This large unit is rather remote considering there are no major towns located throughout. The two main hubs are the small townships of Philip and Midland located in the southern end of the unit. The Bad River is the major drainage in the unit, but overall is not a dominating terrain feature as the overall vastness of the prairie and smaller breaks throughout swallow it up. There is virtually no public land in this unit and a very small amount of walk-in access so a DIY hunt is not going to be a tough option for this unit without pre-arranged access to some piece of private property. There is great access throughout with major highways running in all directions across the unit as well as many county roads coming off of the highways.

With very limited public access there are few hunters headed to this Unit without a plan around hunting some private property.

This unit is over a million acres of mostly private property and has many different types of terrain that you will encounter depending on which area of the unit you choose to hunt. From large sections of agriculture to miles of river bottoms. There are many square miles of very broken terrain, particularly in the western and northern portions of the unit. These breaks are made up of countless miles of small creek beds filled with various levels of dense vegetation.

There are a few main routes that will take you to all corners of the unit. Highway 14 runs east and west across the southern border of the unit. This highway runs along the Bad River and runs through both of the only two townships in the unit, Philip and Midland that are approximately 24 miles apart. Running north and south out of Philip is highway 73 that eventually turns west for 7 miles, and then turns northwest and continues on this path until it exits the unit in the northwest corner. Highway 34 heads east where highway 73 turns to the west and continues east until it leaves the unit. Eventually running into highway 14 and running south back into the unit and wrapping around eventually running into the town of Midland. In Midland there is also highway 63 that heads south until it exists the unit roughly 6 miles to the south. There are countless country roads as well as two track roads heading in every direction of each of these major routes and will allow access into the farthest corners.

A mix of short and tall prairie grass for miles in all directions as well as countless species of wildflowers can be found in most areas of the unit that haven’t been turned for agricultural purposes. Very sparse timber which is primarily a mix of Cottonwood, American Elm, Green Ash, and Bur Oak can be found along the scattered creek beds and draws across the unit. The Bad River is the main drainage in the unit located closer to the southern edge running parallel to the highway 14.

There are no established campgrounds located in this unit. There are hotel accommodations available in both Midland as well as Philip South Dakota but space will be limited as they are both small locally-owned establishments. Both small townships have grocery as well as fuel and small locally owned restaurants. Overall, outside of a major purchase or unique sporting goods need, you should find what you need to plan an extended time of hunting in the area.