Colorado Black Bear Hunting Guide

Colorado is quietly one of the best black bear states in the country. With an estimated population exceeding 50,000 bears — the largest in the lower 48 — the state offers volume, accessibility, and genuine trophy potential that’s hard to match anywhere else in the contiguous United States. You can buy a bear license over the counter and be hunting public land the next morning. That kind of opportunity doesn’t exist for elk or mule deer, and hunters who overlook Colorado’s bear seasons are leaving tags on the table.

Quick Facts: Colorado Black Bear

Detail	Info
Estimated Population	50,000+ bears (largest in lower 48)
OTC Fall Tag	Available with combo license — no draw required
Spring Season	Limited license, draws only
Fall OTC Season	Sept 2 – Nov 18 (archery: late Aug – late Sept)
License Cost (Resident)	Combo license ~$58 + bear license ~$41
License Cost (Nonresident)	Hunting license ~$56 + bear license ~$317
Draw Requirement	Fall OTC: none · Spring and limited rifle: draw required
No-Bait Rule	Baiting black bears is illegal in Colorado
Color Phases	Black and cinnamon both common
Primary Agency	Colorado Parks and Wildlife (cpw.state.co.us)

Disclaimer: Dates, fees, and regulations listed here were accurate as of early 2026. Colorado Parks and Wildlife updates these annually. Confirm current rules at cpw.state.co.us before you buy a license or head into the field.

How Colorado’s Bear Tag System Works

Colorado’s fall black bear season is one of the most hunter-friendly setups in the West. When you purchase a combination license — which covers deer and elk — you can add a bear license on top of it for a modest additional fee. No draw, no preference points, no waiting. You can apply for a bear tag at the same time you buy your other licenses, or add it mid-season if an opportunity presents itself.

The fall OTC season typically opens in early September and runs into mid-November, overlapping with archery elk and rifle deer seasons. Many hunters chase elk first and keep a bear license in their pocket for any bears they encounter during the course of a hunt. That dual-purpose approach makes Colorado bear hunting especially attractive — you’re not burning a separate trip just for bears.

The spring bear season operates differently. Spring tags are limited licenses issued through the draw, available in select units during May and June. Bears fresh out of hibernation are predictable and visible in lower-elevation terrain, making spring the best time to target a specific trophy-class boar.

For hunters interested in draw-tag bear units, the ProHunt Draw Odds Engine gives you a current read on tag availability and realistic odds year to year.

Top Units and Regions

Colorado’s bear population is concentrated on the Western Slope and in the major mountain drainages that funnel food sources from high alpine country down to mid-elevation brush zones.

Western Slope — GMUs 21, 22, 23, 24

The western slope of the Rockies is Colorado bear country in the truest sense. Units 21 through 24 span from the Flat Tops Wilderness south through the Gunnison and Uncompahgre drainages. Oak brush dominates the mid-elevation transition zones here — 7,000 to 9,000 feet — and when the Gambel oak produces a heavy mast crop, bears pile into these drainages in October like they’re being paid to be there.

Access is generally good. Numerous Forest Service roads and trailheads push into quality bear habitat, and the country is open enough for glassing from ridgelines without requiring a full backcountry expedition.

San Juan Mountains

The San Juans hold a dense bear population year-round and offer some of the most dramatic terrain in the state. Hunting here is harder — steeper, more timbered, and with longer pack-out distances — but the bears tend to be bigger. The combination of remote canyon systems and abundant berry production makes the San Juans a consistent producer of heavy-bodied bears in the 300–400 pound range.

North Park

North Park is an overlooked bear destination. The park itself is open grassland, but the Medicine Bow and Park Ranges that surround it hold strong bear numbers with noticeably less pressure than the Western Slope.

Gunnison Basin

The Gunnison Basin sits at the heart of Colorado bear country. Sage, aspen, and oak brush create a diverse food mosaic that holds bears throughout the fall. High elk and deer pressure here also means good road access — a practical consideration for packing out meat.

Use the Hunt Unit Finder to map unit boundaries against public land access before committing to a specific area.

Finding Bears: Glassing and Sign Reading

Colorado’s bears are not nocturnal by nature — they’re crepuscular and often diurnal in fall, driven by the need to pack on calories before denning. That biology works in your favor. September is the most productive month to hunt bears by sight, and the approach is more similar to elk hunting than most people expect.

Work the Food Sources

Bears in September are in hyperphagia — they’re eating nearly 20,000 calories per day in preparation for winter. The food sources that concentrate bears in Colorado are:

• Berry patches — Serviceberry, chokecherry, and huckleberry ripen first and draw bears from miles away. Find drainages with thick berry growth on north-facing slopes and watch them from across the canyon at first and last light.
• Oak brush — Gambel oak acorn production is the single biggest driver of where bears end up in October. A bumper acorn crop will pull bears out of every drainage for miles. A poor mast year pushes them onto lower-elevation crops and garbage, making hunting harder.
• Aspen groves — Not a primary food source, but bears use aspen stands as travel corridors between berry patches and oak brush. Trails through aspen draws often show heavy bear traffic.

