Hunt Area 81, Blackhall, Wyoming

Area 81 spans Carbon County from the Wyoming-Colorado state line northward to the Continental Divide and Highway 70. Elevations range from roughly 6,500 ft in the valley bottoms along the Encampment River to over 10,000 ft in the Sierra Madre / Medicine Bow National Forest. The lower two-thirds of the unit consists of rolling sagebrush hills, cottonwood- and willow-lined creek bottoms, and open benches ideal for spot-and-stalk hunting. The upper terrain in the National Forest is heavily timbered with lodgepole pine and spruce, broken by rocky ridgelines and drainages.

The unit contains a large portion of public land comprising BLM holdings in the lower sagebrush country and Medicine Bow National Forest (Sierra Madre Ranger District) at higher elevations. Private ranch land occupies portions of the valley bottoms and northern ranch country near Riverside. No Walk-In Areas (WIA) are specifically enrolled for Hunt Area 81 per WGFD Carbon County WIA records. Hunters can camp on National Forest and BLM lands. Main access corridors include Wyoming Highway 230 (Encampment corridor), Wyoming Highway 70 (Battle Pass Scenic Byway), and forest roads off those highways.

Lower unit: big sagebrush, bitterbrush, and native grasses on rolling hills and benches; cottonwood, willow, and tall grass along stream corridors. Upper unit: lodgepole pine, Engelmann spruce, subalpine fir, and alpine meadows. The transition zone between sagebrush and timber is prime mule deer habitat during October rifle season.

Mule deer migrate vertically between summer ranges at higher elevations in the Medicine Bow NF and winter ranges in the sagebrush foothills. Peak rut activity typically occurs mid-to-late October, coinciding with the general rifle season. White-tailed deer are largely resident along the Encampment River drainage year-round. Elk are present in the Sierra Madre portion of the unit and adjacent areas, with conservative management applied to hunt areas 81-83 due to low calf recruitment in recent years.

Public land percentage estimated at approximately 60% based on unit composition (BLM + Medicine Bow NF) per secondary sources; exact acreage not confirmed from WGFD official data. Season dates from WGFD Chapter 6 (2025 regulations, document dated 2024). Harvest data from WGFD 2023 Deer Harvest Report (most recent per-unit data available). No Walk-In Areas are currently enrolled specifically within Hunt Area 81 boundaries per WGFD Carbon County WIA list. Elk are present but Area 81 does not have a separate elk-specific hunt designation — elk hunting is administered under separate elk hunt area numbers.