Asking the locals is a good idea. There are many areas not far from here where mulies hang out in the sage. Here they are in the mountains and are found in the timber. Bedding, they will be in the timber, or on the slopes in the shade of a tree or overhang. The buck I shot on Friday was under a tree at the top of a ridge, in the timber. There are sage slopes in the mountains here that the deer often feed in, but they don't bed in it.
We have a good elk herd in the red dessert and in a few places east of Evanston the elk come down occasionally into the sage. Later they come down and enjoy the ranchers' hay. Here they are in the timber.
I live at 6500 ft, and tend to hunt 8000-9000 feet, where I get all my deer and elk.