To “cure” this problem, Natural Bridge State Park and the KY State Nature Preserves Commission conspired to keep people off the road by construction the biggest “tank traps” any of us have ever seen - even on battlefields. This biggest one, the one closest to the Arch, is over 100 feet long, about 40 feet wide, and nearly 20 feet deep near the ends. On either side, boulders weighing several tons have been positioned; and on the southerly side, there’s a huge guard rail which runs over the mountainside. This is the trap that was shown in the Herald-Leader with the guy standing on the foot bridge. Because of the lens used on the camera, and the height of the camera from the ground, the trap doesn’t look too big. To see it for real makes you want to gag! It’s big enough to put a house trailer in!!! Looking at it makes you wonder what kind of mind it took to dream up such devastation. Besides keeping out motor vehicles, this trap effectively keeps out horses, old people, and fat people because the sides at each end of the bridge are much higher and steeper than it looks in this picture. This makes it dangerous when trying to get down to the bridge.

The purpose of this big tank trap and the MANY other smaller ones was to discourage people from using the Narrows Road. I’m told that the Nature Preserves Commission had to be threatened with a lawsuit because they tried to stop a mountain bike race from using the Road. The race was eventually allowed when an attorney pointed out that the Sheltowee Trace also runs down the Narrows Road, and so bikers, etc. couldn’t be kept out.

I see now why the off-road people are using the word “hypocricy” when describing the damage the government did. The massive damage caused by all the traps and berms makes the 4-wheeler damage look small. Although not as bad obviously, it sort of reminds me of the mindless destruction caused by mountain-top removal down in eastern KY. And our tax dollars paid for it!

It’s also hypocritical to call this place a nature preserve. There’s got to be several tons of rusting metal near the sides of the road. I lost count of it all I saw when I walked the road today. With all the heavy equipment and manpower it took to dig the tank traps and put giant boulders everywhere, they could have easily removed all this trash. We saw lots of plastic pipe, beer cans, and dead telephone poles too.

If I’d been in charge, I would have rebuilt the road to the nice thing it used to be and then put all the tank traps and boulders on the places where people could gain access to the State Park and Nature Preserve. That way the road would still be available to attract tourists and could be used for accessing oil wells, fighting forest fires, doing rescues, etc. I heard that it used to be a county road, and if that is the case it should be made a county road again. There’s a website which deals with all sorts of Natural Bridge access issues. It’s http://www.SaveOurCave.org and well worth looking at. I get the impression that they are working to get the Narrows Road opened too.

Scott as you know, the problem is that ATVs are not operated properly. ATV riders like to go off trail and in the streams. The Forest Service does not have the money to repair the damage. What I think we need to do is look at the Hatfield McCoy trail system in West Va, where there are some better safety regulations and designated trails.

If the people who ride ATVs in the Daniel Boone would just respect the woods, instead of trying to destroy them, we wouldnt have this problem.

But I also give people the experience of nature and I make money on it. My clients love to experience nature. But we should not close nature off , but let people experience nature whether it is on the trail, closing off our cave at Natural Bridge, closing rock walls, etc. After all who is paying the salaries of the people closing off the land? Who paid for the land in our State and Federal lands? We did, our tax dollars at work. So why don’t we us some of this land for adventure tourism?

Has Tom or anyone or anyone else actually suggested this? Does you think that if you can’t drive an ATV then you can’t see nature? Have you not heard of hiking, horseback riding, or biking?

You talk about the problem of littering, illegal dumping , and straight pipes. Do you think that you could actually find an environmentalist that thinks that those things are okay?

Your argument boils down to “I hate environmentalists because they don’t want me to make money with a business that is destructive to the park.”

I have ridden motorcycles off-road for many years. Do they displace soil? Yes, they do. I am aware of this. As a tax paying citizen I deserve the right to use the public lands as much as anyone else. The trails are supposed to set up so that minimal errosion is possible. The problem that I have encountered is the trail systems like, the Diamond Trail in Red Bird are not maintained properly by the forestry srvice. Water breaks are not put in place to prevent erosion.
I pay $40 a year for my permit and I deserve the same usage as hunters, fishermen, hikers, or mountain bikers. I guess Dave Cooper thinks that hiking and mountain biking cause zero erosion. If I cant use the property neither can they. They cause erosion also. They might also damage the fauna.