I don't know what it is like for you guys but the very best elk country is private land in our valley bottem.
I do own some of this land and interestingly, very often when I have been out sheep hunting I return home to an elk herd in and around my place. Bulls chasing cows, bugling etc.
Up on the sheep basins I see a few but when I return home I see many. Even ( sometimes)shutting the windows to cut down the noisy activity at night.
I have killed a few here but it isn't hunting, it is shooting. I then picked them up with the tractor.
Might as we shoot a Longhorn- same difference.
Exactly why I cannot hunt from a blind...
In my world, hunting is about the pursuit, horseback or afoot. My way
