Trailhead condition requests, questions, alerts, etc.
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"Camping means the temporary use of National Forest System lands for the purpose of overnight occupancy without a permanently-fixed structure."
Whether you are in a vehicle is irrelevant. If you are there overnight and not within a fixed structure (building), you are camping.
Also at the same link, emphasis mine: "Camping equipment means the personal property used in or suitable for camping, and includes any vehicle used for transportation and all equipment in possession of a person camping. Food and beverage are not considered camping equipment."
+1
The issue as I see it would be that if one or more humans are hanging around for 4-5+ hours the chances they need to do #2 are pretty high. I would also wager most people won't use a wag bag and carry it out in their vehicle. So it takes little imagination to envision what would happen if many people did this throughout the summer at a popular trailhead. Whether they slept in a tent, under the stars, or in their vehicle would make no difference.
That’s actually one way trailheads are better than dispersed camping: a lot of them have vault toilets.
Basically, you’re not supposed to do it, but in the past it wasn’t an issue. People were discreet, and there weren’t so many of them. Once you have hashtag-vanlife throwing out their satellite dishes at trailheads, it gets hard to look the other way.
Not within 2.5 hours of Denver, but we stayed at the main Shavano trailhead overnight a few weeks ago in our vehicle without any issues.
There is a vault toilet so I can't see why it would be a problem, unless there were 50 vehicles worth of people there every night. We were there on a weekend and there were only 2-3 other vehicles there, although folks began rolling in at 2am to climb.
Sean Nunn
Raytown MO
"Thy righteousness is like the great mountains." --Psalms 36:6
Not totally on point, but a good chance for a story. I had a client charged by USFS with illegally camping once. He was found in the back of his car in the day use section of a campground and wouldn't get out of his car when told; the deputies finally had to break into his car and drag him out. He lived in his car and it was odd that he was "camping" in the day use area because he actually had a spot in the campground. He finally told me that he wasn't actually sleeping in the back of his car in the day use area when the cops rolled up, he was doing something else, and that something else was why he didn't get out of his car when they told him to. He tried to hide instead of having to pull up his pants and then it just spiraled from there. I was looking forward to pulling this fact out at trial ("your honor, my client wasn't sleeping in his car, he was pleasuring himself") but the US Attorney ended up dropping the case for other technical reasons.
But the authorities will prosecute this if you make them mad enough.
Sluglas wrote: ↑Tue Aug 16, 2022 7:20 am
Not totally on point, but a good chance for a story. I had a client charged by USFS with illegally camping once. He was found in the back of his car in the day use section of a campground and wouldn't get out of his car when told; the deputies finally had to break into his car and drag him out. He lived in his car and it was odd that he was "camping" in the day use area because he actually had a spot in the campground. He finally told me that he wasn't actually sleeping in the back of his car in the day use area when the cops rolled up, he was doing something else, and that something else was why he didn't get out of his car when they told him to. He tried to hide instead of having to pull up his pants and then it just spiraled from there. I was looking forward to pulling this fact out at trial ("your honor, my client wasn't sleeping in his car, he was pleasuring himself") but the US Attorney ended up dropping the case for other technical reasons.
But the authorities will prosecute this if you make them mad enough.
It sounds like they'll do a lot more than prosecute you if they are on a big enough power trip. Property damage and assault seem excessive to hand someone a fine that could just be left on their windshield.
Sluglas wrote: ↑Tue Aug 16, 2022 7:20 am
He lived in his car and it was odd that he was "camping" in the day use area because he actually had a spot in the campground.
He was clearly using bedroom only for sleeping and living room for conducting business during the day.
Oh CJM1, welcome with your first post. But you missed the mark by so many miles! The criteria was <2.5h from Denver. Rock of ages is more than twice that. Otherwise, yes. A very nice place to park, sleep and climb! Oh yeah, all of the trailheads out here are like that. Wait. Shhhhh.
@wentzl why would you not just say "that Rock of Ages is great if you're near Telluride" instead of berating someone who may have mistaken the distance given the other posts in the thread. Or send them a DM with some tips vs calling them out publicly. This is supposed to be a welcoming community.
cvbuffs wrote: ↑Wed Aug 24, 2022 10:10 pm
@wentzl why would you not just say "that Rock of Ages is great if you're near Telluride" instead of berating someone who may have mistaken the distance given the other posts in the thread. Or send them a DM with some tips vs calling them out publicly. This is supposed to be a welcoming community.
Wentzl wrote: ↑Wed Aug 24, 2022 8:11 pm
Oh CJM1, welcome with your first post. But you missed the mark by so many miles! The criteria was <2.5h from Denver. Rock of ages is more than twice that. Otherwise, yes. A very nice place to park, sleep and climb! Oh yeah, all of the trailheads out here are like that. Wait. Shhhhh.
Just out of curiosity, can a passenger car make it to the TH or do you need some clearance (standard SUV)? I read something about a stream crossing, but I'm guessing this time of the year that's not an issue.