The Pacific Northwest boasts a number of widely known elk hunting areas throughout Washington's Yakima foothills and Olympic Peninsula, and Oregon's Wilson, Tioga and High Cascade hunts.

Historically, however, the Blue Mountains have been the region's most celebrated Rocky Mountain elk hunting destination. For decades, local towns like La Grande, Pomeroy, Troy and Asotin have pulsed with elk hunting activity each autumn.

The Blue Mountains are also the only place in the region where hunters can pursue elk on a common geographic area that sprawls over state boundaries -- the extreme southeast corner of Washington and northeast tip of Oregon.

Northwest elk hunters know that over the last 20 years, things have changed dramatically in the Blues and their productive Beaver State offshoot, the Wallowa Mountains. In the 1990s, the size of the herds on both sides of the border dwindled to record lows, and the elk harvest reflected those declines.

A number of factors were blamed for the declines: predation from cougars and bears, changes in the quality of forage, timber harvest, drought, and winter mortality. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife responded with more restrictive management and regulations, including permit-only hunts for adult bulls, fewer cow permits and shorter seasons.

Both agencies, along with the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station also began long-term studies aimed at determining the real -- and likely, multiple and interconnected -- reasons for the declines in the elk herds.

Despite the difficulties, the Blue Mountains remain one of the most popular elk hunting destinations in the Northwest. In autumn, more rifle, bow- and blackpowder hunters roam its grassy slopes and ponderosa pine forests than any other area east of the Cascade Mountains. And these hunters pursue its Rocky Mountain elk over settings ranging from the mile-high aeries in the Eagle Cap and Wenaha-Tucannon wildernesses down to the shores of the Snake and Grande Ronde rivers.

In recent years, most of the harvest in both states has been restricted to spikes and cows. The taking of adult bulls has been limited to permit holders, which has increased survival of older, branch-antlered elk. And while it usually takes a few years to draw a bull tag, hunters who do hold tags have an arguably better chance for taking a record-book animal here than in any other area of the Northwest.

Fewer elk roam the Blue Mountains today than did a generation ago. But names like Sled Springs, Tucannon, Imnaha and Mountain View still exert a nearly magnetic pull over the imaginations of Northwest Rocky Mountain elk hunters.

THE OREGON SIDE OF THE BLUES
When it comes to elk, the western Blue Mountains' Umatilla/Whitman Zone has been the most productive for decades. With a mix of open range and conifer forests mingling with the Umatilla and John Day river headwaters, this zone contains some of Oregon's best elk habitat.

During the 2004 season, the zone gave up 3,332 elk, 1,592 bulls and 1,740 cows -- easily the largest harvest in the region. The Starkey Unit alone accounted for more than 640 elk, more than twice as many as any units in the Wallowa and Wenaha/Snake zones.