How to Read a Motor Vehicle Use Map (MVUM)

The Motor Vehicle Use Map decides which national forest roads your truck or ATV may use, and when. How hunters read one, and the mistakes that get tickets.

On a national forest, the map that decides where you may drive is not the one in your phone. It is the Motor Vehicle Use Map, the MVUM. Every national forest publishes one, it is free, and it is the map a ranger works from. A road that looks fine on the ground can be closed to you on it.

What the MVUM is

The Forest Service describes it this way: the map displays all National Forest System roads, trails and areas that are designated for public motor vehicle use. ^[1] The details it carries for each route are the vehicle class, the time of year, and any motorized access allowed for dispersed camping. ^[1]

The rule behind it is short. Federal regulation has each forest designate the roads, trails and areas open to motor vehicles, by vehicle class and, if appropriate, by time of year. ^[2] Once the map is published, it is prohibited to drive a motor vehicle on National Forest System land other than in line with those designations. ^[3]

So the logic runs one way only: if a route is not on the map as open to your vehicle on that date, it is closed to you. The map does not list closed roads. It lists open ones.

Three things hunters get wrong

1. "There was no gate and no sign." The Forest Service says plainly that routes designated for motor vehicle use may not always be marked or signed, and that it is the responsibility of the user to determine if they are on a route designated for the motor vehicle being used. ^[1] A missing sign is not permission.

2. "It was open in September." Many routes carry seasonal dates. A road open through archery season can close before a later rifle season, often to protect the road bed or wintering animals. Read the dates for the week you will be there.

3. "My ATV can go where my truck can." Not always, and not the other way round. Some roads are open only to highway-legal vehicles for safety reasons. ^[1] Some trails are open only to vehicles under a set width, or only to motorcycles.

How to read one

1. Get the right sheet. Each forest splits its map by ranger district. The White River National Forest, for example, gives paper copies free of charge in person or by mail, and posts them to view and print. ^[1] Start at your forest's maps page or call the ranger district you will hunt.
2. Read the legend first. Line styles stand for vehicle classes: roads open to all vehicles, roads open to highway-legal vehicles only, trails open to vehicles 50 inches or less in width, trails open to motorcycles only. The exact set differs by forest.
3. Find the route number. Routes are labelled with their Forest Service numbers. Match the number on the map to the number on the brown post at the junction.
4. Look up its dates. A route marked as seasonal points to a table on the same sheet that gives its open dates. No dates listed for a seasonal symbol means read the table again, not that it is open all year.
5. Check for dispersed camping. If the forest allows driving a short way off certain roads to reach a campsite, the map says which roads and how far. If the map shows nothing, park at the edge of the road.
6. Mark your truck spot and your way out. Decide where the truck stops before you leave home. That point sets the length of every walk and every carry.

What it does not tell you

• Condition. An open road can be rutted, washed out or under snow. The map is about what is legal, not what is passable.
• Other land. The MVUM covers National Forest System land. County roads, BLM routes and private roads crossing the forest follow their own rules.
• Snow machines. Over-snow vehicle use is exempted from the designations on the MVUM and is handled separately. ^[1]
• Temporary closures. Fire, logging and damage closures are issued as orders and posted on the forest's alerts page. They override the map.
• Game retrieval. Do not assume you may drive off a road to recover an animal. If a forest allows it anywhere, the map says where and when. If the map is silent, the answer is no.

Why this matters for where you hunt

Roads decide where other hunters are. GPS studies of hunters keep finding the same thing: most stay within a few hundred yards of a road, including roads closed to vehicles, which they walk. See how far hunters really walk. A road that closes before your season moves the crowd back to the last open gate, and it moves your truck back too. Knowing which gate that is tells you both where the pressure starts and how far your pack-out will be. The pack-out calculator turns that distance into hours.

FilledTag builds one exact plan for your tag: parking, camp, morning and evening sits, and routes, with every pin checked against public land ownership and road rules. Custom plans are available at https://www.filledtag.com/plans.html.

Sources

1. USDA Forest Service, White River National Forest, frequently asked questions: Motor Vehicle Use Map. https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/whiteriver/about-area/faqs
2. Code of Federal Regulations, 36 CFR 212.51, Designation of roads, trails, and areas. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-36/chapter-II/part-212/subpart-B/section-212.51
3. Code of Federal Regulations, 36 CFR 261.13, Motor vehicle use. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-36/chapter-II/part-261/subpart-A/section-261.13