There have long been complaints that recreationalists are barred from using the popular Boswell Road in southeastern Wyoming’s Snowy Range due to a long-running dispute over whether the road is private or public.
However, an elk hunter encountered the opposite problem: he became trapped.
Austin Kissell claimed it happened to him twice.
The second time was during a late-fall snowstorm, when he was forced to abandon his camper trailer and nearly destroyed his pickup while driving out on a little-known back road.
More than two weeks passed before he could return to his camper.
“I had pack rats inside. The mice also got into it, and there was so much snow on the roof that it cracked and leaked onto the bed when it melted,” he told Cowboy State Daily.
Kissell stated that his experiences are another example of the problems caused by the U.S. Forest Service and Albany County’s inability to determine who controls the road and whether it should be open to the public.
As he sees it, the issue of road ownership must be resolved, and it should be accessible to recreationalists, property owners, ranchers, and others who rely on it.
The situation “is not going to take care of itself,” he said.
Road Jurisdiction Undecided
Kissell lives in Laporte, Colorado, near the Wyoming-Colorado state line. He said his family for decades have used Boswell Road to access national forest land on both sides of the state line.
They have always taken for granted the ability to use the road to get into the woods for ATV riding, hunting, camping, fishing, and other outdoor activities.
His family isn’t alone in this regard.
Boswell Road was originally a wagon route established in the 1870s.
It is approximately 10.75 miles long, running east-west from the Boswell Ranch south of Jelm, Wyoming, to Mountain Home. Two sections cross into Colorado before returning to Wyoming, and 2.5 miles of the road runs through four private parcels of land.
Several years ago, there was some confusion about whether the road was actually controlled by the Forest Service or Albany County. The two organizations had long shared responsibility for its upkeep.
In 2023, the Albany County Commission passed a resolution denying any official claim to the road. The Forest Service has stated that Boswell is not part of its official road system.
With jurisdiction in doubt, the Albany County sheriff has issued warnings for at least the past two years that Boswell Road is actually private and should not be used by the public.
Despite this, many people continue to use it.
Some landowners have placed gates across the road. They’ve frequently remained unlocked for people to pass through, but Kissell discovered that they can also be locked.
ATV Ride Ended Badly
Kissell stated that the first instance occurred last summer, when he and his then-pregnant fiancée went for an ATV ride.
He claimed to be on good terms with a landowner at one end of the road, and while the landowner was away at the time, his gate was unlocked as they passed through on their way in.
However, at the end of the day, they discovered that the gate was locked.
“The clouds up there were practically black right then, there was a big storm coming in,” Kissell told me.
Unable to contact the landowner and out of options, he cut the lock.
Kissell stated that a Forest Service law enforcement ranger was waiting for them where they had parked their truck and ATV trailer near the highway.
The ranger released them with a warning. However, both the ranger and later the Albany County Sheriff’s Office warned Kissell that if he cut a lock on a gate again, he would face trespassing charges and possibly jail time.
Another trip, another storm!
Kissell stated that he and some hunting partners returned in November to hunt elk on the Colorado side of the national forest, as they had done for years.
They set up his camper and went out hunting.
But then an early-season snowstorm hit, and things only got worse. They decided it was best to leave before being snowed in.
The trip down the snowy, slick road was dangerous, to say the least.
They returned to the gate, only to discover that it was locked.
“I wasn’t going to cut that lock again and risk going to jail,” Kissell told me.
“I had to back my camper up, quite a long way, to even get to a place where I could turn it around and take it back up to our campsite,” he told me.
The only way out was via a rough Forest Service road that connects to the King’s Canyon Road on the Colorado side, he explained. With the snow piling up, it would be impossible to get the camper out that way.
So they left it, chained all four tires of the pickup, and drove away at a crawling pace.
“I bumped my truck up pretty good,” he told me.
When he returned and discovered the damage that rodents and snow had caused to his camper, he was upset. Kissell figured there wasn’t much he could do but bring it back home and repair it as best he could.
“We ended up selling that camper,” Kissell explained.
‘I Don’t Think It’s Fair’
Kissell said that his second round of bad luck on Boswell Road was enough. He hasn’t tried accessing it from the highway since.
He still comes in the back way, sometimes taking the road that used to connect to the King’s Canyon Road during the disastrous hunting expedition.
“I had to do a lot of chainsaw work to clear that road of fallen timber,” he told me.
He stated that the Boswell Road remains the best option for many Wyomingites and Coloradans looking for recreation and adventure in the national forest.
So, for the sake of the public, officials must resolve jurisdictional issues and reopen the road, according to Kissell.
“There’s a lot of public land back there, and I don’t think it’s fair that it’s shut down for people trying to get back there,” he was saying.
