A proposal to allow mountain bike riding and additional hiking trail development in park areas around Lewis and Clark Caverns, as well as adding electrical hookups for RV campers, is ready for public perusal.

A draft environmental assessment, known as an EA, was released for viewing on Wednesday. Comments will be accepted until Nov. 9.

Lewis and Clark Caverns is Montana’s first state park and attracts more than 70,000 visitors each year, mostly in the summer months. Visitors climb the winding access road to the caverns’ entrance, into which they can take a two-hour guided tour of the cave.

The park includes a visitor center, amphitheater, several picnic areas, a large campground, showers, RV dump facilities, a tipi, three rental cabins, and several miles of hiking trails. Many visitors use the 3,000-acre park as a base while exploring the Lower Jefferson River Valley.

While trails are readily available in half of the park, the more primitive areas in the western portion have only a few old Jeep trails and footpaths. A plan governing management of the park includes some conflicting statements regarding the future of this area, and visitors seem to support additional trails in the primitive area, which is what FWP is suggesting in the EA.

Rhea Armstrong, assistant park manager, said they’ve had requests from some hunters to expand the trail system, which would make it easier to retrieve game.

“The management plan just said that in the future, we might want more trails, so we’re exploring that,” Armstrong said.

Mountain bikes are increasingly common in the park, even though their use hasn’t been actively encouraged, and there’s no mention of allowing it in the park’s management plan, Armstrong said.

But it’s become so popular that mountain biking is the predominant use — 90 percent — from October to May, which is opposite of the summer months.

“We prepared the EA to look at making more trails, then realized that we were getting feedback from mountain bikers who were very interested in using the trails,” Armstrong said. “In early spring, Bozeman doesn’t have a lot of options because it’s muddy and we’re dry, so we think the word got out through the mountain biking grapevine and we get a lot of use in the spring.”

Allowing both hiking and biking on the same trails has produced conflict elsewhere, but park officials haven’t heard many complaints, Armstrong said, except from one hiker who was adamant that the plan didn’t allow biking.

Armstrong said they’re not sure that’s the case, but want to hear from the public. The EA notes that bikers on the trails have a “heightened level of trail etiquette” and that the Gallatin Valley Bicycle Club has offered to help draft a bicycle safety code for the park if mountain biking is going to be continued to be allowed.

The bike club also has offered to help organize an annual trail maintenance day, as well as other services, which could result in lower maintenance costs and improved safety.

One other issue is addressed in the EA, which involves adding electrical hookups for campers. Recent surveys conducted by the park indicated that the range of services available at the campground isn’t adequate, which is a major factor in influencing whether people stay overnight.

Armstrong said they’re not looking at increasing capacity, since the campground never fills up.

The EA notes that about 65 percent of all campground users at the caverns drive RVs.

“When these RV drivers visit the park and inquire about campground accommodations, many choose not to stay when informed that there are no hook-ups in the campground,” it states. “Among those who do stay, almost all complain about the absence of hook-ups and ask when they might be installed.”

Voice your opinion

Comments will be accepted until 5 p.m. Nov. 9 and should be sent to: Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, c/o L&C Caverns Management Plan, P.O. Box 489, Whitehall MT 59759, or e-mailed to kempcaverns@in-tch.com.

Copies of the draft EA are available in Helena at the Fish, Wildlife and Park Headquarters, the State Library, and the Environmental Quality Council or at FWP’s regional office in Bozeman. It can be viewed online at http://fwp.mt.gov.

Reporter Eve Byron: 447-4076 or eve.byron@helenair.com.