I'm new to wanting to hunt CO. Looking at a unit with a lot of private land - some of the public parcels are "checkerboard".
In WY there needed to be a numbered public road to drive to public land, if it wasn't a numbered road you were trespassing. Sure cut out a lot of public land with that rule.
HA CO is the devil. If its a privately maintained CR it is considered private. Must be a CR that is not privately maintained or allows access through private
I have the Colorado OnX Map chip for my Garmin Oregon 600 GPS. Has all private property marked and shows who owns it. I never hunt without it. One thing to remember...in the National Forests there are grazing leases that are fenced. You can legally cross these fences and hunt these areas, you just have to make sure it's fenced NF public land. Again my GPS shows if it is private.
I did plan to use the onXmaps chip - wouldn't go without it.
Glad I asked about the roads - someone told me to go on this hunt and that we could drive on most any road to access blocks of land. It may be where he is sending me or maybe he just got away with it...
Now I have to confirm the roads to the blocks. onX will take care of the property boundaries. Same as I had to do for WY.
A friends father in law has some property that he fenced off way back after it was homesteaded. It has a road running through it from public to private to public that is gated and locked. Two years ago the BLM told him that he had to allow access to others going through his land if he wanted to use the road to the end of it past his property, he refused. Now the only way that he can use the road above his property on BLM land is if it is for ranch business. Mind you this road just goes for another couple of miles and then dead ends.
He used to have friends that would come out from California and the mid west that now have to camp on his land and walk into where they used to hunt. I figured that this would happen a long time ago and it finally did but they still refuse to open up their gate to anyone else.
All landlocked public land should be sold or traded for land that can be open for public access. Sell our public land that only a few landowners control access purchase more that the public has unobstructed access to. I think landlocked public land is a crock of s---
All landlocked public land should be sold or traded for land that can be open for public access. Sell our public land that only a few landowners control access purchase more that the public has unobstructed access to. I think landlocked public land is a crock of s---
Problem is who is going to purchase the landlocked land? The property owners around it already can take advantage of it without having to pay any taxes on it. If someone else would buy it then they would have access problems just like us hunters.
Until the states require landowners to unlock gates and allow access to this type of land nothing will really come of it.
A friends father in law has some property that he fenced off way back after it was homesteaded. It has a road running through it from public to private to public that is gated and locked. Two years ago the BLM told him that he had to allow access to others going through his land if he wanted to use the road to the end of it past his property, he refused. Now the only way that he can use the road above his property on BLM land is if it is for ranch business. Mind you this road just goes for another couple of miles and then dead ends.
He used to have friends that would come out from California and the mid west that now have to camp on his land and walk into where they used to hunt. I figured that this would happen a long time ago and it finally did but they still refuse to open up their gate to anyone else.
Sounds like your friend's father in law is within his rights to close the gate to his property if he wants to.
However, it's hard to believe the BLM folks can then "retaliate" and restrict his access to BLM land.
If it's public (BLM) land then he should be able to use that road.
All they are doing as far as access to the road above his property is restricting it to "ranching activities." Which does not include hunting, running 4 wheelers up to the end of the road, or allowing hunters to drive on it for the intended purpose of hunting.
They tried to fight it but like all government agency they have more money than the rancher and welcome the court battle.
All they are doing as far as access to the road above his property is restricting it to "ranching activities." Which does not include hunting, running 4 wheelers up to the end of the road, or allowing hunters to drive on it for the intended purpose of hunting.
They tried to fight it but like all government agency they have more money than the rancher and welcome the court battle.
Yeah it's super complicated here in CO. OnX or Basemap are a must but you still have to be careful. I've had an experience where OnX had incorrect information and I know from another thread I'm not alone. It's still your responsibility. I've also had the OPPOSITE experience - I know at least one good public land spot that has No Tresspassing signs posted in a few places even though they're public (absolutely, 100% confirmed with the county assessor). Sometimes the information is just out of date because of a property sale that didn't get carried through.
One thing you should know is that just because land is beyond a private parcel doesn't mean it's totally inaccessible. There are a ton of places in the high plains where there are USFS or BLM parcels "behind" private land, but the landowner is allowing access through. I have sympathy for non-residents because the data on these is really shaky. We know them because as you drive by, the access roads have "Public Land Access" signs. A lot of times the USFS "MVUM" maps will indicate access roads for these accurately, but the MVUMs are super low quality and can be hard to read/use.
