Unit 76-2

The Bear Lake Plateau itself serves as the primary geographic anchor, with the Preuss Range rising to the southeast and Sheep Creek Hills marking the eastern boundary. Bald Mountain, Red Mountain, and Table Mountain provide glassing vantage points and navigation landmarks across the rolling terrain. Major water features include Bear Lake to the west, Montpelier Reservoir, Sheep Creek Reservoir, and numerous named springs—Books Spring, Pine Spring, and Fox Spring among them.

The extensive canal system (Bear Lake Outlet, Taylor, Cook, Rainbow, and others) creates visible lines on the landscape useful for orientation.

The plateau sits primarily between 6,000 and 9,900 feet, creating a mid to upper-elevation hunting landscape. Sparse timber characterizes the ridges and upper basins, with open flats and grassland dominating lower elevations. Willows and riparian vegetation concentrate along the numerous creeks and around the springs scattered throughout the unit.

This mosaic of open country and light forest, combined with abundant water, creates diverse habitat zones where terrain transitions between sagebrush flats, aspen pockets, and coniferous ridgelines offer habitat variation across the plateau.

Over 1,145 miles of road network means the unit is well-connected with fair accessibility throughout. No major highways bisect the unit, allowing some separation from high-speed traffic corridors, but the connected road system means hunters can reach most terrain features without excessive walking. Proximity to Montpelier, Border, and other populated places suggests baseline hunting pressure, but the plateau's rolling complexity and water-dependent habitat concentrate animals in specific basins and creek bottoms where moose congregate.

Hunters seeking solitude should focus on creek drainages and willow pockets away from main road corridors.

Unit 76-2 encompasses portions of Bear Lake and Caribou counties, spanning the Bear Lake Plateau region along the Idaho-Utah border. The unit stretches across rolling mountains and basins with significant water infrastructure including several irrigation canals and reservoirs that define the landscape. Bear Lake itself anchors the western boundary, while the Preuss Range and Sheep Creek Hills frame the terrain to the east.

The unit's connected road network ties it to Montpelier and surrounding communities, establishing clear access corridors from the populated areas on the western slope.

Water abundance is this unit's defining feature. Clear Creek, Beaver Creek, Big Creek, and multiple tributaries run through the unit with reliable flow. Pegram Creek, Pine Spring Creek, Fish Haven Creek, and Bloomington Creek provide additional drainage corridors.

Dingle Swamp and various springs including Willow Spring and Bennetts Spring support wetland habitat critical for moose. The extensive irrigation canal network demonstrates reliable water availability year-round. This abundance of perennial and semi-perennial water sources makes the unit unusually water-rich for plateau country, creating consistent habitat for moose throughout the hunting season.

Moose are the focus here—look for them in willow-lined creek bottoms, around Dingle Swamp, and in riparian zones where the abundant water creates prime habitat. The Beaver Creek and Clear Creek drainages, along with the various springs and seeps, concentrate moose in predictable areas. Early season hunting can work the higher basins and ridge country as animals range more widely; later season pushes moose toward reliable water in the lower creek systems.

The rolling terrain makes glassing from ridges productive for locating animals. Hunters should plan to cover creek bottoms methodically—this is a country where water dictates animal location and patience in riparian habitat pays dividends.