Washington Elk — GMU 266

Badger

Washington GMU 266 covers 139,524 acres and lies 9 miles north-east of Wenatchee and 40 miles north-east of Ellensburg. 8% of it is public land, mostly BLM (4%) and state trust land (3%). In 2025, hunters took 2 elk here.

Muzzleloader hunter success (2025):0% Public land:8% Size:139,524 acres

Your chance of drawing here

Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife has not offered an elk license in GMU 266 in any draw we hold. It has a page because the agency still publishes harvest for it — the Washington elk hunts that are on offer are drawn elsewhere.

The country

Wenatchee Ellensburg Yakima Sammamish Richland
GMU 266 within Washington
247 250 251 254 262 269 328 330 Wenatchee
GMU 266 and its neighbours
Zoomable USGS topo, aerial imagery and shaded relief, with the neighboring areas drawn on.

Boundaries are drawn for orientation only — the written boundary description in the regulations governs.

Who owns the ground

  • Private 128,604 ac · 92%
  • BLM 5,833 ac · 4%
  • State trust land 4,113 ac · 3%
  • County or city land 715 ac · 1%
  • Other public 168 ac · 0%
  • State land 87 ac · 0%
  • National Forest 1 ac · 0%

Source: WA DNR 'Non-DNR Major Public Lands' (NDMPL) layer, federal/state/county/city ownership parcels

How the hunting has gone

What Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife publishes for this area after each season — harvest statistics for everyone who hunted it, not draw odds and not a forecast. Washington's figures come from mandatory hunter reports. WDFW credits a multi-GMU special-permit hunt's harvest to every GMU it spans rather than splitting it, so unit totals add up to more than the statewide total.

Season Harvest
2025 2
2024 0
2023 3
2022 0
2021 0

What people carried (2025 harvest)

  • Firearm 2 · 100% · 7 hunters, 29% success
  • Muzzleloader 0 · 0% · 8 hunters, 0% success

Boundary: WDFW Hunt Planner 'UnitSpatial' polygon layer (WP_HuntPlanner/Regulation/MapServer/0)

Harvest: WDFW Hunt Planner 'BigGame' harvest table (WP_HuntPlanner/Harvest/MapServer/1)

How we compute draw odds · All Washington elk hunts