that is a decent area, just be careful where you are going, ALOT of the property up there is private land and not posted, i grew up there and there are elk, like you said you can find sign and track them, but its hard to put all of the pieces together, being most of the land is owned, either by private land owners or Hancock/kapowsin/champion, its constantly changing hands lol, you dont have to tell me exactly where but how far out of Wilkeson are you going?