I have been to all 4 National Forests in Texas. The problem with them is:
A) they are not in desert/mountain terrain
B) hunters take over for a good part of the winter and the forests are shut down to all others
C) when hunters are not allowed, ATV riders run rampant making it a bit noisy to enjoy the solitude
D) many of the unregulated camping areas are trashed out by people who haul mattresses in on the back of trucks and set up huge compound-like camps.
I agree, with respect to the TX USFS sites. I used that as an example since a goodly number of members here likely are closer to those forests than any others.
The solutions are...
a) Use the USFS sites in the west. They are pretty much all mountain and a few even are in the desert. The places without mountains tend to be the national grasslands, which can be interesting in their own right but are not places I've spent any time.
b), c) and d) Largely, these are things that afflict public lands near densely populated areas. The closer you are to urban concentrations (and the east TX forests are ringed by large populations), the more you will see this kind of thing. Hunting is ubiquitous in NFs and not something that prevents me from using them; there is plenty of room for everyone. Yes, there is ATV use, but rampant use is not the norm in the west...except near places like San Diego, Los Angeles, Phoenix, places that (no surprise) are near dense population. Most of the slobs, including the ones that use national/state parks, don't travel great distances...it's too much effort. Likewise, the farther out you are willing to go from population, the faster the use rate declines (except in parks).
So, if you are out in the intermountain west it is quite easy to find places of solitude on FS and BLM land. As I've noted before, you have to search these places out, and you are on your own for entertainment. Generally, there are no guide books comparable to the NPS literature to lure the public, nor is there the peripheral infrastructure blighting parks at their entrances and borders and which springs up to 'support' the tourist industry.
A good example is right at Big Bend. The Black Gap Wildlife area gets a fraction of the use and it abuts the park. There is adventure and scenery comparable to the park, but little development or services and few go there. Instead they are pulled to the better advertised park. Few who go to the park ever even drive down the road through Black Gap. As a result, a rather large area of state-owned land that is actually available for public use goes mostly unused.
