Roads open to public access

[chrispbrown27]

I am curious what the road situation is in Colorado. Are all county roads and highways open to the public, even if they pass through private property. That's the way it is everywhere I have ever hunted but do not want to make assumptions and end up in a bad situation. I'm also curious why, on gohunt maps, some of the roads are marked with either green and black (open year-round) or yellow and black (open seasonally) but others are not marked (just a white line). Also, for those that are familiar with gohunt maps, why are some roads marked seasonal for the vast majority of the road, and then smack dab in the middle of nowhere will be a section that is marked as being open year-round. It seems to me that if the section leading to the year-round open section is blocked by the seasonally open section then the entire road is seasonal.

 

[Jason73]

I'd suggest pretty much any fs road over 7-7500 ft is probably seasonal.

 

[Bluffgruff]

Roads on gohunt's map are so hit or miss for Colorado that I would use another resource for legality. You can use USFS MVUMs, Colorado hunting atlas, or county tax assessor maps to find legal roads. BLM interactive map is also helpful.

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

I am curious what the road situation is in Colorado. Are all county roads and highways open to the public, even if they pass through private property. That's the way it is everywhere I have ever hunted but do not want to make assumptions and end up in a bad situation. I'm also curious why, on gohunt maps, some of the roads are marked with either green and black (open year-round) or yellow and black (open seasonally) but others are not marked (just a white line). Also, for those that are familiar with gohunt maps, why are some roads marked seasonal for the vast majority of the road, and then smack dab in the middle of nowhere will be a section that is marked as being open year-round. It seems to me that if the section leading to the year-round open section is blocked by the seasonally open section then the entire road is seasonal.

It's complicated and highly variable, Oct - Nov can be a very tricky time in regard to access.

1. There are roads that become private, it may go through miles of public then 1/2 mile of private then become public again and be shut down at that private section. Neither OnX nor gohunt in my experience are great at showing those issues systematically... good in some spots bad in others.

2. Some county roads aren't maintained in the winter and therefore seasonal, but a lot of them are informally closed. Like there isn't a gate, but rather just a sign. I know a bunch of spots where people live past the county stops plowing, so starting in Nov there is a sign that says road closed, but you can drive around it and go up probably 5 miles before the road becomes a wall of snow... sometimes in Nov and April the sign will be up but you can actually make it all the way through in a 4 wheel drive vehicle.

3. Some roads are open but it's not actually possible or reasonable to drive them.

Your best bet is to look at the actual MVUM with the USFS that informs those layers.

 

[nrpate05]

1. There are roads that become private, it may go through miles of public then 1/2 mile of private then become public again and be shut down at that private section. Neither OnX nor gohunt in my experience are great at showing those issues systematically... good in some spots bad in others.

This has become the toughest thing for me. It is hard to know unless you physically scout the area or can get in touch with someone who knows which can be difficult. I planned on hunting an area last season where a county road went thru private for ~1/4 mile then opened up to a large public area. Turned out that private section of road was closed and made accessing that area very tricky. I wonder if CO has a law about this somewhere or if it is up to the landowner?

 

[chrispbrown27]

This is what I was hoping for. I knew there were better maps, I just wasn't sure exactly where to find them. Thank you everyone for the help.

 

[Green Hunter]

I ran into this issue this past year. GoHunt looked like the road went into the public land but when I pull up there is a gate through the small wedge of private, cutting off access for miles! It even looked like a county road on the maps...

All of the gates were clearly marked with no trespassing signs. Took me hours to go further down the mountain and back along another road only to find another with restricted access. I would suggest plenty of time to scout around looking for access unless there are confirmed trailheads.

 

[wytex]

Contact the county road and bridge departments and ask about specific roads.
If it's like Wyoming landowners will place no trespassing signs at cattle guards where property changes hands and it looks like they are posting the roads when it is the land beside the road they are posting.
MVUM has the road info for each forest.