Elk hunt (no elk)

[MULEY7MM]

My son talked me into buying a general elk tag this year. I have no clue where to go so we decided to try a place that ive deer hunted before and seen some good elk sign. We headed out saturday morning about 5:00 and arrived to the area around 6:30 and a cold 29 degrees... We unloaded the wheeler and set off up the hill. As soon as it was getting light we seen deer all around us and one real heavy 4x4 not very wide but heavy and tall.. tried to take a picture but he took off as soon as i started digging in my pack. We arrived at the place I wanted to hike to about 7:30 we started hiking up the hill and jumped a few more does by some water. and that was the last thing we seen until the after noon when we spotted 3 bucks together walking about 100 yards from us. we started hiking back about 6:00pm and headed home.. We decided to try again sunday but this time take a shotgun incase it was slow again so we could hunt grouse. We ended up seeing a ton of deer again but no elk.. Anyone that says northern utah's deer herds are weak are out of there mind.. around noon my youngest was tired of not seeing elk so we went down lower and hunted grouse we got 4 in about 2 hours... here are some of the pics i took

Now I have a few questions..
If im seeing this many deer will elk still be in the area?
Are they still buggeling?

I have only hunted elk twice and both times had zero luck.. If anyone has suggestions on where to look im open to try another place.. Right now im hunting around kamas

[killerbee]

I dont know for sure, but if I was to bet there has to be some elk around. that country looks to good for there not to be any. just my 2 cents

[MULEY7MM]

We have been out 3 more times and still no elk.. Not even a cow elk. I have no clue whats going on. We did see a typical 5x5 buck yesterday in the same spot both morning and evening. To bad I dont have a deer tag this year

[JimmyB]

I've hunting every single day since Saturday and the closest I've got to a bull so far was in my truck the other night heading up the canyon.... I've seen a few bulls and some cows but they've always been on a dead sprint in the thickest stuff possible. I hear about 25 shots a day but haven't seen one person dragging an elk out.

[shmoesmith]

Kamas is a tough area IMO. I'm VERY new to elk hunting, but my family has a cabin just outside of Kamas. Of the 20+ years of going to the family cabin and up mirror lake highway and wolf creek pass, I've only seen 1 elk. My family hunts the area still and occassionally pulls out an elk though. If you haven't left for the weekend yet, try going up bench creek road (dirt road out of woodland which is a few miles from kamas) or go up wolf creek pass and take the turn off for mill hollow reservoir and look up there. Those are the only 2 places my family has ever had luck up there.

[derekp1999]

Most reports I have heard from rifle elk guys have not been very encouraging considering I am still holding a muzzleloader elk tag.
I agree with Killerbee, that area looks too good not to hold some.
Good work by the young man on the upland game though, we had a lot of fun with that on the muzzleloader deer hunt.

[waspocrew]

Sorry to hear about not spotting any elk.... I've heard that can be a very tough area. Your pics look like elk should be hiding in there somewhere though. Sometimes it'll take a season or two to really figure out a tough area.