the wife and i did the caverns again a little over a year ago and while i was paying for admission, i went over to the info desk and talked to a ranger about boondocking and he showed me a map of BLM land just miles from the caverns. we did the caverns and then got back to the main road and went north a few miles and then went out in the desert and boondocked. apparently there is a lot of land in the area that fine to be on...like the ranger said, just dont cross over a fence because that is private property. we were off the main road a few miles and there was absolutely no one in sight the whole time we were there. ask the ranger at the help desk and he'll give you a printed map of what is ok to camp on. there were also a lot of dirt roads out in the desert that looked to be access roads for small oil wells.