This unit is located in the northwest corner of Wyoming between Cody and Yellowstone National Park, south of the Northfork of the Shoshone River. There is a lot of Wilderness Area in this unit, which is not nonresident friendly. However, if you are willing to put some miles on your feet, you can get into some decent bear country.

There are grizzlies in this unit, so make sure you know for sure if the bear you are looking at is a black bear.

This is some very rugged and unforgiving country in this unit. The mountains might not all tower over 12,000 feet, but they are steep and rocky. If you aren’t paying attention to your map or GPS, you can get cliffed out very easy. There have been a lot of fires in this unit going back as far as 1988. Because of these fires and a large amount of beetle killed trees, there is a lot of deadfall. This makes traveling in this country difficult but also makes for some great bear habitat.

Wilderness

Under Wyoming law nonresidents are not permitted to hunt big game or trophy game in any federally designated wilderness areas without the presence of a licensed guide or resident companion. The resident companion must first get a free non-commercial guide license from a Game and Fish office. The law does not prohibit nonresidents from hiking, fishing or hunting game birds, small game, or coyotes in wilderness areas.

This whole unit is located on National Forest land. Hunters are still going to see a lot of sagebrush in the mountains. The majority of the trees in this unit are lodgepole pine, as well as small patches of aspens and white pines. Along the rivers, streams, and around some lakes, you are going to find a lot of willows and dense brush. There are a lot of burns in the unit as well. In the Sunlight/Crandall area of this unit, you can still see the aftermath of the huge fire from 1988 that burned most of Yellowstone and the surrounding areas. In these burns, there is a lot of deadfall which can be a pain to hike in, but can be outstanding feeding areas for bears.

There is really only one thing that will limit the amount of land a nonresident can hunt in this unit, and that is the designated Wilderness Areas. There is a lot of Wilderness Area in this unit, but do not let that deter you, there are a few good places to hunt outside of these areas. This unit can be broken down into two different sections, the Northfork and the Southfork. The Northfork portion of this unit is south of Highway 14/16, between the road and the Wilderness boundary. The Southfork portion of this unit covers both the north and south side of the South Fork Road. One thing to be cautious of, however, is the further you travel up the South Fork Road, the closer the Wilderness Area boundary gets to the road, like a funnel. There is not really any road access into the mountains off the two main roads, just hiking/horse trails. Because of this, not many people hunt this unit for bears. If you are willing to hike in to a spot, this could be a backcountry hunter’s dream.

If you are hunting in this unit, Cody is really the only town nearby with accommodations and provisions that can be accessed year-round. You can base out of Cody and day hunt anywhere in this unit and be back at a reasonable hour. There are not any established campgrounds up the Southfork, but there are quite a few trailheads for horseback riding that you can camp at. There are some established campgrounds up the Northfork, as well as quite a few places to stay in Cody.