Unit 47

Key features for navigation include the Bridger Mountains and Moneta Hills anchoring the eastern terrain, with isolated summits like Birdseye Mountain, Hall Butte, and Twin Buttes providing landmarks across the basins. The Block and Blue Ridge offer visual reference points for glassing the country. Major drainages—the Wind River, Warm Springs Creek, and Jones Creek—carve through the unit and provide water source corridors.

Reservoirs including Battle Axe, Robinson, Bonneville, and Kirby offer reliable water points for staging camps. Thermopolis Hot Springs marks the western boundary region, a distinctive thermal feature visible on maps.

This unit spans from low desert basins around 4,200 feet to higher ridges and buttes reaching 8,200 feet, though most terrain clusters in the 5,000 to 6,500-foot band. Vegetation transitions from sagebrush flats and grasslands in the lower basins to scattered juniper and some scattered ponderosa on higher ridges and slopes. The forest cover is minimal overall—primarily open country with sagebrush dominating the landscape.

Elk inhabit the unit, favoring the more vegetated ridges and draws where moisture persists. The terrain feels exposed and broken rather than timbered, with elevation providing relief rather than continuous canopy.

Nearly 290 miles of roads thread through the unit, but density remains low across the vast terrain, keeping most country remote and lightly hunted. County roads provide primary access to staging areas and water points; few highways penetrate the interior. Limited road density means fewer day-use hunters but also longer distances to productive country.

Early-season access is generally good, though spring runoff can impact creek crossings. Fall conditions typically favor access. The isolation and distance requirements naturally compress hunter distribution to accessible ridges and basins near roads, leaving much country relatively untouched for hunters willing to foot it.

Unit 47 spans a large swath of north-central Wyoming between the Wind River Reservation on the north and U.S. Highway 20-26 on the south, with the Bighorn River defining the western boundary and Kirby Creek Road anchoring the eastern edge. The unit encompasses multiple basins and ridges across Fremont, Hot Springs, and Washakie counties, with Shoshoni serving as the primary gateway town. The terrain is defined by wide-open desert and semi-arid country dotted with named buttes and ridges rather than continuous mountain systems.

Boundaries follow county roads and highways, making ground orientation relatively straightforward from a map perspective.

Water is the limiting factor across this unit. Reliable sources cluster around the Wind River drainage on the west and Warm Springs Creek system in the central unit, with Kirby Creek providing secondary access on the east. Named springs—including Thermopolis Hot Springs, Red Springs, Big Spring, and several others—dot the landscape but vary seasonally in reliability.

Multiple reservoirs provide stock water and potential camp locations, though not all are reliable for potable water. Seasonal creeks and draws support game movement during wet periods but shrink dramatically in dry months. Plan water strategy carefully; this is not a unit for winging it on logistics.

Elk in Unit 47 utilize the basin floors and draws during cooler months, shifting to higher ridges and vegetated slopes during heat. Early season bulls can be found in sage basins near water sources; rut timing typically pushes animals to mid-elevation ridges where water and cover intersect. Late season concentrates elk at reliable water and whatever feed remains.

Glassing from buttes and ridge systems is productive for locating animals across the open country. Warm Springs Creek, Jones Creek, and the Wind River corridors funnel elk movement and offer concentrated hunting opportunities. Success depends on patience, water knowledge, and willingness to cover distance on foot.

The sparse forest means stalking requires terrain features and timing rather than timber cover.