I’ve lived in Washington my whole life. I grew up hunting the NE before the wolves hammered the deer/moose/elk. I spent my late teens and early 20’s chasing blacktail. I’ve done the Pay to play game and not. Now I am strictly hunting mule deer. The truth is like most said the deer on the east side of the state have been hit hard by many things rough winters, lose of winter range, encroachment from people, and predators; but there are still quality deer that live here. The hunting can be hard. You have to play the game of what weapon choice you want to hunt, unless you draw multi season (hint hint) and you can hunt all weapons choices.
To the high hunt, this might make some mad oh well, there is some YouTubers that really drove up the hunter numbers on the high hunt. Nothing against the individuals but it did. There are a couple main drainages you will find that collect the people the most. This being said people still kill quality deer during this season. The wilderness are rough, steep and the weather can be wild but it’s worth the hunt and yes you can still get away from people.
Being well versed in all weapon choices is the name of the game for Mule deer here. Don’t listen to the people who say there are no deer either don’t hunt hard enough or don’t want you to succeed. Best of luck