travel and rhum

A bit of context. I am from Europe, but I live in the US now, and I recently took up hiking (being out in nature helps me relax). I never thought about it before because in most European countries, it’s pretty obvious if you’re on private property, and even if you are, you have “the right to roam” in many countries. Obviously, I know it’s different in the US, but the question is: how do I even know if an area is private or not? From what I heard, there are no signs/fences around many privately owned pieces of land, is that true?

Let’s say I see a random forest with no signs, fences, or any hints at people having ever been there, and I just decide to bushwalk it after assuming it’s just a publicly owned land (that would be my default assumption in Europe). Is it likely it turns out to be an unmarked private land, and will it land me in trouble?

Also, I recently found out that most of the land outside of states like Nevada is privately owned. I’m curious about how it works. I assume it’s mostly owned by corporations? Or is it random people as well? Am I not allowed to cross unmarked privately owned land under any circumstances in any of the 50 US states? How would I know it’s privately owned if it’s unmarked though? Doesn’t the law require for private property to be marked? How likely is it that I’ll get shot by a 12-gauge while strolling through a random forest?