Unit 109 Utah Lake Extended Archery Area
Urban-interface archery-only deer hunting on the benches and foothills ringing Utah Lake
Wasatch Front — Utah Valley · Last reviewed 2026-07-12
Area
341
sq mi
Public land
30%
approx.
Elevation
4,490–7,000
feet
Motorized
moderate
access
Overview
The Utah Lake Extended Archery Area is not a wilderness unit but an urban-and-suburban deer-management hunt wrapped around Utah Valley — the benches, foothills, canyon mouths, and lake margins from American Fork Canyon south to Hobble Creek, spanning the Wasatch Front cities of Lehi, American Fork, Orem, Provo, Springville, and Spanish Fork. It exists to manage the abundant deer that live in and among the neighborhoods, orchards, and foothills below the Wasatch, and it is archery-equipment-only. Hunters carrying an unfilled archery buck tag or the dedicated extended-archery permit get a long fall season here, but the challenge is access and safety in a densely developed landscape, not finding deer.
Terrain
Utah Lake's flat shoreline and valley floor rising abruptly through developed foothills and benches into the steep lower canyons and front of the Wasatch Range.
Cover: Lakeshore wetlands and phragmites along Utah Lake, irrigated fields and orchards on the valley floor, oakbrush and maple on the foothills and benches, with scrub oak and Gambel oak giving way to conifer in the higher canyon mouths.
Landmarks: Utah Lake · Mount Timpanogos · American Fork Canyon · Provo Canyon · Hobble Creek Canyon · Wasatch Front benches
Access
This is a heavily developed urban-interface area — much of the deer habitat sits on or beside private residential, orchard, and agricultural land where written landowner permission is essential. Genuinely huntable open ground is concentrated in the foothill benches, city open-space/watershed parcels, and the lower Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest in the canyon mouths. Local no-shooting ordinances, safety zones around dwellings, and closed municipal watershed apply — verify every parcel and rule before drawing a bow.
Managers: private, USFS Uinta-Wasatch-Cache NF, municipal/city, SITLA
Access points: American Fork Canyon (SR-92) · Provo Canyon (US-189) · Hobble Creek Canyon · foothill trailheads above Orem, Provo, and Springville · Utah Lake shoreline access points
Species notes
Mule Deer
abundant opportunityMule deer are abundant across the urban interface — they winter and live year-round in the orchards, benches, and foothills, and the extended archery season targets this surplus. Deer are plentiful and some mature bucks live in the safety of developed pockets, but hunting is archery-only and dominated by access and safety constraints rather than animal scarcity.
- →Hunt the oakbrush foothill benches at the wildland–urban edge during the long fall season
- →Focus on legal open-space and foothill parcels above the cities, and lock down private permission early
- →Work canyon-mouth cover on the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache NF for less-pressured deer
- →Use spot-and-stalk and ambush setups on bench travel routes between bedding and orchard/field feed
- →Take advantage of the extended timeframe to pattern individual bucks over weeks
Rocky Mountain Elk
transient opportunityElk occasionally drop out of the high Wasatch into the upper canyon mouths within the area, but they are incidental here — the hunt is fundamentally a deer program.
- →Check the highest canyon-mouth cover early and late in the season
- →Treat any elk encounter as a bonus, not a plan
Pro tips
- →Access is the whole game — secure written private-land permission and identify legal open-space and national-forest parcels before the opener
- →Complete the required Archery Ethics Course and carry your certificate; it is mandatory for extended-archery areas
- →Know and obey city no-discharge ordinances and dwelling safety zones — the urban setting means zero tolerance for careless shots
- →The long season lets you pattern specific bench bucks over weeks — patience and repeat scouting pay off
- →Late-season cold pushes deer lower onto the foothills and into the valley, improving your odds on legal ground
Watch out for
- !Predominantly private and residential land — trespass and permission issues are the number-one obstacle
- !Municipal no-shooting ordinances, safety zones, and closed watershed within the area
- !Mandatory annual Archery Ethics Course certificate
- !High human presence, roads, and dwellings demand extreme shot discipline and target identification
Logistics
Full urban services everywhere — this is metropolitan Utah Valley, so lodging, gear, and food are never far. The logistical work is legal and social, not remote-camp: mapping which parcels are huntable, securing landowner permission, and knowing city discharge ordinances and forest boundaries. Most hunters run this as evening-and-weekend hunts from home.
Nearest towns: Provo, Orem, Lehi, American Fork, Springville, Spanish Fork
Seasons & regulations
This page carries no season dates or regulations. Get current rules from the official Utah sources:
Research sources: UDWR Extended Archery Hunt Information · UDWR Utah Hunt Planner — Extended Archery Deer boundary (DB0008) · UDWR news — Wasatch Front / Utah Lake extended archery boundary expansion
FAQ
- How big is Unit 109 in Utah?
- Unit 109 (Utah Lake Extended Archery Area) covers about 341 square miles, ranging from roughly 4,490 to 7,000 feet in elevation. Area is computed from the unit boundary polygon.
- How much public land is in Unit 109?
- Approximately 30% of the unit is public land. Primary managers: private, USFS Uinta-Wasatch-Cache NF, municipal/city, SITLA. Always verify ownership boundaries on the ground.
- What species does the catalog list for Unit 109?
- Mule Deer, Rocky Mountain Elk. For seasons, tags, and regulations, use the official Utah agency resources linked on this page — this page carries no regulatory information.
Put Unit 109 on your map.
Boundary lines, public/private ownership, topo, and offline maps for this unit — in Baseline Maps, free for 14 days.