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Chalk Creek/East Canyon/Morgan-South Rich

Last Updated: Jul 31, 2020
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Quick Tips

  • Excellent trout fishing in Weber River
  • Good rainbow trout fishing in East Canyon Reservoir
  • Some public winter range has almost no deer until late October

On The Ground

This enormous area is composed of three largely private and mostly mountainous units that stretch from Salt Lake City and Interstate 15 all the way to the Wyoming border. Bears numbers are high in this unit but the public land is generally rugged, steep and heavily hunted.

Great numbers of bears can be found here but finding unpressured areas to hunt can be difficult.

Terrain

The unit is more than 90% mountainous, most of it is ideal mule deer habitat between 6,000 and 8,500 feet above sea level. The eastern edge is on the valley floor in the urban areas of Davis and Salt Lake counties where elevations are barely higher than the Great Salt Lake, and there are several mountain valleys with cropland, creek bottoms, and pastures. The higher mountains range from about 9,500 to more than 11,000 feet high and are steep and craggy with the higher reaches above timberline.

  • Roughly 2,177 square miles

  • 17% public land

  • Elevations range from 4,228 - 11,003 feet

Low elevations have croplands, grassy pastures and meadows, oak brush, juniper, Bigtooth Maple. Middle elevations have dense stands of scrub oak and scrub maple with aspen pockets and forests and some conifer-covered slopes, especially on north aspects. High elevations with higher peaks are mostly timber-free and covered by grass, lupine, snowberry and other low bushes. Below the timber line are typically steep, rocky slopes. The south slopes are drier and more open than the north slopes, which are usually densely forested with spruce, firs, and aspens.

Hunters easily can reach most of the public land in this area. Moffitt Peak and the mountains around it can be reached from the Mirror Lake Highway and gravel and dirt roads. The public slopes above Davis County are reached from Farmington Canyon, Skyline Drive above Bountiful and some trailheads, such as Mueller Park and Fernwood Recreation Site east of Layton. A former private ranch, the 14,000-acre Henefer-Echo Wildlife Management Area gets a great deal of hunting pressure even though it is restricted to foot and horse traffic. To reach East Canyon Wildlife Management Area, drive two-tenths of a mile past Mile Marker 4 on Highway 66 near Porterville and watch for signs. A lot of private ranches in Units 4, 5 and 6 are managed as or have joined Cooperative Wildlife Management Units, which get their own tags and seasons and are lightly hunted. Some of these are well-known for producing trophy-class bucks.

  • Four-wheel-drive recommended on dirt and gravel roads

  • ATVs and UTVs are necessary on some trails, but are not allowed in several areas

  • Getting permission to hunt private property in this region is pretty much a thing of the past

  • Hunters should be in excellent physical shape to hunt public areas effectively

Most hunters camp on public ground along dirt roads. Most Forest Service campgrounds are closed by the time rifle deer hunting begins. Lodging is available in Evanston, Wyoming, Coalville, Park City and urban areas in Davis and Salt Lake counties.

  • Year-round camping in East Canyon State Park

  • Condo rentals and timeshares in East Canyon Resort

  • Condo rentals and timeshares in Park City

  • Bountiful Peak campground east of Bountiful till Sept. 2

  • Sunset Campground in Farmington Canyon east of Farmington till Sept. 2

  • Unimproved camping at Whitney Reservoir

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