Unit 116

The Bear Lodge Mountains and low ridge systems including Kaiser Divide, Cedar Ridge, and Tower Divide provide visual anchors and navigation reference points across otherwise featureless prairie. Keyhole Reservoir and Oshoto Reservoir offer key water concentrations and elk staging areas. Named draws and creeks—Crazy Creek, Prairie Creek, Basin Draw, Alkali Draw—serve as natural hunting corridors and drainage bottoms where water and wildlife concentrate.

The towns of Sundance and Upton sit strategically on the unit's southern boundary, making logical staging points. Monumental City and the Eagle Buttes provide distant reference markers for orientation in the open country.

The unit sits entirely in lower-elevation rangeland, spanning from around 3,100 feet in the basin floors to 6,600 feet on the highest ridges. The terrain is predominantly open prairie and grassland—sage flats, dry meadows, and cultivated fields dominate the visual landscape. Scattered ponderosa and juniper stand thin on the higher ridges and in scattered draws; the vast majority is exposed, windswept plains.

Vegetation reflects semi-arid conditions: short grass, sage, and yucca across the flats, with thicker timber concentrated only in the deepest canyon bottoms and around small basins like Buffalo Basin and Eggie Basin.

Over 1,500 miles of roads crisscross the unit, mainly county and ranch roads rather than highways. This fair access allows hunters to cover ground and reach various drainages, but the vast landscape and low hunter concentration mean that distance and knowledge, not congestion, are the limiting factors. The unit's remote, working-ranch character and modest elk populations mean pressure remains relatively light compared to mountain units.

Staging from Sundance or Upton, hunters can access scattered points throughout, but the openness means elk are visible and mobile—this is not a unit where you can hide from the landscape or from being seen.

Unit 116 occupies the far northeastern corner of Wyoming, bounded by the Montana state line to the north, the South Dakota border to the east, and Interstate 90 to the south. The unit stretches from Rocky Point Road in Campbell County northwest to where Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota meet, then southward along the state line before dropping south to include the towns of Sundance and Upton. This vast unit encompasses some 1,500+ miles of roads serving ranch country, small communities, and dispersed hunting access across a landscape defined more by horizontal distance than elevation change.

Water scarcity is the defining feature here. Keyhole and Oshoto Reservoirs are reliable water sources but limited in number. Springs scattered across the unit—Scott Spring, Talbot Spring, Martin Spring, and others—exist but require knowledge of their locations and seasonal reliability.

Creeks including Crazy Creek, Prairie Creek, and Wind Creek flow intermittently; their value depends on season and recent precipitation. The limited water forces elk to concentrate at predictable locations, making water-source reconnaissance essential. Dry draws and alkali flats comprise much of the terrain; successful hunting hinges on finding where elk water and establishing positions accordingly.

Elk in Unit 116 are adapted to semi-arid lower-elevation prairie and canyon country. They concentrate in draws, small basins, and ridge breaks where moisture and vegetation are better. Early season finds elk using high ridges and exposed benches; as weather changes, they retreat to canyon bottoms and around reliable water sources like Keyhole Reservoir.

The sparse timber offers limited hiding cover; elk are acclimated to open country and often bed in sage flats or rocky outcrops rather than dense forest. Successful hunting requires glassing from distance, working drainages to intercept elk moving to water, and being patient enough to locate animals in expansive country before attempting a stalk. The Bear Lodge Mountains and nearby ridge systems hold the most reliable elk habitat.