New in Washington - Where to get started with Elk scouting??

[jvillane]

Hi everyone,

I recently moved to Western Washington and as an enthusiastic hunter immediately purchased a deer tag and an Eastern Elk tag. Previously I have been succesfully hunting deer, moose and all kinds of birds - but never Elk and never anything in Washington. I have started Blacktail deer scouting in State forest lands closeby Redmond and planning to 1-2 scouting trips to Eastern Washington for Elk.
As there seems to be so many potential areas to get started (Manatash, Umtanum, Bethel, Cowiche, Naneum, Quilomene...) and I live 2-3h of drive away from most areas, I wanted to reach out to this great forum to ask help and guidance.

I will be hunting during modern firearm season and would like to find an area where one could escape crouds by hiking several miles (to highlands if circumstances (weather, etc.) require) away from roads...Would like to at least try to avoid the  WW3 that has been mentioned in many posts of this forum:)

Any hints/advices on what areas to focus on or what to avoid, and where to start burning rubber while scouting would be highly appreciated - Feel free to approach via PM if needed. In general I'm not looking for GPS coordinates to hotspots but just directions to get started. Finally, If there are areas where there is a decent chance to meet both Elk and Deer, it would be interesting to know as I could try to combine a late Elk scouting trip to Deer hunting trip. So far my focus for Deer has though been in Western side but every now and then East comes to mind as well.

Thanks in advance!!

[Mudman]

Sounds like you have good areas picked.  Trick is to be prepared with your pack and such depending on what weapon/season your hunting, and pick the farthest darkest deep area you can find.  The time of year will determine what this is.  The more ground you cover the better off.  Hunters all over but within a few miles of their truck.  Overnite trips are your friend.  Elk somehow figure out to stay a 100ft farther than the point where hunters turn around and head back.  They hide from pressure...  Early/archery you have the rut and it is a little diferent.  Go where hunters dont like too.  Of course many of us know and push a little farther and harder.  We just did 22 miles from 2500 to 5000ft elev. and it hurt.  But saw elk..