Being from another state with very little public land, I dont have a frame of context to understand whats out there and whats allowed.

Can you park in a parking lot somewhere and just drive a Polaris into a million acres?

Is it a thing where you pay a fee at a controlled entrance?

What do you do out there and how many people are around you?

We vacationed in the area and skied schweitzer. Looking to retire someday. Sure would like to buy land that abuts public land and live and outdoor active life, but I dont know what to expect.

I’m not a land use expert but from what I’ve seen and dealt with, depending on where you are in the state, most public land is wide open to go into.  Generally there’s nothing to stop you from entering via a road or trail.  You can drive a forest service road or a dirt road and cross serveral parcels of privately owned, BLM or state owned land.  Many of those areas allow people to transit the area to get from one area to another.

As far as a checkpoint like you mentioned thats only state or federal parks that operate to generate funds like Craters of the Moon and the like.  Pretty much anywhere else a gate will be closed because its private property and they cannot impede access to an area where theres is an easment to allow movement from one area to another.  People try but usually they get told to knock it off.  You’ll see alot of that kind of stuff happen on Forest Service roads where somebody decides they don’t want people transiting that road after people have been doing it for 50 or more years.  

Most folks hunt, hike, camp and go four wheeling out on those areas.  There are areas that I’ve gone into where I was pretty sure our group was the only people for miles. Other areas can be pretty crowded and it’s only getting worse with all the recent transplants.  It’s pretty frustrating to hunt in some areas where almost every clearing looks like an RV dealership and people are making enough noise to drive even the cattle herds away.  That has become especially frustrating in many areas we’ve enjoyed are getting trashed by all these numbnuts moving here that absolutely no respect for the environment.  

If you’re entertaining the thought of moving here one day and buying land, I hope you have really deep pockets and good luck finding a deal.  Huge swaths of land have already been bought up and most of the good spots have long since been paid for.  Quite honestly everyone and their brother has gotten that idea well before you did.  Too many people have watched Yellowstone and think they can still afford to get some land here.  

To sum it up, there’s a ton of land here wide open to enjoy, but more and more outsiders are fucking it up, rich people are buying it up, the federal government is closing it up and us locals have to sit and watch it all go to hell.    

So good luck to you, maybe Texas isn’t such a bad option.

Man I really appreciate that post..

You have to buy a sticker for UTV/ATV’s I think it’s from the forest service but you can get them at a dealer or the DMV. You will want to know where you are or have an app that will keep you off private property.

I don’t even know what to say here anymore about all the people that are coming here on vacation or moving, I guess just ask that you don’t litter and bury your shit. The hunting is miserable with people with all kinds of people with out of state plates that drive up and down roads all day long, they will see you or your vehicle and make multiple passes back and forth. Just stupid. Had one group tell us that they setup their camp where they did because there were elk tracks there🤷🏼‍♂️

ETA: Sorry about the conditions up at Schweitzer!

Yes, Schweitzer was all slush..

My 6 year old skied into a hole in the middle of a blue run that opened up.

But we enjoyed being there regardless. We met many very very nice people.

We're looking to manage land, resources, tread lightly, keep raising a few head of red angus, keep raising and homeschooling our kids, find a good home church, go out to eat a lot in Sandpoint and CDA, and spend a lot of time in the outdoors.

Not looking to shoot everything, and plow thru the federal land with brodozers and rap music. I can imagine.

However if there is a place where it is reasonable to snowmobile in the winter and ATV in the summer, without ram rodding thru someones hunt, I would invest in the right vehicles once we relocate in order to do so.