As for the motor nature roads, I don’t know. I suspect that somewhere, in one of George Hartzog’s field inspections, he may have been at some park area where a superintendent showed him a one way motor nature road. I don’t know where that might have been, but he came back all excited about it. George told planners every park has got to have a one way motor nature road, and this was taken literally, so we had to plan accordingly. We had to sit down and see where in the heck we could put a one way motor nature road, usually by converting a backcountry fire patrol road. One became rather obvious, so they marked the Grayback Road. Prior to that time it had been a two way road. Another was identified at Union Peak, and that is why those two roads were designated. We caught heck from the Wilderness Society and the Sierra Club. At one congressional wilderness hearing some senator really shot us down on one way motor nature road as being in conflict with our “no roads in wilderness policy.” I remember going to Crater Lake in 1970 or ’71 and questioning this Union Peak Motor Nature Road as it was in the proposal (16). I drove my vehicle over it and found that a family car had difficulty. I started near Annie Spring and went out that way. Somewhere in the last mile or so there was quite a hill. I remember having a difficult time negotiating it, since it had formerly served as a backcountry access road and been used by rangers in pickups or four-wheel drives. I think there had been a facility out there several years earlier. We’re talking about ’71 or ’72, when we were coming up with this wilderness recommendation. We were required to deal with this matter of old facilities such as patrol cabins. George [Hartzog] had decreed that we were not going to have wilderness that had man made facilities in it (17).
Before we made our first draft proposal the park eliminated half a dozen old facilities (18). One they were out of there, the cabins never even showed on the plan. As for this one way motor nature road, I came back to the regional director very much opposed to it. I said, “Hey, we can live with the Grayback Road but we don’t need this one. By eliminating that [the Union Peak Motor Nature Road] we can have a larger wilderness, and get more friends and keep heat off of us. Furthermore it would be a heck of a thing to maintain. I could go on and on.” Anyway, he bought it and our plans were changed.
Were you thinking about the route of the Pacific Crest Trail?
Yes. The Pacific Crest Trail goes through that zone. Did you know that the planners proposed rerouting the Pacific Crest Trail up to the rim?
