions — Rickbeil, Merkle, Anderson, Atwood, Beckmann, Cole, Courtemanch, Dewey, Gustine, Kauffman, McWhirter, Mong, Proffitt, White and Middleton, Global Change Biology 25, 2019
  18. 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.
  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: elk seasonal ranges — Colorado Parks and Wildlife, 2025 On the map: CPW mapped ranges, 2025.

Build a plan for Unit 142, free.

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