Prior to the arrival of European-Americans, about one half of the United States land area was forest, about 1,023,000,000 acres (4,140,000 km 2) estimated in 1630. Native Americans cleared millions of acres of forest for many reasons, including hunting, farming, berry production, and building materials. Between 20, the US forests increased 0.03% annually, according to FAO ( Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). It does not store any personal data.In the United States, deforestation was an ongoing process until recently. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. We hope you check this area out! Pack out your trash, put out your campfire, and enjoy. We can tell you about our experience, but be sure to do your own research before you head into the desert. Obviously, any of the above can and will change in the future. The campsite we enjoyed in our high-clearance vehicle near Ragged Top Mountain is here.Pump Station road has sites that bigger RVs can manage.Our weBoost gave us enough to get texts out. We had one bar of 4G cell service with Verizon.There are several dispersed camping sites directly off Silverbell Road that would be fine for bigger setups, but a lot of the off-shoot type roads appear to be washed out from last summer’s monsoon and are probably only appropriate for high clearance vehicles.If your setup is big and heavy, set your GPS to route you around this bridge. There’s a one lane bridge with a 3-ton weight limit here.The paved section of Silverbell Road before you hit the dirt in Ironwood is hot garbage. If you enjoy dry camping, we can’t recommend Ironwood Forest National Monument enough. There’s too much cool stuff in this area to see in one trip, and items on our list for next time include the Sasco ghost town and Titan II Missile interpretive site. After a mild freak out over “BEING LOST IN THE DESERT 4 EVA OMGZ” compliments of my anxious brain, we turned around and got ourselves out using Gaia GPS (and earned a few Arizona pinstripes–yay!). There’s nothing fun about blowing sand, scattered gear, and a flaptastic rooftop tent.Īfter packing up camp, we got lost when the road GPS wanted us to turn on was closed (Red Rock Lane), and ended up on a dead-end road near Silverbell Mine.Īlready tired and frustrated from a sleepless night, (and hangry to boot), getting lost ratcheted up my anxiety. We enjoyed two nights in our camp spot, but when the wind picked up on the second night, it was time for us to peace out the next morning. Navigating the rough, washed out roads was worth it though, as the camp spot we found felt a lot like camping inside Saguaro National Park. Last summer’s monsoon was a doozy, and it shows on some paths branching off Silverbell. This time, we ventured farther back into the monument and picked a spot with a view of the base of Ragged Top Mountain off Silverbell Road. That dispersed camping area, while rough and narrow in places, is suitable for most RVs. The first time we camped at Ironwood, we stayed off Pump Station Road. This area is 129,000 acres of BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land with lots of scenery, wildlife, points of interest, and history worth appreciating. It was the second place we took our trailer after we bought it last year, and we’ve been wanting to get back ever since. Ironwood Forest National Monument near Marana, Arizona checked all our boxes. So it’s no surprise that, after not being able to take the squaredrop trailer out for a couple of months, we were feeling the ache for saguaros and solitude.
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