Unit 73A

The Deep Creek Mountains provide the primary landmark and glassing platform, with individual peaks like Bannock Peak and Moonshine Peak serving as obvious reference points for navigation. Paps Mountain and Buck Peak offer secondary vantage positions for scanning adjacent drainages. Multiple canyons—Bear Hollow, Wheeler Canyon, Buck Canyon, and others—create natural corridors for both travel and hunting; these funnel whitetail movement seasonally.

Jim Brown Pass and the ridge systems connecting key summits provide backbone routes through complex terrain. Colson Basin and the various flats (Howard Flat, Warner Flat) represent open country breaks where deer congregate, especially during early morning and evening movements.

The unit transitions from lower sagebrush basins around 4,300 feet up through scattered ponderosa and juniper stands to alpine terrain above 8,700 feet, with the bulk of huntable country sitting in the 5,000 to 7,000-foot band. Open benches dominate the lower elevations—Wheatgrass Bench and Compressor Station Bench support sagebrush and grassland habitat ideal for whitetail movement. As elevation climbs, scattered timber thickens slightly without creating dense forest, creating pockets of cover among rolling slopes.

The moderate forest cover keeps the unit from feeling heavily timbered; instead, you're navigating mosaic terrain where meadows, sagebrush, and scattered timber intermix across the ridgelines and valley floors.

Roughly 800 miles of roads create a well-connected network relative to terrain size, though exact road density metrics show this as moderate accessibility rather than heavily roaded country. Forest Service roads provide the primary backbone, particularly Forest Service Road 415 through the Franklin Basin and Danish Pass area, and Trail 316 along Bannock Creek-Arbon Valley. State Highway 37 and Interstate 86 form eastern boundaries and offer quick access from communities, but most of the unit's interior roads remain sparse enough to avoid significant daily pressure.

The rolling topography and multiple drainage systems mean hunters can easily escape crowds by penetrating away from primary access points.

Unit 73A encompasses portions of Bannock, Oneida, and Power Counties in southeastern Idaho, bounded by Interstate 86 to the north, State Highway 37 to the west, and the Idaho-Utah state line to the south and east. The Deep Creek Mountains form the primary geographic spine, with the unit anchored around major drainages including Bannock Creek and Sunbeam Creek systems. This vast block offers considerable ground to cover, with numerous canyon systems and ridges creating natural subdivisions.

Proximity to small communities like Arbon and Pauline provides basic staging points, though the majority of the unit remains low-density country.

Water is the constraining resource here. Reliable springs cluster around specific locations: Waylett Spring, Study Spring, West Fork Springs, and Buck Spring anchor traditional water sources, but seasonal drying is common. Bannock Creek and Sunbeam Creek systems (both main and fork branches) provide perennial flow and serve as primary travel corridors through the unit's backbone; following creek bottoms significantly reduces hiking distance and concentrates hunting opportunities.

Sawmill Creek, Moonshine Creek, and Rattlesnake Creek offer secondary drainage options with variable reliability. The Bannock Canal and associated irrigation infrastructure indicate some water development, but hunters should verify current flow conditions before committing to basin camps without confirmed spring access.

Whitetails dominate this unit's hunting focus, thriving in the mixed sage-timber-drainage habitat across all elevation bands. Early season hunting targets animals in sagebrush benches and open country at lower elevations before summer retreat into higher timber. The creek bottom drainage systems concentrate whitetails during rut and late season, making canyon and creek-following strategies productive; hunt the draws where you find water and cover.

Ridge travel and glassing from named peaks like Bannock Peak works well for spotting movement patterns, but success requires waterhole knowledge—find reliable springs and you find predictable deer travel. Late season, concentrate on lower canyon systems and basin country where wintering deer congregate; the rolling topography keeps the unit huntable longer than steeper terrain.