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| Portion of Discovery Point Trail leading to the Discovery Point Overlook. Both the trail and Rim Drive are in a historic district listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. Photo by the author. |
It is true that the rim area is open enough to largely obviate the need for trails, but a couple of factors may yet bring comprehensive planning for pedestrian circulation into the front rank of NPS priorities. One is that planning efforts aimed at creating new developed areas or expanding their existing footprint will not likely be justified in terms of increasing visitation, given how annual attendance has remained relatively static for more than three decades. Less obvious is the growth of historic properties in the park during this same period, with four trails listed as contributing resources when the Rim Drive Historic District was formally added to the National Register in 2008.221 Other trails may be eligible for listing, and the planning for new routes or realignments has to take the presence of cultural resources into account—something usually accomplished by avoiding impacts to archaeological sites and isolated finds.222
What may well be the most compelling reason for such planning is that adding to the park’s trail inventory furnishes a way to relieve mounting pressure to obligate and spend the available revenue that accrues from entrance fees. Unlike other types of facilities, trail projects do not necessarily involve contracting for specialized skills and a labor force that can far outnumber (at least on a temporary basis) the park staff. It may instead employ unskilled labor or participants in job-training programs through direct hiring, thus being better able to mobilize and work during a short construction season. A comprehensive trails program should also represent an opportunity, especially in the planning phase, to conduct needed surveys of natural and cultural resources in order to inform location studies and subsequent decisions about how an individual project might proceed. The effort can also provide a chance to compare how pedestrian circulation works in other areas and how it could influence the ways in which visitors experience not only Crater Lake, but the entire park.
