GMU 245 Chiwawa

The headline hunt. Along with the Mission GMU, Chiwawa consistently produces the highest black bear harvest in Chelan County, with excellent opportunity throughout the season around Lake Wenatchee and in the drainages running east-to-west off Chumstick Creek. The wet western timber and berry-rich burns support strong bear numbers.

• →Glass avalanche chutes, old clearcuts, and berry-laden burn regrowth (huckleberry, serviceberry) in the Chiwawa and White River drainages at first and last light.
• →Work the east-west drainages off Chumstick Creek and the brushy benches around Lake Wenatchee, where WDFW specifically flags bear opportunity.
• →Hunt the wetter, timbered upper drainages early in the season on ripe berry feed, then key on green forage after fall rains.
• →Spot-and-stalk off high glassing knobs — the open burns give you a chance to see a bear before it winds you in the thick timber.

A fair-to-solid mule deer unit but a migratory one: most deer summer high in the Glacier Peak Wilderness and move seasonally toward the Columbia breaks, with only a small resident population in the Wenatchee River and Chumstick valleys. Modern-firearm success is modest (~7%) against heavy hunter numbers because bucks often stay high until after the general season; the 2024 antlered harvest still skewed toward mature deer (4- and 5-point bucks). Best results come from getting away from roads.

• →Hunt roadless and lightly-pressured pockets — WDFW notes the best success comes from areas without roads and pressure.
• →Early in the general season, work high timbered summer range near the wilderness boundary and the Slide Ridge (GMU 246) divide before deer have moved.
• →Late season, glass south-facing slopes near the snow line where bucks congregate as snow pushes them down.
• →Use the old-logging-road network to reach mid-elevation transition zones, then still-hunt and glass rather than road-hunting the crowded mainlines.

Cougars occupy the timbered drainages throughout the unit wherever deer are present. Most are taken opportunistically by deer and bear hunters; deliberate cougar hunting is a late-season snow-tracking pursuit.

• →Hunt fresh snow to cut and follow tracks along ridgelines and drainage bottoms.
• →Concentrate where deer winter and transition, since cats follow the prey.
• →Glass rocky rims and breaks along the Entiat Mountains side where cougars travel and bed.

Elk in GMUs 245-250 occur only at low densities in small, dispersed bands, and success is extremely low. A few elk use the Lake Wenatchee area, but this is not a unit to plan an elk hunt around.

• →Treat any elk as an opportunistic encounter while deer or bear hunting.
• →If pursuing them, work isolated timber pockets near the Lake Wenatchee basin and expect long odds.

Mountain goats inhabit the high, rocky wilderness country along the Glacier Peak / Henry M. Jackson boundary and the Entiat Mountains crest. Any goat hunting in Washington is a once-in-a-lifetime, draw-only permit in tightly defined hunt areas — not a general opportunity — and physically demanding backcountry work.

• →Permit-only: this is not a hunt you can plan around without drawing a mountain goat tag and completing WDFW's required gender-identification training.
• →If drawn, glass cliff bands, subalpine basins, and rocky ridgelines in the high wilderness country; plan for foot/horse access and multi-day backcountry logistics.