The Red Rock Ranger District will be closing the Cathedral Rock Trail on Wednesdays through Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. starting on Wednesday, Feb. 28 until Saturday, April 13. Visitors will be kept away from the area as crews construct additional rock steps, build retaining walls, improve trail drainage and attempt to eliminate user-created trails.
“We tried to start it earlier last year in the season, and ended up missing out on a lot of work time because of weather, because they aren’t going to be able to safely work in the ice and snow,” Acting District Ranger Alex Schlueter said. “So it’s got to have basically dry conditions, and warm enough that things aren’t wet. The rock splits better when it’s dry. Over the experience in the last few years, we found that if we were going to try to do it earlier in the season, we would be putting the entire project at risk with that scheduling.”
Schleuter added that because the trail crew start their season in the fall, the Forest Service would not have time to properly train staff on the more technical aspects of the work on Cathedral Rock Trail in order to schedule the closure outside of the busy season.
However, the trail will remain open on Sundays through Tuesdays and the lower section will remain open up to the junction with Templeton Trail.
“So if folks want to start at the trailhead [and] either take the shuttle or park there when the shuttles are not running,” “If they want to take that trailhead up to that junction, they’re able to take Templeton Trail, they’re able to take Easy Breezy Trail, which is in that area as well,” Schlueter said. “So there are other options there, but they’re not the prized gem of Cathedral Rock Trail.”
The closures are in place to allow trail crews to be able to build a rock stairway in order to lower the trail grade, which it is hoped will increase access and reduce erosion.
“They will be collecting, splitting and moving rocks to construct the staircase and that’s the type of work that could last decades and we’re hoping that it does,” Schlueter said.
