"I would love to hear some tips for finding the right type of area to even start looking. "

Best bet is usually late spring/early summer nights with decently warm temps and low amounts of moonlight(or better yet, no moonlight), on roads that are out in the middle of good habitat. I mostly find them out down to about 67-70 degrees f. (evening temps, at the time of driving), sometimes cooler.
Need to find good habitat with low traffic. Hilly undeveloped grasslands with plenty of rock piles are a good bet -around here anyways.