jjt,
Well put. Kind of difficult to address the question shy of writing an encyclopedia. Some times I think these " generalized questions" are just being " thrown in" to the forum to keep the readership signing in and throwing in the ole infamous $.02 worth thus keeping the " page hits" up.

How much money, how many days can you be gone from home, what season, what kind of hunt, what are your connections (if any), what is your past hunting experience, what are your physical limitations, do you ride horseback? All relevent factors.

For the most part elk hunting is NOT: sleep in your own home/eat/leave 45 minutes before sunrise/drive to the local deer patch/shoot bambi/drag him by the antlers a quarter mile/toss him in the pickup/be back home for a beer by 11am!

Never Go Undergunned,
EKM