Bow or rifle? Two totally different hunts.
Archery is a much tougher solo task, hotter weather to worry about meat care, more people in the woods depending on the state. Calling in and killing a bull is not an easy task, most of the most successful solo hunters mostly do it spot and stalk.
During archery, the meat will be a concern if the temps aren't dropping below 50 at night, you will want to get it on ice or in a cooler within 24 hours or less depending on how hot it is.
IMO if you want to have the greatest success archery elk hunting try to find a good hunting partner, it is so much nicer hunting with someone else, so much easier to call in elk with a caller and so much easier packing elk with help. I hunted solo for years and bounced between partners due to lack of commitment from others, since finding a good hunting partner both our or success rates have gone up tremendously!
Rifle hunting is different, yes a partner is nice for packing, piece of mind, and sanity reasons but even when we use to do large elk camps as a kid we always split up and covered ground to find elk. Honestly, if you are rifle hunting for any elk just cover ground in elk country, glass openings on ridge top early, and watch where they disappear as the sun comes up. Still hunt the spots the elk go into and shoot the first cow that stands up.
If you're after a bull and the hunt is after Oct. 15th you need to find the nastiest deadfall filled ridges and knobs in the area and still hunt through them, go super slow, take a few steps, glass and repeat. If there are tracks in the area there will be elk nearby. I've found the most bedded bulls in the heads of side draws near the top, below saddles, they like multiple escape routes and are great at moving around it nasty dead fall pockets.
Rifle season meat is less of a concern and typically you can hang it in the woods for several days in the shade without issues.