When I applied to NM and WY, I looked at previous years' draw data. Who got drawn where with how many points. I looked at hunter success as well, looking at cow and bull harvest. Both areas in NM and WY I applied for were not "highly desirable" trophy bull units and thus your odds of drawing were better. I wanted to hunt elk, have a license in my pocket and be able to stomp around the mtns. Would I have loved to tag a bull? You bet. But I felt lucky to be out there elk hunting, everything and anything else was icing on the cake.
First DIY solo archery elk hunt in NM, second day, I was moving to a different spot when I heard a bull elk scream fairly close by. More of a squeal than a scream. Immediately, the poplar thicket the sound came from exploded and I had a herd of elk stampeding towards me. I had stopped walking at the sound of the elk, had the diaphragm call in my cheek, moved it to the roof of my mouth. As the lead cow closed on me, I did a soft cow call, she slammed on the brakes and stopped at 9 yards broadside. I sent a Montec G5 tipped arrow through her heart. She ran maybe 60 yards and piled up. Even this colorblind dude could follow the blood trail. She went down about 400 yards up a gentle slope from my car, easy quarter and pack out job.
Part of the reason I'm not going anymore is point creep. Even 10 years ago, you had to have 6,7,8 or more preference points for the "good" areas. Sorry, I don't have 10 years to wait, I'm not getting any younger.
Last trip to NM, everybody was riding ATV's around, calling from the forest service roads, educating the elk. If I was to look at a trip now, I'd try to find a primitive hike in area that does not allow motor vehicles, just my bias.
Day before I shot the cow in NM, I had LEO drive by my car, pulled around a corner and sat there a bit. This is clear back up in a national forest, along a poorly maintained forest service road. About a half hour later, he slowly drives back over to me and asks me what I was doing. It was clear he was wearing a bullet proof vest. Now did he have it on when he first drove by? Or did he pull past, put it on and come back? He'd seen my Iowa license plates. I told him I was elk hunting (dressed in camo head to toe), and his comment was that it was a long way to drive to hunt elk. I said, well we don't have any in Iowa, a guys gotta do what a guys gotta do. He asked to see my elk tag and he tried to call it in. I heard the dispatch woman on the other end saying she had no way to check to see if it was a valid tag. I guess lots of drug trafficking goes on back in these areas, I can only imagine it has gotten worse, that close to the US Mexico border (though Grants is in the northern part of the state).