Cattlemen Trail Dispersed Camping

South West of Silver City on highway 90 is a segment of the Gila National Forest. The highway crosses the Continental Divide Trail, complete with a nice area to pull off and hike a bit or camp. While there are no established camping areas, it is easy enough to spot where people regularly do camp either by the tire tracks or the fire pits made by previous campers.

It is a little high in the elevation (above 6000) so prepare for cold nights. There is a little road noise as the better camping areas are closer to the highway. Lastly, the Verizon signal is weak here but manageable for anything short streaming.

Beautiful area, reasonably quiet this time of year (early January). Only a couple of ATVers, a couple of four wheelers, a group of mountain bikers, and a couple of other RVs spending a night or two during our eight nights here over the New Year's holiday. I've never seen such a variety of evergreens...loved the Evergreen Oak. Enjoyed hiking and mountain biking a variety of trails. Night time lows ranged from upper twenties to low forties with a little snow one night.

Nice, quiet, clean spot. Do need to share with the free range cattle, but they don't bother you at all. Bigger spots near to road, or park your larger rig and walk a short ways in to see if you want to try further in. Looks like road used to go further, but now has quite a few wash outs but depending on your rig and your tolerance you may be able to take a larger rig a bit further in. The drive is gravel with the sites dirt, some have a bit of a "ditch" to go thru but we got our 42' 5th wheel over easily. Sites are a bit sloped so be a bit prepared for leveling.

This is a spacious, easy boondocking spot if you're headed to the Gila, or want to stay somewhere near Silver City. There was only one other person camped there when I stayed, and there was space for many more. It's a boondocking spot, so there are no facilities besides the stone fire ring. I did have decent cell service, which is always a nice plus.

It's very close to the road, so there is a little traffic noise, but not much, and it was really quiet at night. During the morning and evening, the main sound to be heard was loud mooing from cows. With a name like Cattlemen Road, I guess I should expect cows wandering through my campsite!

There's a trailhead for the Continental Divide trail right here, and I did a day hike up the trail one day. There were nice views from the trail, though somewhat hazy due to smoke from nearby forest fires. I didn't see a single person on the trail, though did run into quite a few cows!

All in all, I'd be happy to stay here again if I'm passing through the area, but it's not a destination spot.

This place is awesome. Free camping in Gila National Forest. Confirmed 4g lte Verizon.

We actually got to meet a whole bunch of Continental Divide Trail (CDT) thru-hikers while we stayed here since they all had to walk across the big field we were boondocked at. We even gave one hiker a ride into Silver City when we left.

While a local resident was providing trail magic for the thru-hikers by one of the trailheads, we helped make sure the water jugs were full since it's an extremely dry area without a lot of water refill options - we also offered hikers ice to go with their drinks (anything cold is a big deal!). If we had realized before we got here that we'd see so many thru-hikers, we would've purchased a variety of snacks to add to the existing trail magic.

Keep the CDT thru-hikers in mind if you're staying here mid-April to mid-May. They still have a long way to hike to Canada!

We loved this place. A little busy with hikers in and out but everyone was respectful. Enjoyed the trails and wildlife.

Higher altitude spot. Visited for 5 days in early November. Cool nights this time of year, possible freezing. Quiet and restful. Pacific Crest Trail intersects the area.

The others have pretty well said it. There are plenty of spots tucked away shaded or somewhat shaded by the oaks and junipers. I have one gripe about places such as this, and it's nothing to do with the site. It's people who do their business but also leave their toilet paper visible. The thing is to PACK OUT YOUR TOILET PAPER. Poop decomposes fairly quickly but TP does not. Even if you think you buried your cathole, animals can dig it up.

I also policed up various tidbits of litter. If the Campendium community will pitch in and do this, it will help leave out campsites better than we found them

The hike on the CDT Trail affords spectacular views of southwest New Mexico as you climb higher. Note: We could not figure out where the CDT Trail heads south. We saw no signs along the highway.

More info about the CDT Trail. This route is the official, meaning government agencies' route. The Continental Divide Trail Coalition is a private organization that publishes a substantially different route through the southern part of New Mexico. Their route starts south of Deming and works it way up through the Cookes range, 50 miles east or so of the designated route.

While heading south to escape cold weather we stopped at this location for what we thought might just be an overnight and ended up staying for three nights.

Access is very easy and big rigs will have no problem

The camping areas are not far off the highway but the highway noise is minimal to not even noticeable

If you like off-roadIng there are an abundance of trails and we took our Polaris for a 30 mile drive through the mountains it was fantastic

The continental divide trail passes through this campground and I think there are people leaving water out for illegal immigrants heading north

There are a few cattle around and a few hikers and this is just a fantastic place to stop whether you are in a tent or in a big rig