How does a hunter obtain a licence for hunt area 59?

Hunt area 59 is a limited-quota hunt area drawn specifically for this area; there is no general pronghorn licence in Wyoming and no region licence. Both residents and nonresidents must draw for a tag through the resident or nonresident pool. Residents enter a random draw; nonresidents compete in a draw where three quarters of the licences go to those with preference points (awarded top-down) and a quarter go to a random draw open to all nonresidents in the pool.

What if a hunter does not draw a tag for this area?

There is no alternative licence. Because hunt area 59 is limited quota and belongs to no region licence system, a hunter who does not draw for this area has no other pronghorn licence to fall back on.

What seasons run on hunt area 59?

Archery runs August 15 through September 19, and regular season runs September 20 through October 31. Both windows are part of a single hunt for any antelope and use the same tag.

How much of the hunt area can a hunter actually get onto?

About 58% of hunt area 59 is public land (BLM, State Trust Land, and National Forest) that a hunter can generally count on. Private land makes up 42%, but most landowners permit crossing for hunting. Roads can become difficult when wet or muddy because of clay in the soil.

Do Wyoming residents need preference points for pronghorn in hunt area 59?

No. Wyoming residents have no pronghorn preference points and enter a random draw for hunt area 59. Preference points are a nonresident concept; the nonresident draw uses points to award three quarters of the tags to those with the most points, with the remaining quarter going to a random draw.

Wyoming Hunt Area 59 (Aspen Mountain) pronghorn hunting

Licence

Limited quota — drawn

Open public land

58%

Elevation

6,000–8,700 ft

Terrain

Gentle

Hunt area 59 spans 552 square miles of high sagebrush plateau country between 6,000 and 8,700 feet, with typical ground around 7,000 feet. The terrain is predominantly gentle—79% of it slopes gently—and the landscape reads as open sage plateaus rather than mountains proper, despite the names Aspen Mountain and Miller Mountain. Pronghorn inhabit the open sagebrush plains atop Aspen Mountain, Miller Mountain, and the high plateau between them, as well as Tommy James Basin and the southern portion of Little Basin within the hunt area. Juniper drainages and ridges scatter through the terrain but see little use from pronghorn. Scattered aspen pockets appear on Aspen Mountain and the southern and eastern slopes of Miller Mountain, but sagebrush dominates across all elevation bands—87% at lower elevations, 94% at mid and higher elevations. Good numbers of pronghorn concentrate on the plateau and basin country, while lower numbers and lighter hunter pressure characterize the ground east of Aspen Mountain.

Access is a practical mixed bag. Fifty-eight percent of the area—roughly 319 square miles—is public land on BLM, State Trust Land, and National Forest that a hunter can generally count on. Private land makes up the remaining 42%, but most landowners permit crossing for hunting despite the checkerboard landownership pattern of alternating sections. Roads throughout the hunt area can become difficult when wet or muddy because of the clay content in the soil, so timing and ground conditions matter. The terrain supports sage-grouse and cottontails in many of the same habitats as pronghorn, though hunters need separate upland game bird licenses for those species.

Licence and how this hunt area is drawn

Hunt Area 59 (Aspen Mountain) is limited quota. A licence for it must be drawn for this hunt area specifically, by resident and nonresident alike. Wyoming issues no general pronghorn licence and no region pronghorn licence, so there is no over-the-counter option and no regional fallback: every pronghorn hunt area in the state is drawn on its own.

Wyoming residents have no preference points for pronghorn — the resident pronghorn 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 antelope
Archery August 15 – September 19Regular September 20 – October 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 pronghorn 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 1 — Any antelope (August–October)

Hunting splits into two windows across the rut. Archery (August 15–September 19) covers the pre-rut period when pronghorn begin gathering on their territories and the primary rut itself, with warm early-month conditions cooling from highs around 82°F in August toward the low 70s by late September and virtually no snow. Regular season (September 20–October 31) carries through the tail end of the primary rut, the late-rut recovery period, and into fall grouping as animals prepare for winter, with temperatures dropping steeply from the high 50s in early October to the low 30s by month's end and snowfall increasing to around 0.9 inches in October. Pronghorn concentrate on the open sage plateaus and basins where they can be spotted from distance; good numbers hold on the high ground of Aspen Mountain, Miller Mountain, and the plateau between them, with Tommy James Basin and the southern portion of Little Basin also productive. Access to public land is generally dependable across the hunt area despite its checkerboard ownership, though roads can become muddy and difficult, and the wider private-land matrix means a hunter must plan routes carefully. The hunt is valid for any antelope across both seasons on the tag.

Land and access

BLM51%

Generally open to public hunting

private land42%

Private

State Trust Land5%

Generally open to public hunting

National Forest2%

Generally open to public hunting

About 58% of this hunt area is ground a hunter can generally count on — BLM, State Trust Land and National Forest, roughly 319 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 pronghorn are mapped

Summer Range47%

used in summer

Winter Range24%

used in winter

Yearlong Range16%

the only layer that means year-round use

Crucial Winter Range8%

the part of Winter Range considered essential to the herd — inside Winter Range, not added to it

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

Habitat and cover

Lower elevations

Sagebrush87%

Other cover7%

Grass and meadow5%

Mid elevations

Sagebrush94%

Grass and meadow4%

Other cover3%

Higher elevations

Sagebrush94%

Grass and meadow3%

Conifer1%

Other cover1%

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	33°F	11°F	4.3 in
February	36°F	14°F	3.3 in
March	46°F	22°F	1.9 in
April	54°F	28°F	1 in
May	64°F	36°F	0 in
June	76°F	44°F	0 in
July	84°F	52°F	0 in
August	82°F	50°F	0 in
September	72°F	41°F	0.1 in
October	58°F	31°F	0.9 in
November	43°F	20°F	2.6 in
December	33°F	12°F	3.9 in

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

Common questions

How does a hunter obtain a licence for hunt area 59?: Hunt area 59 is a limited-quota hunt area drawn specifically for this area; there is no general pronghorn licence in Wyoming and no region licence. Both residents and nonresidents must draw for a tag through the resident or nonresident pool. Residents enter a random draw; nonresidents compete in a draw where three quarters of the licences go to those with preference points (awarded top-down) and a quarter go to a random draw open to all nonresidents in the pool.
What if a hunter does not draw a tag for this area?: There is no alternative licence. Because hunt area 59 is limited quota and belongs to no region licence system, a hunter who does not draw for this area has no other pronghorn licence to fall back on.
What seasons run on hunt area 59?: Archery runs August 15 through September 19, and regular season runs September 20 through October 31. Both windows are part of a single hunt for any antelope and use the same tag.
How much of the hunt area can a hunter actually get onto?: About 58% of hunt area 59 is public land (BLM, State Trust Land, and National Forest) that a hunter can generally count on. Private land makes up 42%, but most landowners permit crossing for hunting. Roads can become difficult when wet or muddy because of clay in the soil.
Do Wyoming residents need preference points for pronghorn in hunt area 59?: No. Wyoming residents have no pronghorn preference points and enter a random draw for hunt area 59. Preference points are a nonresident concept; the nonresident draw uses points to award three quarters of the tags to those with the most points, with the remaining quarter going to a random draw.

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 pronghorn hunt areas