Reading Sign

Glass from a distance first, but once you’re in the drainage, work the sign to confirm what you’re dealing with. Colorado bear sign is typically easy to find in good habitat:

• Scat — Berry-filled scat in September is a reliable indicator of active bears. Fresh scat (shiny, moist) means bears are working the area within the last 24–48 hours.
• Claw marks on trees — Bears mark trees by clawing and biting. Fresh marks show bright, pale wood. Old marks are weathered and gray.
• Rolled rocks — Bears flip rocks and logs looking for ants and grubs. A hillside with a dozen recently rolled rocks tells you a bear was working that slope.
• Hair on wire fences — Fence crossings are reliable sign locations. Short, coarse hair snagged on barbed wire is easy to spot.

Spot-and-Stalk vs. Two-Person Hunting

Solo spot-and-stalk is effective in Colorado’s open terrain. Glass from a high vantage, locate a bear in a berry patch or on an oak brush hillside, then plan a stalk based on wind and cover. The challenge is that bears move fast and disappear into timber without warning.

Two-person hunting adds real efficiency. One hunter glasses and directs while the second moves into position. A second set of eyes on the bear from above can mean the difference between a clean stalk and bumping it into the timber — let the better shot make the move while the other stays high and communicates.

Baiting: What Colorado Law Actually Says

Baiting black bears is illegal in Colorado. No bait piles, no food attractants, no scent dispensers placed to draw bears to a location for hunting. If you’re coming from a state where baiting is legal — Wyoming, Utah, and others allow it — understand that the rules are different here. Colorado is a spot-and-stalk state for bears, and that’s part of what makes the hunt legitimate and satisfying.

Field Judging Colorado Black Bears

The mistake most first-time bear hunters make is misjudging size. Bears look enormous standing alone in a berry patch, but the reference points are different from deer or elk.

The Hide Measurement

Hunters often talk about measuring a bear’s hide — the hide measurement is the front-to-back length plus the side-to-side width, divided by two. A 5-foot bear (60-inch measurement) is a solid trophy. A 6-foot bear is exceptional. Most hunters overestimate by 20–30 percent when judging a live bear in the field.

Key Field Judging Markers

• Head size relative to body — On a small bear, the head looks oversized and disproportionate. On a mature boar, the body has filled out and the head looks small by comparison.
• Leg length — Young bears look leggy and upright. A mature, heavy bear looks low-slung, with its belly close to the ground.
• Body mass from behind — A large boar viewed from behind looks square and broad across the hips. A smaller bear has a more tapered, triangular profile.

Sows with cubs are a protected category — take the time to confirm you’re not looking at a family group before you commit to a shot.

Color Phases in Colorado

Unlike states where black bears are almost exclusively black, Colorado has a significant cinnamon-phase population. In some Western Slope units, cinnamon bears may outnumber true black bears. The cinnamon coloration ranges from a light tan or honey color to a deep reddish-brown. Brown-phase bears that could be confused with grizzlies do not exist in Colorado — there are no confirmed grizzly bears in the state.

After the Shot: Meat and Cape Care

Black bear meat is excellent table fare when handled correctly. The key is cooling the carcass fast. In September, ambient temperatures in Colorado can still reach the 70s and 80s during the day. You need to skin the bear and get the meat into a cooler or cool shade quickly.

Caping for a Rug or Mount

If you plan to have the hide tanned for a rug or mount, cape it from the back legs forward, leaving as much hide on the skull as possible. Bear skulls require careful caping around the eyes, lips, and ears — if you’re not experienced with bear capes, let your taxidermist handle the skull work. Salt the hide heavily on the flesh side and roll it fur-in for transport.

Meat Yield and Quality

A 200-pound live-weight bear will yield roughly 60–80 pounds of boneless meat after processing. The hindquarters and backstraps are prime cuts. Bear fat is highly prized — render it into lard and it rivals anything in the kitchen.

Bear meat must be cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F due to the risk of trichinella. Don’t treat it like venison. Well-cooked bear is mild, dense, and genuinely good — hunters who’ve never eaten it are almost universally surprised.

Planning Your Hunt

If you’re applying for Colorado bear hunting alongside other species, timing matters. Track your application deadlines and preference point accumulation for limited-draw bear units using the Application Timeline tool and the Preference Point Tracker. For the OTC fall season, no draw is required — buy the license when it opens and focus your energy on scouting.

Colorado’s black bear opportunity is one of the genuinely underrated hunts in the West. Fifty thousand bears on public land, over-the-counter access, open terrain built for glassing — it’s the kind of hunt that fits alongside an elk or deer season without requiring its own dedicated trip. Once you’ve run a bear stalk through September oak brush and made it work, you’ll wonder why you waited this long.

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Boone Bridger is a western big game hunter who has pursued elk, mule deer, and black bears across Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico.