Construction and Use of Other Roads

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Designation of roads as "secondary" and "service" for purposes of documentation is simply a way to classify what cannot be termed a "primary" route such as a circuit or approach road. In this context secondary roads are available for both visitor and administrative use, but remain in an unsurfaced condition so that annual re-grading is needed. There is only one such road in Crater Lake National Park, the so-called "Grayback Motor Nature Trail," which connects Lost Creek Campground with what is presently a picnic area and trailhead below Vidae Falls. A number of secondary roads originally built for fighting forest fires have been converted to trails. Vehicles on these roads were largely restricted to administrative use until 1971, when the NPS banned all motorized travel in the backcountry. Service roads, by contrast, are shorter but more broadly defined to encompass surfaced access available for either public or administrative use. These are largely confined, however, to the three main developed areas of Rim Village, Park Headquarters, and the Annie Spring vicinity. Paved campground loops and access to residential facilities predominate in those three localities, though this category also includes two unsurfaced loops at Lost Creek Campground, as well as entry to a pair of bone yards on one approach road.