scouting elk habitat on west coast and peninsula

[wt]

I'm looking for pointers on scouting for elk on the coast and the peninsula. Are there any differences to where you typically find elk (if relatively unpressured),than on the east side and other western states. Like North facing slopes, around water(I assume its not critical on the coast), in draws and drainages, on benches etc. I am semi familiar with geographical terms describing mountainous terrain but I assume I know the meaning of some of the terms but I may not, for example; saddle(ridge connecting two peaks?), bench(flat area on the side of a mountain?), drainage (large draw that drains snow melt) etc. Man I could go for a elementary publication that showed a fictitious  mountain that had one of each labeled and explained. I am getting ready to hit it and any help on identifying terrain(not yours of coarse) that is likely to hold elk would be greatly appreciated. By the way I am archery west side so I'll be scouting a few times between now and say the last week of August.

[bench beast]

how about Farmers field, or backyard. I think if you spend some time scouting you will find them. What unit are you thinkin about?

[PNWsportsman]

Focus on commercial timber lands south and west of Chehalis.  Get yourself a mountain bike and cover as many miles as you please.

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

 it is my understanding that a saddle is a low point on a ridge connecting 2 drainage's. 
Not sure what areas you are looking at, but I try to get on a high vantage point and glass cuts and clearings early and late.
Also,With scouting Elk in Western Washington, sometimes it is more about locating sign, than actually seeing Elk.
If you can drive the area, look along sides of road for trails, park and get out and walk a short ways in to see if there are any tracks.
Watch for tracks in shoulder of road also.
If there are gates, park at gates and walk in, look for tracks, droppings, trails, etc.,
Once you find an area with good sign, get out a map, or (google earth) and look at where the roads go, and guess at where the trail leads,
 look at areas in-between roads, usually these will be drainage's, and hopefully timbered, pay special attention where the head of drainage might cross road, as a lot of times there will be a trail somewhere close.
Also bear in mind that Elk, when feeding, spread out and leave no real "main trail", but when traveling from one spot to another usually are single file, so large trails, that show lots of tracks are usually to/from feeding/bedding areas, look at what direction the majority of tracks are heading to get an idea of which one.
Usually feeding areas are lower than bedding areas, so if you are in,on, or near the top of the ridge, follow the trail to see where it starts to spread out, or seperate, if it is in some timber, you found the bedding area, Dont go too far into bedding area, you might push them out.
Good place to set up a camera, or tree stand/blind is where the trails all meet.
    

[wt]

That sounds like some great advice STIKNSTRINGBOW. I appreciate the input. Happy  scouting.

[RuttinWapati]

Good info... Thanks for sharring....

[briancorneal]

Also a good spot for scouting is USGS.  They have all new 2011 maps that can be downloaded as pdf's.  The maps have different layers and can be turned off and on.  Layers like recent aerial photos, countour line, hydrology, etc.  Usually you would need to buy many maps to figure tis out, and now it's all free.  Just go to the usgs website, go the map locator, and start searching. 

[DoubleJ]

Threadjack.  If I find tracks and poo, and lots of it, that is obviously less than a day old and right outside of a nice grassy bowl, will they be back that night or do they roam and it might be days before they return?