Where did the elk go in the Manti- La Sal forest?

[shmoesmith]

Total newbie. I hate resorting to forums for help when I have nothing of value to give back, but i'm desperate and the only hunter I know recommended you guys. I've been skunked 3 times in the Uinta southslope unit (as in I didn't see ANYTHING). I thought I would try my luck this year with a spike tag in the Manti-La Sal forest since that is supposedly where the elk are and its hard to draw out tags for the area so people pass on spikes. I've gone up 3 times now. Twice above Ephraim just west of Joe's Valley Reservoir and once above Spring City in Black canyon. I'm looking from about 9400ft to tree line. I've seen 2 does, a few pine hens, and no elk.

I know what elk tracks and droppings look like (saw them EVERYWHERE in the Wind River range in Wyoming) - yet i'm not even finding these sorts of signs of elk. I know I'm not bad at sneaking up on animals as I have countless photos of deer, antelope, elk, moose, and even bears that i've taken in idaho and wyoming - just can't find anything in Utah. What gives?

Am i searching the wrong altitudes? Are they more north/south of ephraim? Are they on the east side of skyline or the west side? More in the pines or aspens? steep thick stuff or flat open grazing areas? I'm boggled and desprate. The hunt is coming up on Oct. 6 and nobody I know has ANY info on the area. I've gone as far as calling the BLM and talking to the biologist working for the forest service and their response was "we really don't have any idea where they are - the whole range is their habitat. We just fly over the range in helicopters until we find them, and then we count them)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[vball85jb]

We used to hunt down there on the west side back in the late 90's. We would see herds everywhere, usually down in the bottoms of the deep canyons in the aspen's close enough to hop into dark timber. We quit because we didn't see many spikes. Good luck.

[shmoesmith]

Well, after 6 days of scouting the manti-la sals, I found nothing. I ended up opening day on the north side of Strawberry ridge, just south of Strawberry reservoir. Lots of elk sign over there. Saw elk herds 3 days in a row. Unfortunately the best shot I had, I couldn't pull the trigger because the herd of elk were all walking with their heads down grazing in aspens and I couldn't tell if any qualified as a spike or if there was a bigger rack obscured by the trees - after about 3 minutes of having glass on them with my rifle supported ready for the shot, something spooked them and the herd of about 30 elk bolted so fast I could only identify a few bulls and they were gone into some thick pines. Hopefully this weekend will be better.