Colorado does have a lot of public land, but you have to do your research because certain units have a lot of private. Your over the counter choices there would be archery, and the second and third rifle season. I would rate the seasons taking in to consideration chance of success and quality of hunting in this order: 1st rifle, archery, 2nd rifle, and 3rd rifle.

Yes, I think drawing a tag for the first rifle is far superior to the 2nd or 3rd seasons. Elk are usually in the tail end of the rut , there are about 1/2 the number of elk hunters in the field, and there are NO deer hunters in the field. For the later seasons, the elk have been chased around for over a month and they are more weather dependent. If you get lots of snow, they can be great, but those years are few and far between.