356?

[~Octane~]

How is 356 doing for mainly elk? Last year there was apparently a big dip in the population because of the snow and temperaturs? Is it worth driving up there 5 or 6 hours to hunt elk on the west side of the highway? What are people seeing for big game this year? Thanks for any help.

[hunt_and_fish]

Hey Octane. I can't speak about the numbers this year but I was up there last year so I can confirm what you heard. We hunted the west side of the highway and had trouble finding any elk sign. I heard the same from a few people that had hunted the zone for many years. There were still some elk around and I'm sure some people still managed to fill their tags but we didn't have any luck. In all the hunting camps we saw, we only noticed one elk hanging up. Beautiful country for sure. I'll be up there again sometime in the future but it probably won't be for a few years. I suspect it will take a while for the big game populations to bounce back to what they were there.

I'm not saying it's a total lost cause. If you know someone up there that has found some elk then I wouldn't even hesitate but if you are just going up there hoping to find some, I would personally think about trying a different area.

[~Octane~]

thanks man, kind of what I suspected. What about Vallyview area? Didn't it take a big hit too?

[hunt_and_fish]

I've never hunted around Valleyview so I can't be much help there. I've heard there are decent elk numbers around there but I can't say for sure. Much of the area is private land around there so you'd have to deal with getting permission.