Deer Area 1009 East Wenaha

Blue Mountains herd elk (about 4,300 in WDFW's 2025 survey, still below pre-2017 levels) at densities that have stayed low in GMU 169 for 35 years — but managed hard for quality, with branched bulls allocated through one of the state's toughest draws. The East Wenaha is the definition of earn-it trophy hunting: fewer hunters, more country, and mature bulls that live and die in wilderness. Note that elk surveyed along the Wenaha and Grande Ronde winter on shared range with Oregon, so late-fall distribution shifts toward the state line.

• →Set a stock camp in the interior — Smooth Ridge and the Crooked Creek headwaters country — and glass rim-to-rim at first and last light; day-hunting from the trailheads wastes a Wenaha tag.
• →Expect bulls on open bunchgrass faces early, then on north-aspect mid-slope timber benches within a day of any pressure — WDFW's own research on Blues bulls says that's where they go.
• →In September, still-hunt and call across the burn mosaic where regrowth feed concentrates elk; bugling peaks mid-month.
• →Approaching from Troy, Oregon up the Wenaha/Crooked Creek corridor puts you under elk that drift toward winter range as storms arrive — a strong late-hunt play.
• →Line up stock or a packer before the season: a bull down in a Crooked Creek bottom is days of work on foot, and wilderness rules bar game carts.
• →Contact the WDFW District 3 biologists after drawing — they actively help Wenaha permit holders with where elk are running.

Low-density mountain mule deer — WDFW notes mountain populations in the district continue to show poor harvest metrics, and GMU 169 posts some of District 3's lowest general-season success. The East Wenaha deer permits are a very limited mid-November hunt timed to the rut, with more country per hunter than anywhere else in the Washington Blues.

• →Hunt the November rut from glassing points on the ridge systems south of Oregon Butte and along Smooth Ridge — cruising bucks show in daylight where they never do in October.
• →Let snow work for you: fresh accumulation pushes deer off the plateau toward mid-elevation ridges and makes tracking realistic.
• →Burn edges and regrowth pockets are the feed — glass the seams between snags and live timber rather than uniform old growth.
• →Cover country with optics, not boots; densities are too low for still-hunting to pay in a short permit window.

White-tailed deer occur throughout District 3 and drift into the lower canyon bottoms and brushy state-line draws of the East Wenaha, but they are a small minority in this high wilderness block. Consider them incidental to a mule-deer-focused hunt.

• →Look for whitetails only in the lowest country — Crooked Creek and Butte Creek bottoms and the draws dropping toward the Wenaha River.
• →Still-hunt brushy creek terraces at gray light; the open ridges above belong to mule deer.

The Blues carry one of Washington's densest black bear populations — WDFW's 2021 DNA work estimated about 32 bears per 100 square kilometers in the district — and the roadless East Wenaha lets bears grow old. Most are taken opportunistically by packed-in deer and elk hunters; cinnamon-phase bears are typical.

• →Glass fire-regrowth berry patches on open slopes in early fall — the 2015 burn country is a natural bear draw.
• →Carry a bear tag on September elk trips; you will likely see bears while glassing for elk.
• →Work canyon-bottom hawthorn and elderberry thickets late in the day before the weather turns.