Unit 7 Book Cliffs

The signature hunt. Managed as a premium limited-entry buck unit, the Book Cliffs grows mature, heavy bucks with real 180-inch potential and occasional larger — a hard-to-draw tag that concentrates age class. Densities are lower than the western general units, so this is a quality-over-quantity trophy grind.

• →Glass the aspen pockets, mountain-brush stringers and north-facing benches off the high plateau tops at first and last light
• →Focus on water — springs, seeps and creek heads pull deer in the dry country
• →Hunt the transition ridges between pinyon-juniper and the aspen/fir break where mature bucks bed for security
• →Invest days scouting the roadless core; the best bucks live where the trucks can't go
• →Time effort toward the rut when big bucks travel and drop their guard

A limited-entry bull unit producing quality, mature Rocky Mountain bulls across the plateau timber and canyon country. Sharing the same remote, lightly pressured terrain as the deer, elk here reward the hunter who can get away from roads and find undisturbed herds.

• →Work the aspen/conifer benches and canyon heads on the high Tavaputs country during the rut for bugling bulls
• →Set up on saddles and creek-bottom travel corridors between bedding timber and feed
• →Glass big broken canyon systems at dawn and hunt into the wind toward the sound of raking and bugles
• →Push deeper than the crowd — mature bulls hold in the roadless drainages

Rocky Mountain bighorns, reintroduced on the adjacent Ute reservation in the 1970s, have spread throughout the Book Cliffs cliff systems and range east to the Colorado line, even crossing the Green River on winter ice. A once-in-a-lifetime tag on the escarpment's rugged rimrock.

• →Focus on the steep cliff bands and rimrock of the Book and Roan Cliffs and the Winter Ridge country
• →Spend days behind quality glass locating and aging rams in escape terrain
• →Work the canyon rims and broken breaks above the desert where sheep feed off the crags morning and evening

Pronghorn inhabit the open desert flats and sage benches on the lower and western portions of the unit, a limited-entry opportunity across big, dry country.

• →Glass the open sage and desert benches and use terrain folds to close distance across treeless flats
• →Watch water sources and green feed in a landscape where both are scarce

Black bears use the aspen, oakbrush and creek-bottom timber of the plateau country, with good berry and mast years concentrating them. A limited-entry bear unit within Utah's premier eastern range.

• →Hunt oakbrush, chokecherry and serviceberry benches during fall feed-up
• →Watch creek bottoms and spring-fed green pockets on the plateau edges
• →Glass avalanche-style openings and burns for feeding bears at first and last light

Mountain lions follow the strong deer and elk herds through the canyon and cliff country. The broken, prey-rich terrain supports a healthy cougar population.

• →Cut fresh tracks on canyon-rim roads and in creek-bottom mud after a snow
• →Focus on deer-wintering benches and the rimrock breaks where cats travel and ambush