It appears the national park's service that runs Daniel Boone National Forest are having a bit of difficulty. The amount of traffic Red River Gorge receives every year makes it impossible to enforce many of the parks rules which has led to the gradual destruction of a number of landmarks within the park.
Despite years of trying to control the damage from overuse at the gorge, including adopting rules five years ago that make campsites next to trails and along clifflines illegal, Forest Service officials say they simply have become outnumbered.
On any given day, there are just one or two Forest Service law-enforcement officers working a five-county area that includes the gorge, Eling said. They often must focus on more pressing priorities, such as busting people with methamphetamine labs or marijuana plots, finding lost hikers or investigating vehicle break-ins.
At risk, however, is not just grass and trees, which can grow back, but one of the nation's designated archaeological treasures. American Indians used the gorge for thousands of years, and they left behind tools, clothing, agricultural seeds and their remains.
When someone builds a fire on top of ancient Indian drawings -- which has occurred -- "it's like ripping a page out a history book," Bunzendahl said.
I understand the park's frustration. My last trip to the gorge six months ago was amazing. The have some of the most beautiful scenery in Kentucky. Some of it I was able to capture in my photo album.
During that trip, we hiked a number of the trails throughout the park. But on our final trail, we came into first hand experience of the damage campers can level on the park. We found a campsite near the trail with trash strewn everywhere. They had beer cans and toilet paper stretched for over 100 yards of the trail. It was absolutely disgusting.
Currently, the parks department is looking into ways to curtail the destruction caused by visitors to the park. Some include banning camping on certain trails and making it more difficult to bring large groups in for rock climbing. These seem like sensible steps to keeping the gorge a beautiful place. Hopefully, they will succeed.
But, this brings me to a bit of a rant. What are people thinking when they tear up a natural wonder like the gorge? Oh, I had my fun! Screw everyone else.
The sad thing is this practice is not unique to the parks. I live in a bit of a rural setting, and I am frequently going out in my yard and picking up trash that people have thrown out of their cars as they drive by my home.
I am trying to understand this. I go through McDonald's drive thru and order dinner. I finish it on the way home and say to myself. I have a bag of trash. Wow it would be a lot of work for me to pick it up and take it inside my house and deposit into a trash can. Hmm, I have an idea! I'll throw it out the window! Yeah, it will magically disappear!
Unbelievable! How pathetic, lazy, and inconsiderate do you have to be to think this way. Personally, I wish I could take the bags of trash they throw out of the car and fill there bedroom with it.
