This unit holds some of the state’s healthiest elk herds, but most of them are found on private land. Most of the private property in this unit is managed as part of several Cooperative Wildlife Management Units so public hunting opportunities are limited.

Expect to pay a large fee to hunt the best land inside unit boundaries, but a few bulls are killed on public land and on some small ranches that are not in Cooperative Wildlife Management Units. Most mature bulls harvested are small branch-antlered bulls. Accessible public areas get heavy hunting pressure.

This unit stretches from Mountain Green about six miles upstream from the mouth of Weber Canyon all the way to the Wyoming border near Evanston. Most of the terrain is hilly to mountainous and is flat to moderately steep except in a few places, where cliffs and really steep slopes make it difficult to get around. Most valleys follow streams and rivers, most of them flowing below 6,500 feet. Mountains and hills are mostly below 7,000 feet with a few high points above 8,000 feet, including Durst Mountain at 9,234 feet.

Sagebrush, oakbrush, bigtooth maple brush, mahoganies, and aspen are the main cover. High elevations have some thick spruce and fir forests on north slopes. Junipers grow in some places, like the south side of Durst Mountain. Hay and alfalfa farms are common along streams in the Morgan and Henefer valleys.

Hunters may camp on public ground in the Monte Cristo area. Hike-in or horseback hunters may camp in the Henefer-Echo Wildlife Management Area. There’s a public campground just below Causey Reservoir. Ther are also many campgrounds along the South Fork of the Ogden River. Most campgrounds close in the fall. Lodging is available in nearby towns of Evanston, Ogden, Coalville, and Park City. Most motels are too far away to be convenient for hunters who want to be in the field at first light.

Little of this unit is public land, and most of the private land has been combined to form Cooperative Wildlife Management Units, which have their own seasons and tags. Some ranchers don’t want to join co-ops, and occasionally a hunter can get on private land by trading for services or paying an access fee, but small ranches don’t usually hold elk consistently. Henefer-Echo Wildlife Management Area near the tiny town of Echo offers hunting on about 14,000 acres of state land. Elk are scarce during archery and rifle seasons on this area but herds often move in during muzzleloader season, especially if snowfall has been heavy in the mountains to the east. Hunters can access the area from Bull Hollow, Fire Canyon and Croyden. A large piece of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest runs along Monte Cristo Ridge near the Monte Cristo Highway and stretches south between private properties. Some of that land can be reached via trails from Causey Reservoir. Carry a GPS with updated land ownership data to hunt this area effectively.