You didn't mention if you would be on your own or bringing fellow hunters with you. DIY elk hunting for a rookie entirely on your own -- without any hunting companions -- has a particularly low probability of success and an increased probability of bad stuff happening without anyone at hand to help you out.

If you had one or more companions, you might look into a "drop camp." This would involve paying an outfitter to drop you off in a pre-established elk camp in elk country. The outfitter would swing by occasionally (discuss with the outfitter how often and when) and pack-out your elk for you. This is a critical and important service for a novice elk hunter. Additionally, it is the nature of elk hunting that you are better off in a substantial tent that you can heat with a wood burning stove (again, discuss with the outfitter the wood situation -- do they cut it, do you cut it, how do you get the wood cutting/splitting done). This would at least get you somewhere where you could possibly see and shoot an elk. The cost of a drop camp may be about $1,500 per hunter. They outfitter may have some minimum number of hunters per drop camp. You are not guided and the outfitter does not provide you with horses, the outfitter does not field dress or cut-up your elk for you; the outfitter does not provide food and does not provide a cook to cook your food for you. That is how he is able to offer you a cheaper price than a fully outfitted/guided hunt.

Shooting trophy quality elk is not a cheap or easy proposition. Most elk hunters -- including me -- are happy to be in the beautiful high country hearing elk bugle (possibly, but not too often during rifle seasons) and shooting any elk. Elk is GREAT eating. I made an elk roast last night. It knocked everyone's socks off, and I'm not kidding. It beats whitetail hands down. Being in the high country in October, hiking in the real mountains, carrying a solid rifle on your shoulder, seeing elk tracks, talking about what you saw, smelled, and heard in your canvas wall tent at night, hearing the wood snap and crackle in the wood stove, your boots off, your stocking feet pointed towards the stove, drinking a cup of warm coffee or hot chocolate. It is a pretty good time, and the quality -- in my book -- is not measured by the size of antlers. I took a cow this year, and my satisfaction was greater than the satisfaction I had taking my first bull 3x4 or my second bull 5x5.