BLM opens North Maricopa Mtns. new campsites.

[Alston_Neal]

Deb and I headed to her favorite hiking area the N. Maricopas. We pulled off at the Estrella TH and Staging area and noticed the wire gate was gone and the two rut road was now a two lane wide graded road. A temp. sign said campsites and it looks like they started in Aug. We noticed starting two years ago that the area was beginning to open. New BLM road markers were showing up. Yesterday we hiked up into a canyon S. of Butterfield Pass. It was an awesome misty day with light sprinkles. When we got back to the FJ we decided to drive farther and see what the BLM did. There is another canyon we liked to hike that had an old two rut road, now it's graded single lane wide. It dead ends at what was once a popular camping spot but now gentrified. Spread out from each other are four camping areas with concrete picnic tables and steel fire rings. We've had mixed feelings about it slowly opening up because it has recovered nicely from over use. But our hiking distance has dropped in half the last two years so now we can get farther back into Deb's mountains. A GE photo from May of this year still shows it as a two rutter, but there is a truck parked where the new sites are. I've searched to no avail for info, maybe it's too new, but I'm sure Chumley will find a PDF on it...

[chumley]

@Alston_Neal
Ask and you shall receive ...
https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/ ... /44347/510

[Grimey]

Nice area, likely to be overrun soon enough.

[chumley]

PHOENIX – As part of an effort to expand recreation opportunities for public lands users, the Bureau of Land Management’s Lower Sonoran Field Office will temporarily close some public lands in the Sonoran Desert National Monument for construction of the Estrella-Wayside Recreation Area. The closure begins August 17, 2022, and will be in effect for up to two years, or until construction is completed.

https://www.blm.gov/press-release/blm-i ... on-sonoran

I can't find anything about when areas have/will open, but the press release from this summer announced closures related to constructing the above-linked projects ... and that they may last for two years. So check back in 2024 for details!

[Alston_Neal]

My gosh I can't believe how big it's going to be.

[Hansenaz]

Any desert development which is not a new landfill, is, at least, not as bad as a landfill.

[Alston_Neal]

@Hansenaz
Yeah these new campsites up the canyon are just big enough for a tent. Can't pull your fifth wheel in these.