RE: How do you scout for elk?
Good advice from the posts above. Elk are creatures of habit until disturbed. They bed down generally by mid morning and become active again in the afternoon. They generally move from feeding and watering areas to bedding areas and repeat that trek beginning in the late afternoon. They are thick skinned animals that like cooler places to bed, i.e north facing ridges with dark timber. Hunting the rut will be to your advantage.
First scouring your topo map was exactly the right thing to do. May want to take a yellow highlighter and trace on your map the drainages from known or assumed watering areas (probably would be grass for food also) up into the higher elevations paying particular attention to horizontal benches and areas of heavy timber. Elk won't necessarily travel long distances from feeding to bedding areas. Locate the suspected feeding/watering areas, then follow natural lines of drift toward the possible bedding areas. Do this for as much area as you think you will have time to scout.
Once on the ground start the process of elimination by checking out the areas highlighted on the map. Make notes on the map or in a notebook you carry with you. Check wind drift for future reference and make note of it. I carry a squeeze bottle of unscented talc and periodically squirt it a bit. Found mine at an archery shop. Also note on the map changes to the topography, i.e. map shows timber but it's clear on the ground, etc. Draw in trails you find that are not on the map.
Clear indicators of elk will include actually seeing them, presence of sign, i.e. tracks, droppings, wallows, rubs on trees, etc.
Look for saddles and escape routes between drainages. This may come in handy if you go to the "hot spot" and nothing is there come opening day.
May also want to take and use a cow call while scouting just to be sociable in their neighborhood.
Follow on task may include locating possible stand locations. A GPS would come in handy here.
I think of the whole scouting challenge like it was a military operation (I'm retired Infantry). Work up the "Intelligence prep of the battlefield" on your map, then set out to confirm or deny precence of the "enemy" in the targeted hunting areas.
Got most of this from the school of hard knocks and studying what the experts have written, including forums like this one. Any of Jim Zumbo's elk books are excellent, "Hunt Elk" and "Calling All Elk."
Good luck.