Scott
It's pretty hard to not find elk on the east side.
Lots of habitat with lots of elk. Where to try your luck depends on what you want to shoot. Some
of the easy stuff pulls a lot of people. You say that you want to come during the rut so I assume your wanting horns. Not all units are open to branched antlered bulls without a drawn tag. Example Mt. Emily is loaded with branched antlered bulls but you can only take a spike or cow if you don't have a special tag. If I were to just take a fling at it I would be more prone to look at the Lick Cr. area and hunt high(ImnahaUnit). If your young and tough look at Cow Cr. in the Northern Snake Unit. You won't have everyone and his brother on your back. If your tougher than nails and are willing to make your body pay the price there is another spot. E-mail
if you want it. Its a 6 plus mile walk before you get into their haunts so it realy should be a sleep in for a couple of days. Lots of water but thats all you have without taking it in. You will have one party to contend with but the bulls are special. The other party is composed of three locals in the area. One is an outstanding caller(won the RMEF)and you will probably only get the leftovers. I took a small 7x7 while they were busy with another herd.
No matter what you wind up doing have a great time on the east side. We think its special.