So I'm pretty familiar and comfortable in the area where I hunt during muzzleloader every year. However, I hunt with old family members that want to walk less and less each year and drink more and more beer. I find that it's easy to have grand ideas of trekking all over the place in the comfort of home in the spring, but by the time the season rolls around, I just do what is comfortable and familiar, and see the same old nothing each year. Sometimes there are younger guys that accompany and we motivate each other to find new places. Those guys won't be around this year, and this is the first time I've held a bull tag in an area that I feel like I have a chance of actually seeing elk. I don't want to screw it up, so I'm going to actually develop a hunt plan this year to give me something to focus on, instead of wandering around aimlessly. At the very least, I'll cover new ground and see new stuff, and maybe bump into some stuff I otherwise wouldn't have.
Since everything is walk-in where I go, and you can't camp on the trust access, it doesn't take much walking to get away from most of the other hunters, and in general, I don't usually see many other hunters.

I've always stuck almost exclusively to the north side of the mountain I hunt. Should I be looking on the south side this year? I don't think I've ever seen anyone hunting over on the south side, judging by where vehicles would be parked for access. Now that I look at the map though, it looks like I could actually camp in BLM pretty near the area I want to check out. My initial idea is the south side, toward the top. This is at about 11,000ft elevation. The one or two times I climbed to the top of a ridge to see a south facing slope, it mostly seemed much hotter and dryer than on the North side (duh right?). I kind of wrote it off as "not a good elk area" but I need to come to terms with the reality that I'm not very experienced and it's foolish to be making those kinds of judgements without really knowing.

So to boil down the initial inquiry to one simple point, what are your thoughts on North vs. South sides of a mountain? I assume we'll delve into all the other factors of food, cover, water, safe bedding, etc. But from a high level basic view point, do you have a preference?