In April 2025, the U.S. Division of the Inside briefly transferred greater than 100,000 acres alongside New Mexico’s U.S.-Mexico border to the U.S. Military to strengthen border management. The newly designated New Mexico Nationwide Protection Space (NDA) consists of the southernmost 1.1 miles of the Continental Divide Path and its Southern Terminus monument. Hikers now require a U.S. Army permit to access the area.
Hikers wishing to enter the NDA should apply for and obtain permission from the U.S. Military at Fort Huachuca.
Stretching throughout the US, some 3,100 miles between the borders of Mexico and Canada, America’s longest path, the Continental Divide Path (CDT), winds by the Rocky Mountains, showcasing spectacular surroundings throughout New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana.
Whereas many states are ranked for having the best or worst hiking trails in America, the Continental Divide Path stays unmatched for its distant wilderness and distinctive wildlife. The path has welcomed hundreds of tourists from all around the world annually, hikers and equestrians, with some sections even permitting mountain bikes or motorized automobiles. That’s, up till now.
Worldwide Hikers Banned From One Part Of America’s Longest Path
The newly designated New Mexico Nationwide Protection Space, an extension of Fort Huachuca in Arizona, has stirred confusion and concern amongst residents and native companies over its boundaries. For the reason that space overlaps with the Continental Divide Path, which attracts hikers, hunters, and outside fanatics, the Protection Division’s statement prohibiting public entry, together with for climbing and searching, prompted preliminary pushback.
“You’re actually now affecting livelihoods,” Angel Peña, director of Nuestra Tierra Conservation Undertaking, a Las Cruces-based nonprofit, informed Supply New Mexico throughout a drive Memorial Day Weekend alongside the northern fringe of the NDA. “You’re affecting dinner on the desk. You’re affecting recreation. You’re affecting the standard makes use of of this land that assist households make reminiscences, inform tales, and develop ever nearer.”
Between April 15 and Might 29, federal authorities charged greater than 550 individuals with unauthorized entry into the brand new Nationwide Protection Space, based on a overview of federal data. Nevertheless, prosecutors later dropped costs in opposition to three people.
The Continental Divide Path Coalition (CDTC) is a nationwide nonprofit group of volunteers, advocates, and supporters devoted to finishing, selling, and defending the Path (CDT), whereas offering the general public with data and sources associated to the path.
On September thirtieth, the Continental Divide Path Coalition introduced that solely U.S. residents (hikers) are allowed on the land, and solely after acquiring a allow from the U.S. Military. The world consists of the southernmost 1.1 miles of the Continental Divide Path and its Southern Terminus monument.
Entry Guidelines Shift at CDT’s Southern Terminus
Because the land switch to the army was meant for border management, the one preliminary exception to this rule (introduced on September thirtieth) was “the place an escort with DOD identification could also be recognized on an software to accompany a hiker by the NDA.“
The Continental Divide Path Coalition (CDTC) has since introduced on October 7, “clearance is accessible to U.S. residents and Worldwide hikers who safe a Authorities Sponsor, and candidates should present a REAL ID (back and front if a driver’s license or ID card) and a passport-style {photograph}. Candidates are topic to a background verify. Profitable candidates obtain a digital entry badge usually inside 48 hours.”
Set deep within the Chihuahuan Desert alongside the Mexico–New Mexico border, the southern terminus of the Continental Divide Path is notoriously troublesome to succeed in. To ease entry, the Continental Divide Path Coalition operates a shuttle to the path’s southernmost sections. Hikers hoping to bypass the newly established Nationwide Protection Space (NDA) can take an alternate route by close by New Mexico State Lands, however should first safe a allow from the state’s Office of Outdoor Recreation.
Unique Casual Entry Granted For One Group
Ranchers alongside the border, with the New Mexico Cattlegrowers Affiliation, have reportedly reached an off-the-cuff, and considerably uneasy, understanding with the U.S. Military. Underneath the association, the names, photographs, cellphone numbers, license plates, and different figuring out particulars of ranchers coming into the Nationwide Protection Space to spherical up livestock or verify water tanks are shared with Military and Border Patrol officers. The transfer goals to forestall the Military from mistaking ranchers, who typically carry firearms, for trespassers on army property.
“Everyone round right here on this a part of the nation is armed,” mentioned Nancy Clopton, a longtime Hachita rancher in and across the NDA. “I don’t need to be drug out of my pickup after which, you already know, ‘Oh, she’s armed.’”
Underneath the unwritten settlement, ranchers can use and entry county roads that cross the Nationwide Protection Space. Every time they go over cattleguards, new indicators on both aspect, in English and Spanish, learn: “Restricted Space: This Division of Protection Property has been declared a restricted space by authority of the commander.”
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