A buddy and I are in the beginning stages of planning an elk hunt.   He has a friend that guides out there.    I just turned 40, and he will soon and this is our gift to ourselves.    Wanted to do an elk hunt all my life.   We are planning for 2018.     I know the number one priority before heading out there is to get in the best shape possible.    To say I'm excited is an understatement.   Please feel free to share tips, stories, anything.  We have starting working on list of things to ask the outfitter as well.

That would be the Beartooth mountains, then. I grew up around there. It's a real good news/bad news area. Good news is, there are lots of elk on the Beartooth face. The bad news? They form mega herds (due to wolves) and tend to live on private, or inaccessible public land. If you are going with an outfitter, you ought to be in good shape on the land access though!

Oh yeah, the Beartooths are one of the most formidable mountain ranges you could set out to climb. If the hunt is in the foothills it won't be too bad. If it's at elevation, well... better start training.  

Thanks for the reply , I truly appreciate it.    I envy those of u that get to live in such beautiful states.      
Just curious what other type of wildlife might we see in that area, muley, whitetail, bear?    Again thanks for the reply Malachi .

Re. other wildlife... I might have forgotten to mention the rather alarming number of grizzlies. The population is expanding further north around the Beartooth face pretty rapidly.

Wolves are there, as are whitetail/mule deer, black bears, etc. Really, there is a possibility of encountering almost any animal that has a home in the Rocky Mountains where you are headed.

I lived in Billings in the 70s and spent a considerable amount of time scouting for and hunting sheep in the National Forest and particularly the Beartooth Wilderness Area south of Nye. If you have access to private land lower down near the Stillwater River the going is not too bad, up in the Wilderness Area you are in some of the roughest real estate you will ever negotiate.

What outfitter are you considering?

To be honest I'm not sure what his name is.    He is a friend of the other guy I'm going with.   An old schoolmate.   My buddy talked with him and got general info, and we are comprising a list of questions to ask him for the next phone call.

I have to ask a question.   Are the snakes bad out there?   I had never thought of that.   I was watching a hunting show yesterday where they were elk hunting in Montana (they didn't say where), and the weather was warmer than usual and they said the snakes were out all over and they had several close calls!!

I hunted the beartooth mountain range near Red Lodge. It is a hard hunt with lots of elk , but they do herd up although I did come close to killing good bulls on 3 occasions. Lots of lions and bears so watch out. Took 2 1/2 hour hike from my camp which I packed in 1 hr. From truck. That was 1995.

I've never hunted there, though I do fish the Stillwater near there. The ruggedness of the Beartooth mountains, coupled with the fact that I saw a big griz there some years ago, keeps me from hunting there. But I can say that the posts above by those who have also been to the area are exactly right.

I hunted the Nye area back in the early 80's with my father and brother. One of the areas we hunted frequently was somewhat near the Benbow mine. Might have a different name now.  We did very well on mule deer, but didn't have much success with elk. But it was a different time. We never saw wolves or grizzly bears as their numbers were substantially lower than today. One thing I can tell you that may help you is I thoroughly loved hunting that country. It was wild and beautiful. It filled my soul.

I hope you have a great hunt!

If you have private land to hunt then you will be in elk paradise. Most of the public land outfitters in the Beartooth mountains aren't exclusively for elk. They used to be back when the numbers were up before wolves. Post wolves the public land mainly is outfitted for goat sheep and moose. The outfitters will take you for elk but, will not be positive that you will get an opportunity. So hopefully you will be on private land otherwise I would say try a different area. The White Sulphur area has such a high number of elk there you can kill one all the way to the middle of January. It isn't as aestheticly pleasing as the Beartooths, but there is a huge number of elk, no grizzlies and low population of wolves. Plus it isn't as physically demanding as the Beartooths. Yet you still need to be in shape.

Thank you very much everyone for the responses and insight.   It is very much appreciated.  And please feel free to keep sharing.    Our hunt is 20 months away and I am already extremely excited.   In the first call to the outfitter he mentioned being able to hunt private or public.   He mentioned private would be a better chance but public would be a more rugged and exciting hunt, and we would have to be in great shape.     We have compiled a pretty good list of questions for him and will be speaking with him again soon.    Thanks again everyone that replied.   Andy