I subscribe to the RSS feeds of all the NF/BLM districts I boondock in while snowbirding. So I knew that a small section of NF land outside Santa Fe, NM where I was headed next was closed for a year.
I picked a spot at least a mile outside the “designated area” that was closed.
A friendly ranger pulled up this morning and asked how long I’d been here (4 days). He started to gently/professionally inform me the area was closed. I pointed out this spot was outside the designated area. He was skeptical and rechecked the map on his phone.
I think he was embarrassed (and thinking of others he might have punted) because he wanted to show me how hard the map was to read on his phone. He also said I was the first person he talked to that had actually read the closure notice. We commiserated a while about the misuse that caused the closure.
He was a good guy and I assume he will go back and clarify the situation for anyone else he misinformed.
#takeaways
- reading the district’s announcements can be both directly and indirectly useful
- bringing up the NF’s official language (“designated area”, “dispersed camping”) seems help establish rapport
We really liked Fort Stanton/Snowy River Cave NCA too - it even brought back memories of limestone hills in Texas’ Edwards Plateau. It eventually got too warm in mid-July while we were there but we plan to go back in cooler weather. In addition, the easy access to Capitan for supplies and Amazon locker deliveries at Brewer’s gas station was convenient (I did some van repairs using some Amazon supplies we picked up).
At the time Rob Jagger’s Campground was closed for an equestrian event unfortunately, so we ended filling up water in Capitan at Mama Bear’s RV park for a small fee ($5 I think).