Don't get me wrong, there are elk in all the units, just mostly small herds.
I hear many times how the archery guys get the best season. I call BS........
I hunt the Yakima area and have for many years, and would have a hard time switching to any other place for elk.
Here is my take on the Yakima archery hunts.
Early season: Sucks, unless you have a horse or hire someone to pack you in the back country. (If you do, i envy you, I do not).
Open units are Nile, Cowechee, Rimrock, and Bumping. Most of the elk in the early season reside up in the high country and the ones that are down at the lower elevations (Rutting Grounds= Little Naches, Umtanum, and Bethel) are closed to hunting except by permit only, very few permits i mite add. When i say High country i refer to the high lake areas around Gout Rocks, White Pass, American Ridge, etc.
yes i do know there are elk in the lower elevations of these units but you have 70% of the hunters chasing 10% of the animals.
Late Archery: Not that much better.
Open units are Little Naches, Nile, Rimrock and the upper portion of Cowechee (do not remember the elk are number). Little Naches holds few elk during the late season for they have moved to Umtanum for the feed and open meadows. Nile hold the best number of elk and the most hunter of the whole area. It turns in to a small city during late season and turns in to a war zone. Me, i stay out of Nile during the late season because i would rather hunt fewer animals than deal with all the stupid people out there.
Rimrock, to much snow and the elk move on to Bethel for the feed and open meadows (Bethel is closed to hunting). The WDFW changed the Coweche late hunt to an elk area and closed the better portion of the unit to hunting the late season so the elk are not harassed on there way to the feed station. I call BS, that was the better place with the most success, so they cut it off and brought down the success rate. F%^#ers

I can go to Little Nachese and see elk any day of the week during early season. Even when i am only hunting across the HWY. You would think that with all the elk in the area it would not matter which side of the Hwy you hunted on, but it does.

And to top if off they took a day away from the early hunt to give "ONE" permit to a riffle hunter

How RETARDED......