If the "occasional elk" is more than a few times in a lifetime, then the .30-06 will be a great choice. If it's a dream that may not ever really happen, then you may want to look at a few other cartridges.
It's REALLY hard to say anything bad about the .30-06, especially considering that my first deer rifle I bought myself was a .30-06 and I've killed dozens of deer with it over the last ~20yrs, and considering that it's been used to kill every huntable species in North America (and many species elsewhere).
BUT, as a whitetail rifle, even as an "occasional elk rifle", it's a bit heavy recoiling. There are a lot of other cartridges with less recoil than the .30-06 that will be just as productive on deer: 243win, 25-06, 7mm-08, 260rem come to mind. The 7mm-08 has earned a spot with me as a highly favored hunting cartridge in a lightweight rifle.
If 'occasional elk hunting' means once every 3-4yrs, then the heavier recoil of the .30-06 is easily warranted.
For what it's worth, the Rem 700 today isn't what it used to be. It really doesn't stand out in terms of performance compared to any of a number of other rifles available from Savage, Marlin, Ruger, Tikka, Howa, even Mossberg. I don't include Winchester in this list simply because they're at best a novelty these days, very much over-priced and low volume, just a specialty rifle for someone that wants to say they bought a Winchester.
I'm a big Savage fan, followed by higher end Remingtons (will not own an SPS), then Rugers.
I'd much rather have the wood stock of the CDL SF than the synthetic stock of the Mountain SS. But that's a personal preference.