Mike and I headed to the big town 60 miles (96.5 Km) away this morning and not 10 miles (1.6 Km) from home we saw a herd of Elk that numbered around 50! No camera with me and my phone wouldn't take a good picture of them! I'm taking the camera with me tomorrow and see if I can see them again. They were magnificent!
Hoping you can find them and photograph the elk! If not, it's enough that you saw them--50 elk is amazing.
A wise person once said that the best photos are the ones that are never taken. I've had some of those over the years. Good luck with finding the elk again.