I can assure you the ranger wasn't being "just nosey," just observant. Whatever the ranger saw through the window was in "plain view," and no rights were violated in his making this observation. This is a key point in search and seizure training in federal law enforcement and there is a lot of case law dealing with this issue, including several Supreme Court decisions. My LE training was a while ago, and I cannot recall the specific cases, but the principles involved go back to the Magna Carta (Bless you Brits for that!).

I looked over the website for a specific statement about camping on the trails but did not see any. I am confident, however, that had you set up an overnight camp within the Monument, you would have been politely but firmly instructed to return to the designated campground right away.

It is not routine in most parks to check the trail heads for overdue hikers; in many parks the volume is simply too high and many other duties occupy the ranger's time. Most searches are triggered by the "Ranger, Ranger, save my child" call coming through at 3 in the morning.

What surprises me about this situation was that the lady in question stated that she would not have survived the night without the successful search. Now it does get nippy at Chiricahua this time of year, but it doesn't get that cold, even at 5,000 feet in the winter.