Unit 56 is a big unit with wilderness land making up the western portion, while BLM and private lands, make up the eastern half. With this being such a big unit, there is still plenty of areas to hunt for the nonresident who doesn't want to invest in an outfitter. This area is filled with rugged terrain and grizzly bear encounters are a real possibility.

This can be an average hunt, but access into high country can be challenging and a nonresident will need a guide for some areas. General season hunting can be good with some early winter weather for a guided nonresident that can get into rougher country.

The western portion of the unit is within the Washakie and North Absaroka Wilderness area and has a lot of rugged and steep rocky drainages, with heavily-timbered slopes and open grassy hillsides. The eastern portion and lower elevations have rolling sagebrush and grasslands.

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.

Upper elevations above timberline have rocky faces with grass patches. Mid-elevations are heavily timbered with subalpine fir, Douglas fir, lodgepole pine, whitebark pine and limber pine. Lower elevations have a mixture of rolling sage, grasslands and pine pockets. Creek and river bottoms are covered in willow, shrub, grass, forb, sedges and timber pockets.

Roads running south off of Highway 20 can serve as a jump off point into the backcountry on the south side of the unit. Those roads include the White Creek Road, Breteche Creek Road and Green Creek Road. Going north off of Highway 20, the 6B road runs near the boundary of the unit and can give hunters some access. The South Fork Road out of Cody, and headed southwest also has a few roads running back to the northwest into Unit 56. A good map and GPS with land ownership layers is recommended.

Cody is the closest town and has several hotels, campgrounds, gas stations, markets, restaurants and bars. Camping is allowed on public land. Archery and general season elk hunting is usually horseback or backpack-style hunting in the rougher country and around the wilderness areas.