Unit 51-1X

Major summits anchor navigation: Hawley Mountain, Mount Breitenbrach, and Howe Peak provide reliable visual references and glassing platforms across the rolling terrain. Copper Lake, Horse Lake, and Swauger Lakes offer landmark water sources and potential camping locations. The Red Hills and Donkey Hills system forms a prominent ridgeline corridor.

Key creek drainages—Long Lost Creek, Massacre Creek, Hilts Creek, and Barney Creek—serve as natural travel routes and water sources through the rolling canyon country. Named passes like Firebox Summit and Pass Creek Summit facilitate high-country travel between major drainages.

Terrain spans from mid-elevation sagebrush and meadow country around 5,000 feet up to alpine ridges exceeding 12,000 feet, with most of the unit between 6,500 and 10,000 feet. Lower basins like Wet Creek and Little Basin feature open sagebrush interspersed with scattered juniper and aspen groves. As elevation increases, sparse lodgepole and whitebark pine become more prevalent, transitioning to wind-sculpted timberline and rocky alpine slopes near the high peaks.

The sparse forest coverage means significant open country throughout—ideal for glassing and traveling, but limited shelter in exposed terrain.

The unit is connected to Highway 33 via Forest Service roads branching from the Little Smoky Creek-Carrie Creek-Dollarhide Summit Road corridor. Road density concentrates along these established access routes, creating pressure corridors that hunters naturally follow. Staging out of Howe and Berenice provides logical entry points.

However, the unit's vast size and rolling complexity mean that off-road terrain quickly swallows hunters who venture from main roads. Backcountry basins and upper drainages remain less pressured. Road conditions and seasonal closures may impact late-season access to higher terrain.

The unit encompasses the Little Lost River drainage north and west of Five Points Creek Road, bounded by the Lemhi Divide to the east and Highway 33 to the west. Multiple ridgelines and creek drainages define its character—Taylor Canyon, Eightmile Canyon, and Hell Canyon cut through rolling country that rises steeply into the high peaks. The unit spans portions of Butte, Custer, and Lemhi counties, centered around the Hawley and Red Hills mountain systems.

Adjacent to established backcountry and wilderness-adjacent terrain, this unit sits in the heart of central Idaho's high-plateau country, far from major population centers.

Water sources are scattered but present throughout the unit. Reliable streams include Long Lost Creek, Massacre Creek, and Barney Creek—major drainages that cut through canyon systems and provide consistent water. Smaller creeks like Jackson Creek, Hilts Creek, and Horse Lake Creek offer secondary options.

A network of springs dots the terrain: Blind Springs, Willow Springs, Coyote Spring, and others provide critical water for backcountry hunting but require knowing their locations. High-country lakes like Copper Lake and Horse Lake are seasonal references. Lower-elevation summer water may require filtering through cattle-grazed meadows.

This is elk country across all elevation zones. Lower sagebrush basins and aspen groves provide early-season habitat and early-morning glassing opportunities. As weather pushes herds higher, rolling ridgetops and scattered timber at 8,000-10,000 feet become the focus—open enough for glassing, timbered enough for hunting cover.

Rut activity typically moves to high meadows and timbered pockets near the major peaks. Water source knowledge is critical; elk funneling toward reliable creeks and springs during dry periods creates hunting opportunities. The terrain's rolling complexity rewards hunters who invest in pre-season scouting and understanding how drainages connect.

Late-season weather and snow can rapidly concentrate elk in protected canyon bottoms and lower timber.