Contributors to this thread:
I'm headed into the high country the last week of September this year and need some advice. This is my first pack in trip and will be completely new to the area. We will get packed in, hunt for 6 days, then be packed out. With limited days to hunt, what should be my first move. I would say it would be to get above timber line and glass but I don't want to walk past elk or bump them on my way up. Are drop camp will be set around 9500', but plan on spiking above timberline. Any advice is appreciated.
Since it's a new area, and you're going in "blind"...might be worth taking some long day hikes in and out, before you pack in.
In other words, remain mobile for a couple days so you can relocate if necessary.
With limited time on your hands, you need to get to where the elk are as quickly as possible, and if you're packed into an area with few elk, you are burning up precious days.
Just my two cents.
Best of Luck, Jeff
As a novice elk hunter myself, the way I located the general areas that elk were when I shot my two bulls, was following the advice of elknut and doing some night time scouting: Short hikes to high areas/tops of drainages around 10PM, use locators to locate the general areas the bulls were (they're more vocal at night), then hike into the general area and look for fresh sign during the day to get a better idea of exactly where they are. You can then hunt them or back out to glass a spot you know there's elk vs glassing a spot that you're unsure of.
My first elk trip where I was unsuccessful, I tried just packing in, hitting this mountain or that mountain and glassing and never saw a single one.
I'm not saying that glassing high country isn't a good idea. Lots of people are successful that way.
The problem with elk is that you can be in great elk country and not have a single elk within a mile of you and not immediately know it from the top of a mountain. But the advantage of using bugles to scout is that if you hear one, you know that an elk is there and you're generally talking about 5-30 minutes of bugling to rule an area out, vs spending an entire day glassing an area to rule it out.