I would recommend calling Erika Peckham in the WYGF Gillette office first (307-670-8164), she would hopefully have the recent contact numbers for all of the ranches. She might be able to give you some advice regarding the current access issues.
I called her before the draw to see what the tag numbers would be this year, as we were considering applying for it. But with the low tags given this year there would be no random NR tags so we made another plan. And since we had no way of drawing this unit I didn't follow up with the access issues in any detail.
She did specifically say the Powder River ranch hunts are now run by Del Jenkin's granddaughter, and they now do "more guided type hunts". When we went Del was still "in charge" and did a trespass fee arrangement. We also had this lined up before we applied that year. I had Del's number, and since he is no longer in the loop I don't think it is worth mentioning.
If you call any ranch I would ask if they let anyone hunt the last part of the hunt DYI, even if they run guided hunters first. The year we got tags the hunt actually started a few days before it was listed in the Regs. (check your license when you get it), but that was put in at the request of one ranch that did guided hunts, so he could get his guys done early. Weird situation, not sure if that is still the case.
If anyone gets access to do DYI on the Powder River I'd be happy to share the locations where we saw and shot elk, there were definitely a couple of hot-spots.