Roosevelt Elk. Please nudge me in the right direction. I feel hopeless.

[eddyr]

Hello all, new elk hunter here (2 year) Rifle starts tomorrow, I'll only be able to get out there Sunday and stay untill end of season. This past week from Tuesday morning until today I was in the "wild" looking for elk. The two weeks before that I was deer hunting in a different unit and also looking for elk there. No luck.

Unit where I deer hunted is GMU 660. Wayerhouser land. Areas I checked out is near Melbourne and a little bit near Minot peak. Near Melbourne I have looked and glassed every clear cut there is for days. Nothing. I have seen a bunch of elk sign, like fresh poop, bedding and tracks but not an actual animal. Wasn't too disappointed since I wasn't truly planning to hunt elk there anyway. (Although I do know there is elk in there because last summer I have seen poached elk hoofs while summer scouting, yes I reported it)

Then since I also have access to wayerhouser land near st. Helens I decided to go check it out this week to at least get an idea of the land. Went to GMU 520 near riff lake. From there basically went south west over couple days untill I got into GMU 550. Once again no elk. Infact barely any deer as well. Maybe I was in a completely wrong part of the 520 but contrary to hunting prospects published, this unit sucked.
Spent 2 days driving around near silver lake area of 550. No elk. My last gate was near rose valley, I got in there a couple hours before sun down so didn't get to explore much, but still, no elk.

At this point I start to believe elk don't exist. 2 years "hunting" elk, covering probably thousands of miles (on car of course), scouting multiple times in summer and not seeing a single animal... What am I doing wrong?

Should I still go to rose valley part of 550 and spent a week there? Should I try to find a completely new location? Should I instead go to Pe Ell area and look around there? I don't have access to wayco land there but I think there's a little bit of public. Never been there personally but I believe phelps calls are from there so there should be elk right?

Should I give up on Roosevelt and try east wa instead next year? Although that seems like a whole new learning curve, except this time 6+ hours away.

I am at a loss guys. Please just a little help. I'm not looking for biggest bull out there. Just a legal one, heck I would be more than happy to take one with hoof disease just to make it not suffer. Honestly, at this point, if I would see some cows I would consider this season to be somewhat successful.

Would appreciate any tips, thanks!

[fowl smacker]

Elk numbers are so horrible now in western WA it's sad.  Those very few that are still around are likely dealing with hoof rot.  I was all around this deer season in many different gmus and saw 2 cows in the Toutle unit.

[MADMAX]

Was told by 2 different locals this year that there was a 60% die off in the Winston

[HntnFsh]

Was told by 2 different locals this year that there was a 60% die off in the Winston

Over how many years?

[HUNTIN4SIX]

It’s kind of a “welcome to Washington elk hunting”.  Back in the day old timers would say you shoot and elk every seven years.  I was a little better than that, but tried harder than the average guy.  Get up every morning of elk season tighten yer boots and be the first one at the gate, hunt till dark and do it the next day.  Hike hard and work your arse off learning areas/elk and you might get an elk in a few years.  Rely on yourself and no one else and it will make it that much sweeter.  There are no short cuts, just empty clear cuts.... good luck and remember the hunt is the fun part.  Oh and don’t come over to the East side cause it sucks worse over here, and I mean that!

[MADMAX]

Was told by 2 different locals this year that there was a 60% die off in the Winston

Over how many years?

He really didn’t say, but it made sense after seeing the amount of well defined elk trails that had zero track in them
I’m not saying there’s no elk there but far less than I recall
I started hunting the Winston in the 80s when they used to give you a Weyerhaeuser map with tree damage

I’ll be hunting spikes from now on the east side

[medic6]

You're moving too much.  The days of cruising the tree farm and seeing elk in every third or fourth cut is long gone.   Elk in the tree farm live in the areas where they cannot typically see vehicles or be seen.   If you pull into a cut and park and you cannot see the entire tree line around the cut, you can bet the elk are in the section you have to walk over to look at.  To really get a good idea if elk are around you need to walk the entire tree line/timber edge and look for sign.  no sign, move over one draw and repeat.  It takes time.  That is why scouting is so important. Once you find them you find them and you can bet they will be in the general area next year and the year after etc.    I know exactly where to go to find elk and it still can take me two or three days to pin them down to a specific timber patch or specific 50 yard section of a cut in the am/pm.