A common theme around here is that everyone's favorite (or in many cases, only) elk country is as "rough as it gets". That got me thinking as to where the roughest and easiest elk hunts are, that folks go on. I am not talking about once in a lifetime draws on the southern Idaho desert or the Gila, etc. I am referring to general hunts or relatively easy draws a guy can get every few years. I am also not referring to dealing with bears, bugs, spiny plants, remoteness or late hunts where snow levels get dangerous. I am referring specifically to ruggedness.
I have hunted and killed elk in 3 states (plus Alaska, but that was a tough draw) and the terrain has ranged from rolling hills to cliff faces. For me:
Easiest----Palouse Prairie (Idaho), though there are some hellacious canyons there but luckily I never killed one in the bottom of one of those. Runner ups would be the Sapphires (Montana), the Wyoming Range (Wyoming) and the Wyoming side of the Uintas.
Roughest---The Bitterroot Mountains (Montana) with a close second being the Bighorn Crags (Idaho).
The Bob Marshall, Wind River Mountains, Salmon River Mountains, Selway, Sawtooths, White Clouds, Sierra Madres and a few others are somewhere in between these extremes.
Whatcha got?
