Your best bet is to research the areas with tags available and the highest harvest rates and then look at access. The only way to kill elk consistently is to know their escape routes or go where no one else is willing to go to get them. So be ready to hike after you find sections of land that are devoid of roads. Elk habits can't be learned overnight, books and the internet will only teach you so much. After that you have to hit the woods. If you can figure them out and are willing to work for it they aren't that hard to kill. Most people don't spend enough time or effort at either. That is why the vast majority of the elk are killed by a very small amount of the hunters. The rest are killed by luck.
We shot 3 bulls last year out of one herd of about 50 animals and it was a 7+ mile pack each day for 3 days. Not many people are willing to put that kind of effort out but that is why there were 200 elk on the ridge we shot ours from. Most people see them from a mile away and turn their head and look closer. Instead figure out how to get there and get them out. I don't advocate packing them up hill at all if avoidable, they are too heavy. A boned out bull will be 200-250lbs of meat. I took mine out in 2 trips last year and helped with one of the others on the 3rd trip but most people can't handle 100+lb loads. The average person can handle 50-60lbs without killing themselves and some can do up to 80ish. But that means 3-4 trips per elk if your doing it alone. To be perfectly honest most people are just to lazy and are not willing to put the effort out to kill elk. There are very few easy bull elk hunts on public land unless it's pure luck.
Being from Texas the elevation will kill you for a few days so I would come early and stay as long as you can. If nothing else be observant and learn all you can about what kind of terrain they consistently like. Most elk like between 5000' and 8000' here in SW ID (I'd concentrate around 6-7000') but there is a lot of real estate that falls in that elevation range.
