[FrankenMauser]

Easiest to draw and best chance of success will be Eastern WY. But you need to do your research and find a place to hunt first. Most of it will be private land with trespass fees, but the tags are pretty much guaranteed, because of low application numbers.

The "good" units in Utah have notoriously high requirements for bonus points - often 12-15+ years before you even have a chance. The deer units that are easy to draw do have *some* good deer, but the odds of figuring out the unit's patterns and knowing where to look are highly unlikely for a first-timer - and not worth an expensive cross-country hunt without plenty of scouting first, in my opinion.

It is fairly easy to draw a decent unit in Idaho, but public land is not as accessible and much of it is wilderness (no roads, no vehicles - not even bicycles or horses allowed in some areas). What is readily accessible is typically dry, rolling scrub, or very steep terrain that is hit very hard by residents and nonresidents alike. Success rates are not good, especially after the first 2 days of the season.

CO seems to be the go-to for nonresident elk. But I have never hunted there.

MT hunting is supposed to be decent. But they jacked their prices up about 10 years ago, in an effort to try to make nonresidents subsidize the entire wildlife budget in the state. They will not get my money, and I don't recommend the state to anyone else - even though they eased back on tag prices a bit when nonres application numbers plummeted.

I cannot offer any insight for NV, AZ, NM.