A large unit with many wilderness areas along with lots of private timber land and farm land, Santiam offers blacktail deer, blacktail/muley crosses and Roosevelt elk.

Deer numbers are moderate in the north and low in the south, but hunters have a better chance for big bucks in the south, especially on private land. This unit has produced some big elk in recent years.

This huge unit stretches from flat and rolling farmlands below 1,000 feet in elevation to foothills that are mostly between 1,000 feet and 3,500 above sea level. Farther east are long ridges, river canyons, rocky pinnacles and mountains, many of them inside designated wilderness areas and varying from about 6,000 to more than 10,000 feet in elevation. A huge volcanic peak, 11,250-foot Mount Hood, looms just above the northern end, while 10,497-foot Mount Jefferson is on the boundary farther south. The unit contains parts of five counties: Multnomah, Clackamas, Marion, Wasco and Linn.

Dense forests of Douglas fir, western hemlock, western red cedar cover and many other species of trees cover most of this unit. The farther east you climb the more mature the forests and the more sterile the land in terms of game habitat. Most of the lower mountains and foothills have been logged and are in various stages of regrowth. Clearcuts and farmland have opened up the forest canopy, allowing for the growth of browse plants and grass fostered by sunlight.

Hunters enjoy access to hundreds of square miles of public land, most of it inside Mount Hood and Willamette National Forests with smaller sectors of state and BLM land. Hunters who want to hike or ride horses have huge expanses of designated wilderness areas to explore. They include Table Rock Wilderness, which is on a blend of BLM and Forest Service land, Mount Jefferson Wilderness, Bull of the Woods Wilderness, the western stretches of Mount Hood National Forest, Middle Santiam Wilderness, Menagerie Wilderness, part of the Mark O. Hatfield Wilderness and the Salmon Huckleberry Wilderness unit. No vehicles are allowed in wilderness areas. Hunters can drive within a couple of miles of almost all land outside wilderness. ATVs can be helpful on the more primitive roads. The western half of the unit is mostly private with farms along the western edge and timber land along the Forest Service boundaries. Much of the private timber land is open to public hunting, some of it for a fee. Vehicles are restricted on most private land, giving hunters willing to hike an opportunity to get away from other hunters.

Hunters may camp almost anywhere on public land and also may choose among more than three dozen maintained campgrounds, many of them on the shores of lakes. Though hunters are allowed on many private tree farms, camping is seldom allowed. Lodging is available in many towns and cities in the Willamette Valley, including many on the eastern outskirts of Portland.