Utah Elk in December

[TheYukiYama]

Drew a December cow elk tag. Latest I've ever hunted elk is Oct 3.
Few questions I have..

Does the biologist note on elk below 9,000' sound correct? Significantly narrows down the search area in this unit.
Would doing any scouting over the summer be worth my time or will everything be completely different in December anyway?
What should I expect of the roads in December in central Manti? Snowed closed?
Anything else that I should expect to be different hunting wise versus earlier in the season?

Appreciate any input.

 

[TheYukiYama]

Following up in case anyone comes across this and had similar questions. No, the elk were not by any means below 9,000' like the biologist note suggested. However, 2025 was very low snow, especially by late December, a normal year may see the elk lower. The roads down low were very good, up high they were quite muddy and many were closed. The elk were definitely behaving differently than earlier season. A few huge groups of cows. 250+. Bulls were nowhere to be seen, however only hunted one full day.

Hunt recap. Spent Christmas with family in Salt Lake. Was planning on going hunting couple days later. Arrived around 2pm and figured we would do some glassing before setting up camp. Spotted what I thought was a cow about 5 miles away just peaking over a big flat top way high right when I got out of the truck through handheld 10x42s. Quickly set up tripod and threw on the spotter but it was gone. Was about 95% sure it was an elk so drove about 1 mile closer, loaded up the packs and headed up the mountain. We started around 7,600'. 3 miles later going pretty much straight up we could start to hear mews and also what sounded like a strange quiet bugle. Came over the edge of the mesa and moved through a few trees and there they were, pretty good herd at around 9,200'. We only had about 30 minutes of sunlight left and some snow was starting to move in but figured why not and put down a beautiful cow.


In our haste to get up the mountain before dark, we forgot some critical pieces of gear which made it a bit of a challenge getting it quartered (knife sharpener). But got her loaded up and started down. With the drop in temp and snow it got pretty slick heading down, but got back to the truck and it was a wrap. Beautiful area and really fun hunt. Ended up getting around 200# of some great meat which sort of surprised me and was more than I have gotten off the few other cows I have taken, and about as much as my last bull.