Unit 115

Eureka Hill provides the most notable landmark for orientation and glassing across the surrounding flats. Big Spring and Alfred Camp Spring anchor the northern drainages and serve as key waypoints for accessing water. Mud Creek, Wild Horse Creek, and Bellyache Creek drain the rolling country and create shallow canyon features that concentrate game movement.

These named creeks and springs are critical references in country where sections can look similar; mark them on maps before heading in.

The unit spreads across lower-elevation high plains terrain, ranging from around 4,300 to 5,100 feet with most country in the 4,700-foot range. Vegetation is predominantly open sagebrush and grassland with scattered stands of pinyon and juniper that thicken on ridges and south-facing slopes. This is working ranch country, heavily grazed, with minimal forest cover.

The open nature of the landscape offers good visibility but limited shade and thermal cover, shaping how elk and deer use the terrain seasonally.

Fair road access with 391 miles of maintained roads allows reasonable entry points, but most are ranch roads requiring landowner permission or marked public access. The lack of heavy highway infrastructure (no major highways traverse the unit) means less pressure than Front Range units, but also more reliance on relationships with local ranches. I-70 and U.S. 40 bracket the unit, making it a long-distance hunt destination for most Colorado hunters, which works to your advantage.

Unit 115 occupies the high plains region of Kit Carson and Cheyenne counties, defined by I-70 to the north, Colorado 59 to the east, U.S. 40 to the south, and Flagler-Wildhorse Road to the west. The unit sits in the northeastern Colorado plains, a transitional zone between the Front Range foothills to the west and the open shortgrass prairie extending east toward the Kansas border. This is classic eastern Colorado country—mostly private ranches interspersed with public parcels, requiring hunters to work with landowner access.

Water availability is the limiting factor in this unit. Big Spring, Alfred Camp Spring, and the associated fork systems of Big Spring Creek provide the most reliable sources, though they're not abundant. Mud Creek, Wild Horse Creek, and Pass Creek run seasonally depending on winter precipitation and spring snowmelt from higher country west of the unit.

Logie Lake offers water but access depends on private land cooperation. Plan your camping and hunting loops around known springs and creeks rather than assuming permanent flow.

Elk, mule deer, and white-tailed deer inhabit this grassland-juniper mosaic, with pronghorn abundant on open flats. Early season (September) focuses on elk in riparian timber near Big Spring Creek drainages where water and shade concentrate animals. Rut season drives elk toward sagebrush basins and scattered timber patches where females congregate.

Late season shifts to lower-elevation creek bottoms as animals move downslope. Mule deer prefer the juniper patches and ridge systems; whites occupy brushy creek drainages. The open terrain demands glassing and stalking rather than driving timber—locate game from distance and work closer using terrain for cover.