Unit 38

The Laramie Mountains and Sherman Mountains frame the unit's geography—use these as primary reference points. Key ridges include Pine Ridge, Bristol Ridge, and Limestone Rim, which offer glassing opportunities and serve as travel corridors. The Laramie River is your primary navigation landmark; multiple creeks including Snow Creek, Bear Creek, and Schoolhouse Creek run through the unit and are findable from a distance.

Several reservoirs (Chadwick Reservoirs, Wheatland Reservoir) and lakes (Lake Ione, Horse Creek Lakes) mark water concentrations. Eagle Rock provides a distinctive navigation landmark in the flats.

The unit spans from about 4,500 feet in the river bottoms to just over 9,000 feet on the higher ridges, with most country settling between 6,500 and 8,000 feet. The dominant landscape is open sagebrush flats and grassland broken by scattered ponderosa pine, juniper, and aspen on the ridges and north slopes. Lower elevations are primarily plains with sparse timber; higher ridges carry more forest.

The transition happens gradually across rolling terrain rather than as sharp elevation breaks, creating varied habitat that supports both open-country and foothill game.

Fair road access via a network of ranch roads and secondary county routes provides entry at multiple points, though significant private land ownership means you can't always follow the most direct path. The I-25 and I-80 corridors nearby mean moderate hunting pressure, particularly early season and weekends. However, the patchwork of ownership and need to respect ranch access patterns keeps many hunters concentrated along main drainages.

Knowing which ranches allow public access and which don't is critical—this isn't open country despite the wide-open appearance. Staging from Laramie is straightforward.

Unit 38 sits in the Laramie Basin between the city of Laramie on the west and I-25 on the east, bounded by US 30 to the north and I-80 to the south. The Laramie River cuts through the unit as the primary drainage, flowing northeast toward the interstate. The unit sits in that transitional zone where the high Laramie plains give way to the foothills of the Laramie and Sherman Mountains.

It's working landscape—a patchwork of ranches, irrigated meadows, public grazing land, and scattered private parcels that demands attention to ownership boundaries.

Water is the controlling feature of this unit. The Laramie River is perennial and flows northeast through the entire unit—critical for both access and game movement. Multiple irrigation ditches (Mullen Ditch, Oasis Ditch, South Horse Creek Ditch) follow major creek drainages and are reliable water sources in summer and early fall.

Numerous reservoirs provide stock water but vary in reliability. Several springs (Granite Springs, Sybille Springs, City Springs) mark reliable water points worth scouting. In late season, water concentration around the river and remaining reservoirs becomes important for predicting pronghorn movement.

Pronghorn is the primary species here, and the unit's open sagebrush flats with scattered timber make it a straightforward glassing situation. Early season, pronghorn spread across the grasslands and lower ridges; glass from high points like Pine Ridge or the ridgelines of the foothills. Water is the key—concentrate on draws and flats near springs and creek bottoms in late summer and early fall.

The scattered timber on ridges provides cover corridors for pronghorn moving between feeding areas. The unit's relatively modest terrain complexity and fair access make it manageable for hunters who respect boundaries and understand that water concentration drives pronghorn movement in this semi-arid transition zone.