Went elk scountin and saw a moderate amount of track. The thing that disturbed me is I didn' t really find any areas where I could see where they had been feeding. Couldn' t find many beds and I saw no hair. The short Quaking Apsens did not appear to be eaten at all. That tells me the elk are passing through going somewhere else but this was the top of the mountain. Now I gotta figure out where they' re going.

Don' t matter anyhoo. Come September, they' ll likely be somewhars else. Never unnerstood people wantin' to scout in the spring. Other than gettin' some leg time in I suppose.

With snow just melting, you might not be finding much elk sign real high in the mountains yet. Alot of them are still pretty low and haven' t migrated up yet.

I think hntngirl is on the money.My favorite hunting spot won' t be accessable for another 2-3weeks.I try to get up to the area as early as possible to begin scouting and to get " leg time" even though I could probably hunt it with a blindfold.Knowlage is key!!!! Not to mention the couple of hundred Elk that are usually camped out in one of the meadows until late June!!!!!!!

Well I' m also a photographer so scoutin is worth it just for that. I really hunt all year, just two weeks with a bow or rifle and the rest of the year with a camera. I knew I' d get a response outta ole BJ but sorry even though I agree somewhat with what you' re saying I don' t agree 100%.

When you scout elk you can' t scout 1 canyon all summer and expect them to be there in the fall. But they gotta live somewhere, they don' t take a flight to Europe in the fall. So I cover a very large area to see where they go. The scoutin familiarizes myself with the area. I find good feedin spots, trails, possible bedding areas, changes like new roads or rock slides. I find possible watering holes and wallows that may be there in the fall. That way when its time to hunt then I have the area all mapped out in my head. Plus I enter the info into my GPS. So sorry maybe the elk will move by the time fall comes but I' ll have a good idea where they might go and how to hunt the area. No wastin time findin roads or hikin two miles just to see a power stroke drivin up into the same area.

Not really any snow at all up at my spot so they should pretty much be up there, usually are this time of year. When I was hiking up high it was well over 70 degrees so they should be seeking the high cool timber.