Cattlemen Trail Dispersed Camping

The road in is very well done. We have a 40 foot toy hauler and had no problem getting in. However there is some pretty deep drop offs pulling off into the camping area. There is a nice parking lot to turn around that you probably could canoe if you wanted. We decided not to stay here but would recommend. I didn’t see any trash and there was hiking and sxs trails available in the area.

This area as mentioned previously, has been renovated by the Forest Service. There are still a number of boondocking spots here even though it appears a large part of it has been blocked off for vehicles. Most of the sites are level. Even if you couldn't find an individual site, there is a very large gravel parking lot for oversized vehicles which you could stay in. During our week here, there was us and one other trailer even over a weekend. Not much traffic, even for the trails. There is decent hiking, the spot we were in was great for solar and Starlink. There is even decent T-Mobile data available. There is a slight bit of noise from NM 90 which passes by, but it didn't bother us at all.

There is a great boondocking spot down FS Road 585 that most people will never know about. The GPS location is 32.55081 -108.42505. To get there, you will take the second road to the right, it has a sign 585 (the first road goes to a ranch and has a gate across it). Then follow the road about 1/2 a mile up a rocky road and the spot will be on your right. It is huge and has great views. The road is a little rough towards the site, but I wouldn't hesitate to take my 25' trailer up there. I didn't only because we had already been set up for two days before we hiked up the road and saw the site.

It is 20 miles to Silver City.

Great, quiet spot.

This area as mentioned previously, has been renovated by the Forest Service. There are still a number of boondocking spots here even though it appears a large part of it has been blocked off for vehicles. Most of the sites are level. Even if you couldn't find an individual site, there is a very large gravel parking lot for oversized vehicles which you could stay in. During our week here, there was us and one other trailer even over a weekend. Not much traffic, even for the trails. There is decent hiking, the spot we were in was great for solar and Starlink. There is even decent T-Mobile data available. There is a slight bit of noise from NM 90 which passes by, but it didn't bother us at all.

There is a great boondocking spot down FS Road 585 that most people will never know about. The GPS location is 32.55081 -108.42505. To get there, you will take the second road to the right, it has a sign 585 (the first road goes to a ranch and has a gate across it). Then follow the road about 1/2 a mile up a rocky road and the spot will be on your right. It is huge and has great views. The road is a little rough towards the site, but I wouldn't hesitate to take my 25' trailer up there. I didn't only because we had already been set up for two days before we hiked up the road and saw the site.

It is 20 miles to Silver City.

Great, quiet spot.

Imagine my disappointment when I arrived to find that the USFS had made this a parking area. Yes, you can still camp here but you'll be on a sloped gravel lot with boulders preventing you from parking on the field. Bummer. There are two or three sites for smaller rigs on the right side of the road after you enter from NM 90 and before you get to the 'loop' area of the road. You can no longer camp in the large area to the left of the road - there are "no camping" signs there now. Yes, I will still camp here every spring because it's also where the Continental Divide Trail crosses and I set up a trail magic station here for the through hikers. My understanding from the locals is that there are plans for pit toilets to be installed here 'soon'. It's hard to say if this will remain free or if it will go onto the forest service campground roster. At any rate, if you come here in the spring (Last part of April through mid-May) you'll see lot of through hikers. At this crossing, they are 150 - 165 miles into the 3100 mile hike. Do yourself a favor and pay attention to where the trail crosses the parking area if you would prefer not to have people walking through your camp daily. Just look for the trail signs. This area continues to have free range cattle and, new this year, two feral house cats. We didn't see any large predators in our two weeks and only heard coyotes once. Any rig will fit back here but you'll be very challenged to get level without lifting tires on one side.

I tried to stay here arriving late on a Saturday cautious but hopeful of prior reviews stating how spread out and empty it is. There’s also snow and some pretty cold temps tomorrow going into the week. On my arrival around 6pm however the place was packed by RVs, Vans, and Tent campers. There’s quite a bit of construction going on as well it looks as though they’re trying to make some improvements to the area adding piping but a large area of dirt appeared to be flattened out with three tractors being present. This may have taken out some of the sites due to the size and placement of the area. The sites I did see (about 8ish) seemed close but fairly private and my AT&T bounced between 1 and 2 bars LTE. I may try to come back in the future due to its proximity to the trailhead but the construction and close sites have me weary.