Why use an outfitter? If you're wanting to hunt elk in CO in 2016 then you have plenty of time to plan a DIY hunt. Any elk taken on your own will have much more meaning to you than one taken with an outfitter. Rather than put $5K into an outfitter's pocket, do the hunt on your own and keep a large chunk of that $$$ for another hunt.

CO has a huge elk herd and millions upon millions of acres of public land to hunt on. My suggestion is to go to the DOW website and begin to research elk hunting. They have a huge amount of info on there. You can even contact the game biologists for areas you're interested in and get their scoop on things. Once you narrow down an area, come back to this site and I'm sure that several of the members, including myself, will pony up some info for you.