74K Nonresidents Hunted Elk in Colorado in 2020, Including 9,600 Texans and 6,500 Californians

By Mountain Pursuit

Colorado has the most liberal nonresident tag allocation for elk of any western state. Colorado allots 35% of it's elk tags to nonresidents, which is double the next closest state, Wyoming, which allots 16% of its elk tags to nonresidents. 

In 2020, Colorado's liberal tag allocation resulted in 74,192 (33.5%) nonresident elk hunters, according to data from the Colorado Parks & Wildlife.  There were 147,320 (66.5%) resident elk hunters. 

9,649 of these nonresident hunters were Texans - the most from any state. Second highest was  the 6,538 hunters from California. Nonresident hunters from Wisconsin numbered 5,968.

See below for the full list of 2020 nonresident elk hunters in Colorado by state:

The majority of Colorado's nonresident elk hunters (40,307) purchased their tags over-the-counter (OTC). 

See below: