Hunt Area EH-01 Elkhorn (EH-01)

The core hunt: a migratory Elkhorn herd that summers in the high granite basins and winters on the east-face foothills and valley fringes. ODFW trimmed eastern Oregon deer tags about 9 percent for 2026 to match current buck ratios and population estimates, so treat this as an opportunity unit — most bucks taken are young, but the roadless crest basins and big burn edges still grow mature deer for hunters willing to climb.

• →Backpack in along the Elkhorn Crest Trail early in the season and glass the alpine basins off Rock Creek Butte and the crest at first light — the biggest bucks summer highest.
• →Hunt the edges of old burns and lodgepole/park transitions on the Sumpter and Granite side; visibility inside the lodgepole is terrible, so key on openings.
• →As October storms stack snow on the crest, shift to the mid-elevation east-face draws above Baker Valley and catch deer transitioning toward winter range.
• →Get away from the Elkhorn Drive byway and Hwy 7 corridors — road pressure is real; even a one-drainage hike shakes most of it.
• →Old Sumpter Unit 51 harvest statistics and intel still apply almost one-to-one — 93 percent of this hunt area is the legacy Sumpter hunt.

Northeast Oregon's expanding whitetails have pushed into Baker County along the Powder River and the brushy foothill and valley bottoms around Baker Valley — enough of a population that ODFW created dedicated whitetail hunts in this area for 2026. It's a localized, ag-and-river-bottom hunt, not a mountain hunt.

• →Concentrate on cottonwood-willow bottoms and brushy creek corridors along the Powder River and Baker Valley fringes — whitetails here live in the brush and feed on ag ground at night.
• →Most of the good whitetail habitat is private: knock on doors early, or look for Access & Habitat properties in the Baker District.
• →Hunt evenings on field edges and mornings on the timbered transition back to bedding brush; a stand or ground blind beats covering country.
• →Know exactly which deer tag you're carrying — 2026 splits mule deer and whitetail hunts in this area — and be sure of your target in the foothill zones where both species mix.

The Elkhorns carry a substantial elk herd — ODFW winter-feeds roughly 1,400 elk at the Elkhorn Wildlife Area's feed sites along the east face to keep them off valley agriculture. Note that in 2026 only deer hunts moved to the new hunt areas; elk hunts still run on the legacy Sumpter WMU boundary.

• →September bulls are vocal in the subalpine basins and north-slope timber below the crest — hunt high before pressure and weather push them.
• →Still-hunt the dark grand-fir and lodgepole north slopes on the Sumpter/Granite side once shooting pressure starts; elk here hole up in the thick stuff by day.
• →Late in the fall, elk stage toward the east-face winter range — respect the Elkhorn Wildlife Area boundary and its December 1 closure.
• →Scout wallows and springs on the benches between 6,000 and 7,500 feet during archery season.

The Blue Mountains around Baker hold good black bear numbers, and the legacy Sumpter unit supports both fall opportunity and spring controlled bear hunts. Most bears are taken incidentally by deer and elk hunters, but a targeted early-fall berry-patch hunt is genuinely productive here.

• →Glass old burns and open huckleberry/elderberry slopes at dawn and dusk in late summer and early fall while bears are on berries.
• →Work the creek bottoms and hawthorn draws off the Burnt River and Powder River tributaries where soft mast concentrates.
• →Carry a bear tag during deer season — fresh-cut clearings and gut piles pull bears into the open.
• →Fresh early-season sign (torn logs, scat on skid roads) is worth sitting over; bears pattern tightly on food this time of year.