Unit 28

Chateau Lake serves as a navigation anchor in the unit's heart, with the nearby Six Lakes cluster providing additional reference points. Prominent summits—Black Peak, Darwin Peak, Steamboat Peak, and Doubletop Peak—offer glassing vantage and orientation across the rolling high country. Grizzly Basin and Hidden Basin define major topographic features where moose concentrate.

Red Bluff Ridge and Sportsman Ridge mark significant terrain breaks. The drainages, particularly Soda Creek and Yellowjacket Creek, serve as travel corridors and water sources while providing natural hunting zones in riparian habitat.

The unit spans true alpine to upper-elevation forest, with terrain mostly above 8,000 feet and significant acreage above 9,500 feet. Lower slopes support scattered to moderate timber in spruce-fir forest; higher elevations transition to alpine meadows, krummholtz, and open ridgetops. Grizzly Basin and Hidden Basin form substantial subalpine parks rimmed by forested slopes and rocky peaks.

The terrain creates distinct habitat zones: timbered drainages offering shelter and browse, exposed ridges for movement corridors, and basin floors with meadow and water. This elevation profile concentrates moose habitat in the riparian willow zones and spruce bottoms of the major drainages.

Over 200 miles of roads exist within the unit, though most concentrate in the lower western section near Flat Creek and the Gros Ventre River access. The Darwin Ranch Road (USFS 620) provides eastern access to mid-elevation terrain, but the unit's core basin and high-elevation areas require hiking beyond roadheads. This combination—fair road access to lower elevations, no motorized travel above—creates moderate hunting pressure concentrated along roads and popular lake trails.

Experienced hikers willing to move away from established trails and camps can find quieter country in the upper basins and ridgetops, particularly in less-visited drainages like Little Cow Creek.

Unit 28 occupies the upper Gros Ventre drainage between the Bridger-Teton National Forest boundary and the divide separating the Green and Hoback drainages. The unit's eastern edge runs along the ridge system defining the Green-Gros Ventre divide; its western boundary follows Flat Creek down to the Forest boundary. The southern edge traces the Green-Hoback divide at Hodges Peak, while the north closes where the Gros Ventre enters National Forest land.

This mountainous enclave sits roughly 30 miles northeast of Jackson, isolated from major highways and accessible primarily through Jackson Hole valley approaches.

The Gros Ventre River flows through the unit's lower western section, fed by significant creeks including Soda Creek, Redmond Creek, and Yellowjacket Creek. Multiple high-elevation lakes—Chateau, Blue Miner, Lunch, Brewster, Grizzly, Soda, and Farney Lakes—provide reliable water throughout the summer and fall. These lakes are scattered across the alpine basins, making water availability less of a limiting factor in the high country.

The creek systems support willow growth critical for moose; water sources align well with moose habitat, though late-season drying in some creeks may concentrate animals near remaining reliable sources.

Unit 28 is moose country in spruce-fir forest and willow drainages above 8,000 feet. Early season hunting targets bulls moving through timbered slopes and basins during the September rut; glassing from ridges like Red Bluff and Sportsman Ridge provides overview of the rolling terrain. Mid-season focuses on water sources—the creeks and lakes where bulls travel and feed.

Late season concentrates on lower timbered valleys as animals move downslope with weather; the Gros Ventre drainage bottoms and side creeks like Soda and Redmond hold concentrations. Success requires fitness for sustained hiking into remote basins and knowledge of seasonal migration patterns between high summer range and lower wintering areas.