It's tourist season

The highway to a popular tourist area goes right by our place. Since our ranch is surrounded by public lands and is not visible from the highway, tourists often decide to take our ranch access road in search of a "wilderness experience." Most turn around at the locked gate and look for their adventure elsewhere. One or two decide to set up camp in the middle of the road, blocking traffic of exhausted ranchers returning late at night. Some take the time to vandalize the gate. A few dare to look for the key and come through the gate only to leave when they realize there is someone actually living here. Their first clues are the barking dog and dancing mustang rounding up the churros.

It is a sad fact that the few who vandalize the property or leave the gates open are the reason we dread the tourist season. If the tourists would use common courtesy when dealing with locals, they may have a better "wilderness experience." The locals can usually tell the intrepid adventurer where the best trails for hiking are; where they have the best chance of sighting wildlife; etc. Locals are usually proud of their area. If they weren't, they wouldn't live where they do. So talk to them. Don't turn around and drive away when you suddenly find yourself in someone's front yard. The locals may even let you park in their yard while you are backpacking in the back country for a few days.

And close any gate you open! There is a reason those gates are closed. If you go through an open gate, leave it open. Again, there is a reason the gate is open. And please don't vandalize a gate. Private lands are scattered throughout public lands and they are usually defined by fences and gates.

Don't park in the middle of a road even if it looks like it hasn't been used since 1492. I don't know about you, but I don't care to come home in the middle of the night and find my driveway blocked by a passed out camper. "I didn't know it was a road" is not an acceptable excuse. If you can drive a vehicle on it, and if there is no vegetation growing on it, it's a road in the desert. Just because you can't see the end of the road doesn't mean it's a dead end road.