The Corner-Crossing War Is (Mostly) Over…For Now

Photo By Lightitup_now

Well, it looks like this chapter of the corner-crossing saga has finally come to a close, or at least as close as it’s going to get for now. Today, October 20, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court just refused to hear the appeal from the landowner at the center of the Wyoming corner-crossing case, effectively letting the lower court’s ruling stand on its own two feet.

That means, for the first time in modern hunting history, it’s now settled law in the Tenth Circuit that hunters who corner cross from federal land to federal land, without setting foot on private ground, are not trespassing.

We covered the legality and how one would do it right in this Eastman’s article at the beginning of the fall.

Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico all fall under that same jurisdiction.

This all stems from the 2021 case in Carbon County, Wyoming, where four hunters from Missouri used a ladder to step over the corner between private and public land without touching private soil. A jury found them not guilty of criminal trespass, but the landowner pressed on with a civil lawsuit. When the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that corner crossing didn’t violate his rights under the federal Unlawful Inclosures Act, it was the talk of the street for the Western hunter. 

Now, with the Supreme Court declining to take it up, that ruling stands.

It’s a win for public land hunters who like to get out and do a little walking to reach greener pastures; there’s no doubt about that. Millions of acres of checkerboarded BLM and Forest Service ground are now, at least legally, more accessible than they were just a couple of years ago. But before we all go marching across corners with onX in hand, it’s worth keeping our boots on the ground and our heads cool.

This decision only applies to federal-to-federal corner crossings in the states under the Tenth Circuit. It doesn’t say anything about hopping from state land to private, or private to private, and it sure doesn’t mean you can cut across someone’s pasture to reach that magic little BLM square you’ve been eyeing. Every corner, every parcel, and every state still comes with its own gray areas.

Still, it’s hard not to feel a little proud about their refusal to hear the case, but on the other side of the coin, if the Supreme Court would have heard the case and come out on the side of public access, then we would have a nationwide decision, not just in the 10th Circuit Court. 

There’s still room for states, counties, and agencies to weigh in with their own laws and takes on the decision, and you can bet some folks will try to muddy the waters. But for now, the ladder boys from Missouri didn’t just climb over a fence, they put a stake in the ground (or maybe a survey post?) in the 10th Circuit Court. If you corner cross properly in those states, it’s not against the law.

The post The Corner-Crossing War Is (Mostly) Over…For Now appeared first on Eastmans' Official Blog | Mule Deer, Antelope, Elk Hunting and Bowhunting Magazine | Eastmans' Hunting Journals.