Unit 35A

The Cave Hills complex—particularly South and North Cave Hills—form the dominant ridgeline system useful for navigation and glassing. Battle Ridge and Saddle Butte offer high points for orientation and spotting. Harding Peak and Red Butte serve as recognizable landmarks.

Riley Spring and Craig Pass Spring are notable water sources worth noting. The string of small reservoirs—Leger Dam, Davis Reservoir, Cundy, Kemp, and Dry Creek—mark reliable water locations scattered across the unit. Timber Canyon and the various draws (Sheep Draw, Smith Draw) provide drainage corridors and navigation features in otherwise open country.

Castle Rock and The Jumpoff offer visual references for orientation.

Elevations range from 2,800 to just over 4,000 feet, with most terrain sitting in the 3,100-foot range. The overwhelming majority is open grassland and prairie—97 percent of the unit lacks forest cover. Scattered buttes, ridges, and drainage systems break the monotony and provide the only significant elevation changes.

Ponderosa pine appears sparingly along ridge crests and north-facing draws, concentrated enough to provide thermal cover but not dominating the landscape. Grass dominates the matrix; hunters should expect wide-open sagebrush and grassland interrupted by occasional juniper or pine pockets in the high spots and shaded draws.

Road density is sparse at 0.48 miles per square mile—roughly half the density of typical rural areas—creating genuine access challenges. Most roads are ranch access or local county routes; major highways total only 77 miles. Nearly 78 percent of the unit is private land, funneling hunters onto limited public parcels and creating access bottlenecks.

Towns like Camp Crook, Harding, and Ladner serve as staging points, but distance between them and actual hunting areas is substantial. The sparse road network means less pressure overall but also means fewer options for hunters. Early scouting and understanding public-private boundaries is critical; misnavigation easily puts hunters on posted ground.

Unit 35A occupies roughly 1,350 square miles of northwest South Dakota, spanning the high plains between Camp Crook and Harding as major reference points. The landscape is defined by the Cave Hills complex—North, South, East, and West branches—which form the primary topographic features. Short Pine Hills provide additional relief to the south and east.

This is remote country well away from major population centers, characterized by ranching culture and significant private land holdings. The unit sits at moderate elevation for the Great Plains, creating a transitional zone between lower prairie and higher mountain country to the west.

Water is genuinely limited and scattered across this unit. Small reservoirs—Cundy, Kemp, Leger, Davis, and several others—provide reliable sources but are spaced far apart. Spring locations including Riley, Craig Pass, Cox, and Buffalo Springs supplement reservoir water but require knowledge of their reliability.

Major drainages include Smith Creek, Ebert Creek, Jerry Creek, and Scott Creek, though these flow seasonally or intermittently. Hunters must plan water access carefully; traveling between water sources could mean long stretches of dry country. Carrying water or hunting near known reservoirs and springs is essential, particularly during warm months when stock tanks may be unreliable.

Unit 35A holds elk in the open grassland and scattered timber pockets, taking advantage of the broken terrain and available water. Early season favors glassing the buttes and ridges—Saddle Butte, Battle Ridge, Harding Peak—for bulls bedding in the few ponderosa pine patches or moving between water sources. Drainage systems like Timber Canyon and the various named draws concentrate elk, particularly during thermal periods.

Mid-season rut activity pushes bulls into more open terrain, making ridge-top travel and glassing from high points effective. Late season concentrates elk near reliable water—reservoirs and springs become focal points. Elk in this country are spread thin across vast grassland; patience, good optics, and persistent glassing from high points trumps aggressive hiking.

Water knowledge and access strategy matter more than terrain difficulty.