At a Glance
Quick Tips
- Bring your Shotgun for pheasants, sharptail grouse, and possibly a Greater prairie chicken
- GOHUNT maps loaded on your mobile device are highly recommended to help navigate public and private boundaries
This unit is found in the northwestern corner of the state and is a dramatic mix of prairie as well as abrupt elevation change throughout. There are patches of dense timber in the higher elevations and miles of prairie grass and CRP in all directions. This unit covers over 800,000 acres in total with just over 150,000 acres currently public land. This is a mix of walk-in access as well as different sections of state property throughout. Overall this is a rather remote unit with few amenities.
Elk are found in smaller densities here but some great bulls come off this unit from time to time.
The terrain here is more broken than much of the state outside of the Black Hills. There are multiple hills protruding out of the prairie often gaining as much as 500 feet in elevation. There are countless creek beds and small streams scattered across the unit, but no major river or drainages in the entire unit. There are scattered areas of agriculture throughout the unit but overall these do not account for much as a whole in the unit.
State highway 20 is the only state highway that runs through the unit, it runs east and west across the unit roughly halfway up the unit. Outside of this all other access in the unit would be from the many county highways and county roads. Harding Road is the main drag in the southern half of the unit. North Camp Crook as well as South Cave Hills both north of Highway 20 run towards the northern more remote sections of the unit. There are many roads across the unit, and there are many acres of walk-in access across the unit as well as other scattered public hunting options.
In the higher elevations of the unit you will find a mix of pine and different conifer trees throughout, as you move to the lower elevations you will find a mix of short and tall prairie grass for miles in all directions as well as countless species of wildflowers can be found in most areas of the unit that haven’t been turned for agricultural purposes.
On the eastern border of the unit close to halfway up highway 85 is the town of Buffalo. Although only 330 people here it is the county seat of Harding County and is the major hub of the area. There is one locally owned hotel as well as a gas station. Overall there are few amenities across the entire unit. If you are looking for a place to camp there is Picnic Spring Campground towards the northern border of the unit a few miles outside of Ludlow.
Roughly 1345 square miles
20% public land
Elevations range from 2,750 - 4,000 feet