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If the two sections are temporarily closed, Sperryville is likely to see more tourist traffic in the Spring. That’s the good news for Rappahannock County. The back roads that border . the park also will see extra traffic. Popular trails in the northern section such as Big Devil Stairs will be difficult for hikers to reach except from narrow dirt roads such as Route 622 through Harris Hollow and Gid Brown Hollow. Extra traffic there is not good news, especially for the affected landowners.
Closing the two sections of the Drive creates another problem that the Park Service has not carefully considered. Many of the most popular trails in the Park are in the central section, including Old Rag, White Oak Canyon, and the Hazel River back country. Many hikers only know how to reach trails from the Drive. Those hikers will be concentrated on trails in the central section and these overused trails will suffer further abuse to fragile soils.
The Park has a problem. Some services are going to be " cut unless the additional money is found. But closing twothirds of the Drive will put too much pressure on the central , section, creating long term costs that will have to be met in the coming decades. A better idea would be to close the entire Drive for three or four days a week during the winter months, perhaps into the Spring. The same savings could be made without concentrating an additional 200,000 people , along so short a stretch of the Park.
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