I've only hunted rifle spike units (the ones that are LE bull) and I've only done it late in the week but I think some generalities apply. I'm going to wait and buy a spike tag again because I have a cow tag on a spike/LE unit the week before my deer tag in the same place, but I'm going to hunt the same way. Getting off the roads by a half mile will greatly increase your odds, then learn what their behavior is going to be like post-rut. I heard Randy Newberg say the other day that in late October you need to hunt cows to kill bulls because they're not mating but they aren't breaking up yet. That's exactly what I've observed. last year I saw a herd of about 30 elk on a mountainside, the bull and several satellite bulls were loafing around in the sun and there were cows and spikes just moving like clock hands around them, plus pairs of cows living in a large area within earshot of them. There were other elk moving in small groups in and out of that sphere of influence too, spikes or large cows. Of course on opening day with tons of yahoos chasing them they're certainly going to be running off on their own, but in a low pressure environment that's what they want to do. I'd say scouting is important, but honestly common sense and e-scouting will get you pretty far. Just got to look at terrain and think about what types of spaces are going to meet their needs in different types of weather and then apply wind direction and what the humans are doing. In most cases the humans are going to be driving up and down the roads, bugling like Satchmo no more than 100 yards off the gravel. But a large enough number of hunters are going to be farther and deeper and faster that you'll have company no matter where you go, you have to decide how you're going to mitigate that.
The actual areas they can run to and escape to are not huge (in most cases), and the number of areas with public access combined with units that actually have elk in them all shrink your effective search area dramatically. Utah hunt planner is your best friend. They'll tell you how many elk are in a unit and what they behave like in general. For example I really like the San Rafael area so I got excited when I saw there was an elk unit there, because hey there's only about 75 trees and two springs on the entire unit, should be a piece of cake to find where they are. But then you read about it and the actual population is up to a few dozen a few weeks at a time and they want it to be zero, and it's liable to be a circular firing squad if they are on the unit. Some areas have elk in open spotting country but they will move ten miles without stopping on a whim, possibly into a secured bomb range nearby. The state is really good about publishing stuff like that, plus success rates, age class, etc. You can really prioritize what kind of hunt you want. If you want to glass near guzzlers in the desert and put miles on your truck instead of your knees you can do that. If you want to stalk the timber like they're whitetail you can do that, my buddy loves that method and he was an absolute slaughterer back in the 90's.
I pick an area that has reasonable security but isn't too much for me, one that I can get out of alone and one that's too far for the road hunters but too close for the guys less of a lardbutt than me. Then I have a plan tree in my head for weather, water, available feed, other hunters, my ability to extract, etc. Then I go in and see if they're in that area. To be totally vulnerable, I haven't sealed the deal yet but I have found the elk when I've looked this way. Utah has fewer elk than surrounding states but they are concentrated and they have predictable needs, it's just a matter of lining up your abilities, their needs, human behavior, and combining it with luck.
Bear in mind that hunters will basically hunt other hunters assuming they know more. Maybe this happens in other states but hunters actually shoot over other hunters who are closer to the running elk. Honestly, I didn't believe it til I saw it on film and met someone who's had it happen multiple times.
The elk are out there, and I think a lot get passed by every year because people tend to hunt certain ways in certain places during each season. I mean, that's normal, but I think it's extra normal in Utah. I hope this is helpful, I dislike the protectionist attitude of some hunters. Sure it's not like the old days but the biggest opportunity problem isn't other hunters or even drought. Sure there are more hunters but the vast majority of tags are going to hunters who have zero chance of taking a bull. The private land jitterbug is really intense here, and there's not a lot of elk ground to begin with. the state does a good job balancing trophy class with opportunity but in order to do that more and more units have to become LE to compensate for the transfer of the best lands into private hands and the non-official closing of public lands by syndicates of private neighbors.
