I don't know squat about your area but I like your question. Nobody talks about elk density on these boards. The close but much more famous cousin is, "is there a lot of elk in an area?" They are not the same question. There can be a lot of elk in a particular canyon, or in a particular region of a unit, but they may be the only herd withing 100 miles or the elk are all in a relatively small area. It's said that 80% of the elk inhabit only 20% of elk country at one time. So if you run into that you herd you'll say "there is a lot of elk up 123 canyon" but the density may be very low for that general area. If something has moved those elk out of that smaller region good luck finding more if the density for a unit or larger region is low. I look for areas with a higher density because you're chances of finding elk that have moved on are much greater.