I hunted 2nd season in 54 2 years ago. We camped off of 724, Rainbow Lake Road. There was some snow on the road going in and it snowed the next night. If your looking to get back into the wilderness on foot I would suggest using 723 or 724 and drive all the way to the end. There is more parking/turn around area on 724 but 723 isn't bad as long as there aren't many vehicles up there. I think 724 is an easier drive in the dark or with snow on the ground, not as many curves and not a straight drop from the shoulder to the bottom. If you don't want to hike back into the wilderness you can try hunting the drainage between 723 and 724. We saw a fair amount of sign in there. If you don't have a 4 wheel drive then I would suggest staying on the main road (724) if its wet, you can take the spurs and a handful of other roads but at your own risk. Theres a road that goes through Burnt Mill Gulch, or in the area, and unless your very sure of your vehicle and mudding abilities don't drive down it unless its snow packed or bone dry, I believe that is the road that will take you back to HWY 50 but on the east side of Steuben Creek. You can access the wilderness area by going in through Mill Creek on the east side of 54 but its quite a climb up in there. We tried scouting that route in June '13 and there was still 3 or 4 feet of snow on the trail. The day before the season started we hiked down the trail head at the end of 724, we didn't go to far just a little south west of South Baldy where we could look over and down into basin and decided we didn't want to hunt on foot back there with 4 feet of snow to come back up through. My wife's boss was hunting during 1st rifle with horses and they only took 1 elk that year. The guy was close to the creek bottom to the east of 724 and he sat down to take a break and eat a snack, while he was eating his snickers bar an elk walks into sight not 40 yards from him. Even with horses it took them 6 hours to pack him out and they were less than a mile and a half from the end of the spur. Its steep thick country, all of it, but there are plenty of elk in there, just have to find um. Oh yeah this goes for anywhere but if its a full moon you need to get our very early and either stay out till dark or go back out till dark. We saw tons of sign but we're pretty sure most of it was from night activity.
Well enough of my rambling. I hope I've helped a little.
