Elk numbers are good in those units. On the bull rifle opener you will see tons of folks driving the roads. Some of those drainages are a mad house. That being said, it doesn't take too much to get away from most of the crowd. In the past few years there was an early season for type 6 tag holders. Pretty good opportunity to harvest a cow and not nearly as many people as during the general season. Once the season goes to cow only a lot of folks hang it up as well. A couple of friends hunt down there (92 and 94) and I helped retrieve a couple of their elk last year. I've harvested elk down there but I prefer other units as I really don't like hunting around others.

It's good country, lots of the major drainages have roads in the bottom. Only a couple open roads up and over the top (east/west). There have been several burns in the area the last 6-8 years. These have created some pretty good feed. Lots of high elevation country that is pretty open. It's good elk country. Often elk are visible up high and folks just aren't willing to put the effort into going after them. Lots of old decomisioned roads and horse trails to get around on, but the country is often steep. If you get heavy snows, elk typically start heading towards feed grounds and the areas around those can be productive to hunt. Do not wait until the late season blm/private hunt to pursue elk. That hunt is pretty low odds unless you live here and know folks to get access and can drop and run when elk are spotted.