Thanks for the replies. Now you are making it hard for me to decide where to go. The desolation area sounded good mostly because we had been given a little info that would save us from wasting a bunch of time searching where to even start hunting. BigShark it sounds like you now your stuff as I have seen your posts before on eastside deer hunting. I'm a rookie here so don't now how to find your email so tell me and I will email you. We feel young (30) and in descent shape and really like to get away from other people if possible. We would like a chance at big bulls as we have meat elk here at home, plus $350 for tag and license and taking a week off work ,having a shot at a trophy would be great. Couple questions about those spots you mentioned. How will this dry hot weather effect the hunting there and do they close it down for fire danger. Here it is so dry with all our brush I'm not sure how we will put the sneak on an elk . Also here the bulls don't really get fired up until after the season closes Sept 14, do they bugle and carry on over there? Our biggest concern is having a quality area we can hike into and not spend our whole time trying to figure out where to hunt. Thanks again guys.