You would be surprised how many elk use the sage. Elk were historically plains animals. I have killed a couple of nice bulls miles from the nearest patch of timber. If those timber patches are getting hammered the elk will move to less pressured areas unless it is thick enough that they can just move around people.
Unless it's prior to Oct. 10th, most of the bulls at least shooter bulls will have isolated themselves away from the rest of the elk.
If you insist on hunting with everyone on top just go into the timber and still hunt slowly. No reason to glass if the elk will be pressured constantly. They will be moving continually, if the country is big enough, find the places others can't see in from above and still hunt them. Most of our rifle elk were killed while still hunting timber, I took my sister on her first elk hunt last fall, we cut bull tracks and followed them for a mile or so on a steep slippery slope and shot him in his bed. He was alone with no other tracks in the area, if you seeing lots of elk during rifle season your probably in the wrong spot to kill a nice bull.