I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you're going to want to check into the situation at hand here. I live in Southcentral Colorado, not all that far from the Eastern side of Unit 76. Unit 76 is pretty much in the San Juan National Forest. At present, as I message you, the 416 Fire has been burning North of Durango since June 1st. Last I read, it's burned some 32,000 acres, caused over 1000 home evacuations, and we're seeing the smoke at our ranch here. After 18 days, it is less than 20% containment.
As a result, the USFS implemented a Stage III fire alert. What this means, is that the entire San Juan National Forest, some 1.8 million acres is off limits to any entry whatsoever. I have a post recently on this very subject in the Elk forum here. The initial posting said the ban would not be lifted until the weather conditions (RAIN) changed the fire dangers significantly. So, before I made further plans or left to come out here, I'd be sure the ban has been lifted. They got some rain over there over the weekend, but I don't think they got as much as the forecast had called for.
On our side of the Continental Divide, which is in the Rio Grande National Forest, we're at a Stage II alert. In short that means no campfires and no chainsaws, etc. in the forests. It wouldn't take much to bump us up to a Stage III here too. We're in a very widespread drought over much of this State. It's bound to effect a lot of commerce, and of course the game will move to where they can find water sources that haven't dried up.
If you do a bit of internet searching, or call a Ranger Station in the San Juan National Forest, they can provide more details.
