A small dirt path in Emerald Park that creeps across the cliffs of a quarry has become a concern for North Little Rock officials who say the path is dangerous and should not be used by park visitors.
Emerald Park is a 135-acre linear park on a forested bluff overlooking the Arkansas River and Big Rock Quarry Park. It includes walking and biking trails, a gazebo and multiple overlooks.
A few inches from the gazebo is a well-used dirt path that leads beyond the park's fences and signs and crosses over the cliffs of the quarry, where the views are incredible but dangerous, park officials said.
Parks and Recreation Director Steve Shields said he became aware of the path when a North Little Rock resident mentioned it during a Zoom meeting with the local Kiwanis Club.
[Video not showing up above? Click here to watch » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0Vd_WCvmGk]
"He told me that he and his wife accidentally walked on this path and realized how dangerous it was," Shields said Thursday during a tour of the dirt path. "He told me that he was concerned a child might end up out there and fall off the cliff."
The cliffs around the quarry are more than 100 feet tall, and the dirt path snakes around the edge of the cliffs and leads to a spot where people have been known to congregate.
Park Ranger Ian Hope said Wednesday the path isn't part of Emerald Park.
"We stopped the paved trail at the gazebo intentionally because it was the safest area," Hope said. "On the park trail we have 4- and 5-foot chain-link fences on the cliffs' edge, but once you get past the gazebo we have none of that because we didn't expect them to go out there.
"The place was just a wooded area with a bunch of rocks until the path was formed by people."
The dirt path is narrow and the base is made of loose, slippery shell rock that mimics the quarry underneath it.
"How people get out there amazes me, but they do," Hope said.
Hope said the man-made path has become a popular spot for graffiti artists, who have painted the cliffs' edge. He also has caught people multiple times sitting on the cliffs' edge while monitoring the park from the base.
"I tell them to leave and they yell at me and give me the bird because they know I am not going to be able to get up there fast enough," Hope said. "By the time I go all the way around and back by the gazebo, they are long gone."
Hope said over the years the Parks Department has tried multiple ways of keeping people from getting on the dirt path but none has worked.
"We put signs up and they stole them," he said. "We would put these big, 18-inch-by-18-inch signs out there, and by the next day they were gone. In a span of 24 hours they would disappear.
"We put up barriers and they were stolen, or thrown off the edge of the cliff. I found some of the barriers in the quarry before. Nothing worked."
He said officials also had cut down trees and put them on the path in another attempt to close it.
"What we did was go out and pick out trees that were not healthy and cut them off at the base and drop them over the trail in an effort to camouflage the trail," Hope said. "It forces people to climb over the trees and other kinds of brush to get to the trail. It's a very common practice done nationwide."
Jerry Citti, a biker and a fan of the dirt path, said he took offense at the chopping down of trees.
"It's a unique and beautiful place," Citti said. "There was no reason in the world for them to block it off like that. It was done on a whim. The only disease those trees had was being in proximity of that trail.
"The ridge is, like most places, eroding, and some of the trees were holding that part together. It makes me sick."
Citti said he noticed in March that city officials were cutting trees on the path and decided to talk to park officials. He estimated that 40 to 50 trees were cut.
"They killed some old cedars and dozens of other healthy trees," Citti said. "Safety is not an excuse to kill that many trees."
Hope said the trees were old and scraggly or invasive species.
"I am a certified arborist, and I was there when the trees were getting cut down," he said. "People think just because a tree was green that it was healthy, but that is not always the case."
Citti said the path leads to one of the most beautiful spots in the state and that taking away access to the path would be a disservice to North Little Rock residents and the many visitors to the park.
"A lot of people enjoy that trail," Citti said Thursday. "In fact, this morning I ran into a couple from Chicago who was out on the trail and they were awestruck at the beauty."
Parks Superintendent Jason Rhodes, Shields and Hope discovered Thursday that the latest attempt to block the path had been foiled. The trees that had been cut and laid across the path had been sawed up and pushed to the side, clearing the path again.
"Evidently someone took it upon themselves that they could do whatever they wanted and cleared the path," Hope said. "There are city and park laws against bringing a chainsaw up here, because ... a chainsaw is very dangerous."
Citti said he started moving the trees out of the way the day after they were cut down.
"I started clearing the smallest trees the following day [March 31] and finished the job with a chainsaw last Thursday [April 15]," he said. "It took me all day. I had several people thank me for my efforts while I was doing it because they wanted to go back out on the path."
Citti said the trail isn't any more dangerous than some of the other trails in Burns Park.
"The orange trail, the red trail, there are a million places where you can kill yourself over there," he said. "There is nothing preventing you from going over the cliffs on the trail by Fort Roots besides a single cable barrier."
Citti said he believes the city has done more damage then good with its attempts to block the path.
"It's a beautiful place, and I have seen things there that you can't see from anywhere else," he said. "I have seen fog roll over the hills and surrounded Pinnacle Mountain. I have been out there when it rains and seen waterfalls form on those cliffs. There is so much wildlife out there, and I have stood next to an eagle without realizing it.
"To close it off is a disservice to everyone."
Parks officials blocked the dirt path again Friday by putting large rocks in front of it, with a sign that states "Dangerous cliffs. Do not cross this point."
"Safety is our main priority," Shields said Thursday. "We will do whatever we can to ensure this."