A reminder for those of us seeking to leave the rat race and live in the middle of nowhere: The article describes Mr. Conover's decision to purchase 5 acres in the area, and reading between the lines, his neighbors have decided to do the same. Which is to say that no one is living all alone in the middle of hundreds of miles of forest, this is just very low-density housing with some hobby farming. This also means that houses are about 500' from each other. That is plenty close enough to be annoying if a neighbor or guest decides to play music at a bonfire party or spend the morning target shooting. You don't get to live in the middle of nowhere unless you are rich and can afford the upfront cost of hundreds of acres of undeveloped land.

Aside: It' a little unclear what area exactly the article is talking about. When I look up San Luis Valley, I see an area of mostly center-pivot irrigation (near 37.698, -106.009), so I assume that there is a non-arable part of the valley with low property values.