I have responded to this type of question on unit 4 several times, in case you haven't searched the archives, here are some of my answers.
My experience a couple years ago was they were all down low, I hunted the high country the whole time during second season and after a day or two they had all hit the private land low. You might try the blm land on the western side of the unit. There was usually one buck up high on each mountain but there is so much pressure that you really end up covering some ground to find them.
I hunted 2nd season last year near Black Mountian and the Bears Ears. This area gets a lot of pressure! Even three to four miles in there are a lot of people. More people using horses in this area than you would believe. If I were you I would head for the wilderness area on the east side and pack in that way. Going north out of Steamboat Springs you can follow the Elk River for access to the wilderness area. This looked to be less pressured and better hunting in general. Even without packing in I would hunt that area first. Good Luck.
Very little public land down low where the deer wil be, what little there is will be on the west side. There is a ton of hunters in this unit and a lot of them use horses to get where thay are going. This unit is really overhunted for deer and don't pass up a buck. In 9 days hunting I only saw 2 bucks in 05'on public or private land, compared to another unit in 06 where I passed up 30 bucks and saw probably a total of 50-55 including private land bucks. Elk seemed to be a totally different story. Real easy unit to fill a cow tag and maybe a decent chance at a bull. The idea of hiking away from roads to get away from pressure doesn't work here, there were people EVERYWHERE! Good luck.