Let me give you some advice...
"I don't want your honey hole, but, what canyon are the elk in and where do I camp to have the best shot at elk?"
Don't ask other people for their Elk areas, find your own. This might sound harsh but it's more rewarding in the end when you finally figure it out and put all the pieces together. Nobody is going to hand you their honey hole out west and just give you the golden ticket to their spot and their exact location. Over the years I've had hundreds if not upwards of a thousand people ask me advice for hunting out west and they keep digging and trying to get more information about areas. I've seen a good area get turned into an awful one because of the information I've given out and then people spread that information.
Don't tell people your area once you find it unless you don't mind it getting overrun. You might be asking yourself right now "Then why do you invite people to come hunt with you?" I invite people to come with me because I found out the areas, learned them, and now I want to learn new areas. I'm sure someone will spill the beans out of eleven people coming with me for Pronghorn/Deer to a family member, best friend, etc. or even someone I gave the information to apply. There are thirty views on the video on how to apply and what area to apply for and I only sent it to twelve people. You can never trust anybody with your areas or information. Once you've done this process you'll understand why people out west are secretive about their areas. You've put hundreds of hours of e-scouting, boots on the ground, etc. just to give that information away willy-nilly? Why?
GET OnXMaps, you're going on a DIY hunt that costs $1,250+...people need to shut up about how OnXMaps is $30 a year, it's worth it. OnX isn't just a valuable tool to figure out where you're at but it can help with e-scouting. It's an invaluable tool and at points, if I didn't have it I wouldn't have ever harvested an animal in the area. E-scouting helps out a lot and you can learn a lot about an area just by looking at it online. Google Street View and Google Earth can be valuable tools too.
Bring a snow shovel, get a winch, bring a first aid kit. Yes, it snows in Idaho in September can it can get bad really fast even at 4,000' elevation. After hunting Idaho for Black Bear I've learned don't slack off on these things. You'll regret it when a blizzard moves in and dumps a foot of snow on you and you can't get out. Luckily for me in the spring the days are getting warmer, not colder. In the fall, it could be a different story and I know of people that have left vehicles in areas into late May/early June. I wouldn't venture into these areas alone the first time (especially your first time out west) and would bring a friend to hunt with me.
Buy a Deer, Black Bear, Mountain Lion, and Wolf tag it's not much more depending on the area. FUN FACT: Idaho allows you to harvest predatory animals on your big game tag but it fills your big game tag. You might be surprised and come home with something extra or something you wouldn't have been able to come home with.
Look at harvest success rates, draw odds (if you want to draw a tag), and public/private percentage. The best site to look at is the IDGF website but huntscore and toprut are both great resources.
https://huntscore.com/hunts/id/elk
https://www.toprut.com/maps/
Go shed hunting, Pronghorn hunting, small game hunting, summer scouting trip. Do you want to be really successful? Go on an easier hunt or scouting trip out west first. Jumping straight into Elk hunting IMO without any information about the area or not stepping foot in the area can be a killer unless you've learned an area previously. I'm constantly going shed hunting in new areas, scouting new areas, and learning new areas all across the west. I'm lucky and move from job to job state to state out west (I'm working for Colorado Parks and Wildlife right now).
Learn the difference between State Lands, National Forest, National Grassland, National Parks, and Bureau of Land Management. Depending on the state these can all be different and don't assume you can/can't hunt them or have access. Most National Forests/National Grasslands/BLM lands you can hunt, camp, fish, etc. on but there are still rules and regulations regarding all of those things.
Don't rule an area out for low success rates. Some of the best areas I've ever been to have had the lowest success rates in the state and I've don't my research and found the animals and am willing to hike in further than other people. NEVER rule out an area just because of low success rates, use other factors as well. I've had people not want to go on hunts with me because the success rates for the area are "too low" even though I've always killed a deer, pronghorn, or elk in those areas even with low success rates.
