Can a hunter use a region licence to hunt in this area?

No. Hunt area 122 is a limited-quota area drawn specifically for this hunt area, by both residents and nonresidents. A region licence is valid only in the general-licence areas of its region, never in a limited-quota hunt area. A hunter must draw this area individually.

How much public land can a hunter count on accessing in this area?

About 322 square miles of BLM and State Trust Land are open to hunting, but a significant portion of the public land here is not accessible because it is surrounded by private land or lacks road access. A hunter should use online county tax maps and a mapping app before the hunt to identify public parcels that sit adjacent to public roads. Isolated public land may look huntable on a map but cannot legally be reached.

What preference points does a nonresident need for this area?

Wyoming's nonresident elk draw allocates three quarters of licences to the preference-point draw, awarded by points, and a quarter to a random draw. Nonresidents with higher points have a better chance in the preference pool, but the random quarter remains open to anyone. Wyoming residents draw this area randomly and have no elk preference-point system at all.

When do the archery and regular seasons open in this area?

Archery seasons for any-elk and cow-or-calf hunts open September 1 and run through September 30. Regular seasons begin October 1 for cow-or-calf hunts and October 10 for the antlered-bull hunt, running through November 30. A separate antlerless season runs December 1 through December 31.

Where is most hunting pressure in this hunt area?

The majority of hunting occurs on private land, where access is limited and permission must be secured beforehand. Public land hunting opportunities are restricted because most public parcels lack direct road access. Hunters should research county records and secure private-land permission early, as access to productive ground is difficult to obtain.

Wyoming Hunt Area 122 (Pine Ridge) elk hunting

Licence

Limited quota — drawn

Open public land

25%

Elevation

4,800–6,300 ft

Terrain

Gentle

Hunt area 122 spreads across 1,277 square miles of rolling sagebrush country and sand hills between 4,800 and 6,300 feet, with typical ground around 5,500 feet. The terrain is predominantly gentle—88 percent of the area grades out as gentle slope, with 12 percent moderate and 1 percent steep—making most of the country walkable on foot. Sagebrush and grass-meadow cover dominate the landscape in roughly equal measure, each accounting for nearly half the vegetation, with minor patches of other cover mixed in. Elk occupy habitat throughout the hunt area but concentrate in the Pine Ridge through its center, though they also move into the draws, rolling sagebrush hills, sagebrush flats, and sand hills as conditions shift through the seasons.

Access here is the hunt area's defining constraint. Private land covers 73 percent of the area, and the majority of elk hunting occurs on private ground. Public land—BLM and State Trust Land—makes up roughly 322 square miles of dependably open country, but a substantial portion of the public land in the hunt area is not accessible to hunters. Public land adjacent to public roads is huntable; isolated parcels surrounded by private land are not. This means a hunter working public ground must research carefully beforehand, using county tax-mapping tools online and a GPS or smartphone app with landownership layers to distinguish what is genuinely accessible from what only appears to be. Some private-land roads resemble public roads, and mistaking them risks trespass. Securing permission to hunt private land is difficult but is where most hunting opportunity lies.

Seasons here span late summer through winter, with a long archery and regular-season window from September through November and a shorter antlerless hunt in December. Early-season archery in September hunts the rut's onset and primary phase when elk are vocal and active. The October and November regular seasons catch elk through the later rut and into the post-rut recovery and migration transition, when they may be scattered and harder to locate than during the primary rut. Weather cools from mild early-autumn conditions through November's snow and cold, reaching December's depths. A December antlerless season hunts winter-range elk in cold conditions with regular snowfall.

Licence and how this hunt area is drawn

Hunt Area 122 (Pine Ridge) is limited quota. A licence for it must be drawn for this hunt area specifically, by resident and nonresident alike. A region licence does not reach it — a region licence is valid only in the general-licence areas of its region, so there is no fallback for this hunt.

Wyoming residents have no preference points for elk — the resident elk draw is random, and no resident point cutoff exists for any hunt area in the state. For nonresidents points matter a great deal: Wyoming awards 75% of each nonresident pool through the preference-point draw, top-down by points, and the remaining 25% at random. Nonresidents also choose between the Regular and Special pools — the same hunts at two price points, competing separately.

Seasons (2026)

Type 1 · Any elk
Archery September 1 – September 30Regular October 1 – November 30
Type 1 · Antlerless elk
Regular December 1 – December 31
Type 2 · Antlered elk five (5) points or less on either antler
Regular October 10 – November 30
Type 6 · Cow or calf
Archery September 1 – September 30Regular October 1 – December 31
Type 8 · Cow or calf valid on private land
Regular August 1 – January 31

The wording of each hunt is the Wyoming Game & Fish Department’s and is legally exact — a “cow or calf” hunt is not a elk hunt in general, and a hunt limited to part of the area is not valid across it. Confirm every hunt in the current regulations before applying.

Hunting each season

Type 8 — Cow or calf valid on private land (August–January)

The private-land cow-or-calf hunt runs from August through January, beginning in late summer when elk are still in velvet and ending deep in winter. Early season in August and September hunts elk at their most active and vocal, before and as the rut begins, with mild to warm days and cool nights. Hunting conditions shift through autumn as October and November bring cooler weather and increasing snow—October averages 1.3 inches and November 3.3 inches—while elk move through their rut phases and into the post-rut period. By December, with 6.3 inches of snowfall and highs averaging 33 degrees, hunting becomes a winter proposition. This hunt is valid only on private land, never on public ground. Access depends entirely on securing permission from landowners before the season.

