Unit 2A

Pemada Canyon Arch, Burro Spring Bridge, and the scattered pinnacles—Lion Rock, Bonnie Rock, Molar Rock—serve as helpful navigation references across the open flats. The Badlands area provides distinctive badland topography useful for orientation. Named canyons form the unit's drainage structure: Hutch Canyon, Chokecherry Canyon, Middle Jones Canyon, and Ruins Canyon offer natural travel corridors and glassing country.

Twin Mounds, Hart Mountain, and Mount Nebo provide slight elevation for scanning the surrounding plateau. Williams Arroyo and the various washes create terrain features worth noting for route planning and understanding water flow patterns.

Terrain rises gradually from roughly 5,000 feet along the river valleys to 7,200 feet on the higher mesas, creating a gentle plateau rather than dramatic escarpment. The landscape is predominantly open grassland and sagebrush flats interspersed with low piñon-juniper growth on slight ridges and benches. Scattered mesas—Bushelberger, Conger, Bald, and Pinon—stand as landmarks across the tablelands, breaking up otherwise rolling country.

At lower elevations near the rivers, riparian cottonwood draws and tamarisk-choked bottoms provide cover and staging areas. The sparse forest coverage means exposed terrain dominates; hunters will find little in the way of thick timber.

The unit benefits from extensive road infrastructure—over 1,600 miles of road across the GMU means most terrain is reachable by vehicle. County roads and ranch roads crisscross the plateau, providing numerous entry points and reducing the difficulty of getting into the country. This high connectivity means relatively light physical pressure but also easy access for casual hunters, making timing and scouting key to finding undisturbed animals.

The straightforward, low-complexity terrain (2.6/10) means navigation is simple; hunters can cover ground quickly without route-finding challenges. The network of towns and services immediately adjacent to the unit makes logistics straightforward.

Unit 2A encompasses the western portion of GMU 2, bounded on the east by the Los Pinos River (the Pine Arm of Navajo Reservoir) and on the south by the San Juan River. The unit sprawls across the high-desert plateau country between Farmington and Aztec, with established access through a network of ranch roads and county infrastructure. This is developed agricultural land with substantial private holdings mixed throughout, though public access corridors and BLM parcels remain available for hunting.

The surrounding towns—Farmington, Aztec, Bloomfield, and Fruitland—provide immediate staging areas and resupply opportunities.

The San Juan River forms the southern boundary and represents the most reliable perennial water source, though much of it runs through developed areas. The Los Pinos River drains the unit's eastern border. Beyond these major watercourses, the landscape relies heavily on developed water infrastructure: numerous ditches (Helton, Citizens, Willett, Jewett Valley, Jackson, Independent, Terrell, Star, Graves Atterberry, Greenhorn), multiple tanks and reservoirs (Wallace, City, Wyper, Coach, Talley, King, Flora Vista tanks, plus Youngs Lake), and scattered springs (Mine Pit, West Water, Brown, Knight, Barrel, Coyote, Decker, High Hopes). Hunters must plan around these engineered sources rather than relying on natural surface water.

This unit supports elk, mule deer, and white-tailed deer across the elevation gradient, with pronghorn in the more open, exposed flats. Mountain and desert sheep inhabit the mesas and higher plateaus, though numbers are limited. Barbary sheep, ibex, and oryx represent exotic big game opportunities for specialized tags.

Javelina frequent riparian draws and lower canyon systems. Early season hunting targets higher-elevation mesas where piñon-juniper provides thermal cover. Rut hunting focuses on canyon systems and draws where animals concentrate.

Late season rewards hunters who pressure water sources and canyon bottoms where deer and elk seek vegetation and security. The flat, exposed terrain demands glassing strategies; the lack of dense forest means spotting distant animals becomes critical. Plan water carefully around developed sources rather than expecting natural flowing creeks.