Hunt Area NB-01 North Blues (NB-01)

The primary game: a Blue Mountains mule deer population now managed as part of ODFW's North Blues herd range. Numbers are below historic levels — the whole 2026 herd-range redesign exists to manage these declining plateau-and-Blues herds more precisely — so expect a workmanlike hunt with good bucks available for hunters who get away from roads. Deer summer high in the forest and shift toward the canyon and ag fringe as weather hardens.

• →Hunt the forest-grass edge: benches and canyon heads where Umatilla NF timber breaks into bunchgrass above McKay and Birch creeks hold the most consistent deer.
• →The roaded forest core gets hammered near open roads — walk a ridge system beyond the first gate or saddle and glass small interior parks.
• →Early season, hunt high and shaded north slopes near water; after the first cold snaps, drop to the mid-elevation breaks as deer stage toward winter range.
• →Evenings, glass private-edge wheat and CRP from public or permission ground — deer pour out of the timbered draws onto green feed at last light.

White-tailed deer live in the brushy creek bottoms and ag edges on the low side of the area — the McKay and Birch creek drainages and the Umatilla River fringe near Pendleton — and ODFW now runs separate whitetail opportunities in the northeast. Be honest about numbers: Umatilla County whitetails have been knocked back by hemorrhagic-disease outbreaks, so densities are modest and localized.

• →Focus on hawthorn-willow creek bottoms and field edges, mostly private — this is a permission hunt.
• →Still-hunt or stand-hunt travel corridors between bedding brush and evening feed fields, classic whitetail style.
• →Confirm species identification carefully where whitetail and mule deer ranges overlap on the breaks.

The Umatilla National Forest supports one of the largest Rocky Mountain elk herds on any national forest in the country, and the Blues southeast of Pendleton are core elk country — expect to find elk (and elk hunters) throughout the timber and canyon heads. For a deer hunter, elk sign is everywhere; for elk hunting itself, this is well-established, pressured but productive ground.

• →Elk here rotate hard off pressure — hunt dark timber pockets and roadless canyon heads two ridges off the mainlines.
• →Glass the big grass canyons at dawn; bands feed on open slopes and bed in stringer timber.
• →Late in the fall, elk drift toward lower foothill winter range on the private fringe — hunt the last public timber above it.

Black bears are common through the north Blues forest, and berry-rich canyon heads and old burns make this legitimate bear country in both spring and fall. Most fall bears here are taken incidentally by deer and elk hunters.

• →Glass canyon-head berry patches and moist creek headers morning and evening in early fall.
• →Carry a bear tag on every deer hunt — incidental opportunities are real in this unit.