Type 1 — Any elk (September–November)

Archery season from September 1 through 30 hunts the rut's onset and primary phase, when bulls are active and calling. Temperatures run from warm early in the month—highs around 71 degrees—to cooler conditions by month's end, with essentially no snow. The regular season from October 1 through November 30 continues through the late rut, post-rut recovery, and into the migration transition as temperatures cool steadily and snow accumulates, reaching 3.3 inches in November. During this window elk may be scattered and difficult to locate as the rut fades. This hunt is for any elk and covers the entire hunt area, valid on both public and private land. Access to public land is severely limited; most hunters will depend on private-land permission.

Type 1 — Antlerless elk (December)

The December antlerless season hunts winter conditions with highs averaging 33 degrees and 6.3 inches of typical monthly snowfall, when elk are on their winter range. Hunting opportunity is limited to antlerless animals—cow or calf only. Access remains constrained by limited public-land entry points, requiring advance research and planning to locate and reach accessible ground.

Type 2 — Antlered elk five (5) points or… (October–November)

The October 10 through November 30 antlered-bull hunt targets bulls with five or fewer points on either antler through the late rut, post-rut recovery, and migration transition phases. October temperatures average 56 degrees with 1.3 inches of snow; November cools significantly to a 43-degree high with 3.3 inches of snow, making ground conditions progressively more challenging. Weather can shift rapidly as winter approaches. This hunt covers the entire hunt area on both public and private land, though public access remains limited to road-adjacent parcels.

Type 6 — Cow or calf (September–December)

Archery season from September 1 through 30 hunts the rut's onset and primary phase when bulls are active and accessible, with warm early-month conditions cooling slightly by month's end and no snow. The regular season from October 1 through December 31 continues through the late rut, post-rut recovery, migration transition, and into winter, with temperatures falling from a 56-degree October average to 33 degrees in December. Snowfall increases through the period—1.3 inches in October, 3.3 in November, and 6.3 in December. This hunt allows cow or calf on the entire area and covers a long window across autumn and into deep winter. Access to public land is limited and requires careful planning, and most hunters will depend on private-land permission.

Land and access

private land73%

Private

BLM17%

Generally open to public hunting

State Trust Land8%

Generally open to public hunting

unclassified ownership1%

Ownership unclassified

About 25% of this hunt area is ground a hunter can generally count on — BLM and State Trust Land, roughly 322 square miles. Public ownership is not the same as easy entry: roads, trailheads, seasonal closures and private inholdings all still apply.

State trust land counts toward the open figure above. Wyoming extends hunting on legally accessiblestate trust land to the public unless a parcel is specifically closed — the catch is the access itself, since crossing private ground to reach it still needs the landowner’s permission. Camping, fires and off-road vehicles are not allowed on it.

Where elk are mapped

Yearlong Range12%

the only layer that means year-round use

Each figure is the share of the hunt area that layer covers. It says where elk are mapped, not where inside the area they are, and not when they move.

Habitat and cover

Across the unit

Sagebrush49%

Grass and meadow48%

Other cover3%

Shares are of each elevation band, not of the whole hunt area — they describe what grows up there, not how much of the area sits at that elevation.

Weather through the season

Month	Avg high	Avg low	Snowfall
January	34°F	13°F	5.1 in
February	36°F	14°F	6.3 in
March	46°F	22°F	4.5 in
April	53°F	28°F	3.2 in
May	63°F	37°F	0 in
June	74°F	46°F	0 in
July	84°F	53°F	0 in
August	82°F	52°F	0 in
September	71°F	43°F	0 in
October	56°F	31°F	1.3 in
November	43°F	21°F	3.3 in
December	33°F	13°F	6.3 in

Snowfall is the monthly total, not depth lying on the ground.

Common questions

Can a hunter use a region licence to hunt in this area?: No. Hunt area 122 is a limited-quota area drawn specifically for this hunt area, by both residents and nonresidents. A region licence is valid only in the general-licence areas of its region, never in a limited-quota hunt area. A hunter must draw this area individually.
How much public land can a hunter count on accessing in this area?: About 322 square miles of BLM and State Trust Land are open to hunting, but a significant portion of the public land here is not accessible because it is surrounded by private land or lacks road access. A hunter should use online county tax maps and a mapping app before the hunt to identify public parcels that sit adjacent to public roads. Isolated public land may look huntable on a map but cannot legally be reached.
What preference points does a nonresident need for this area?: Wyoming's nonresident elk draw allocates three quarters of licences to the preference-point draw, awarded by points, and a quarter to a random draw. Nonresidents with higher points have a better chance in the preference pool, but the random quarter remains open to anyone. Wyoming residents draw this area randomly and have no elk preference-point system at all.
When do the archery and regular seasons open in this area?: Archery seasons for any-elk and cow-or-calf hunts open September 1 and run through September 30. Regular seasons begin October 1 for cow-or-calf hunts and October 10 for the antlered-bull hunt, running through November 30. A separate antlerless season runs December 1 through December 31.
Where is most hunting pressure in this hunt area?: The majority of hunting occurs on private land, where access is limited and permission must be secured beforehand. Public land hunting opportunities are restricted because most public parcels lack direct road access. Hunters should research county records and secure private-land permission early, as access to productive ground is difficult to obtain.

Sources

Wyoming Game & Fish — Hunting & Trapping — licence types, general and limited-quota hunts, and season structure
WGFD Hunt Planner — hunt-area boundaries, season dates and the unit descriptions
WGFD — Draw results and odds — how the resident random draw and the nonresident preference-point draw work
WGFD — Regulations — the legal limitations on each hunt, and the statewide licence rules
USGS National Land Cover Database (NLCD 2021) and 3DEP elevation — land cover and terrain by elevation band

Seasons, licence types and boundaries change. Confirm every detail with the Wyoming Game & Fish Department before applying or hunting.

All Wyoming elk hunt areas