Parking, astronomy and bathrooms: what's ahead for Rocky Fork

Lamar Alexander Rocky Fork State Park is working on accessibility, upgrading facilities and programming in the coming years.On Tuesday night, more than 25 people gathered at Erwin Town Hall to discuss the park's future as outlined in its site management plan and the plans for other state parks in Tennessee."There's a really big drive for parks to be accessible," said Tennessee State Parks Regional Manager Veronica Greear. "Whether that be removing any kind of physical barriers but also if you have any kind of economic barriers."The Tennessee State Parks website currently describes Rocky Fork Road, the main road that leads through the park, as a "narrow, one-lane, paved road with pull-offs along the side." It also describes the parking area as small with limited spaces, and highlighted one area of interest during the meeting: the bathroom situation."During park time, whenever everyone wants to be out at parks, [parking] is not enough," said Park Manager Tim Pharis. "And our beautiful blue portable toilets also are not enough."Pharis said the park's priority moving forward is maintaining the ranger station, creating a parking lot and building permanent restrooms. A parking lot with new restrooms would likely start once the visitor center project is finished, according to Greear and Pharis.Within the next year, Pharis hopes to be "closing the book on the visitor center," which broke ground earlier this month. That includes adding two new positions at the visitor center: a clerical and maintenance position. Staff will also complete customer service training. The park office will eventually be open for more hours as well.Part of next year's goals includes something less tangible than construction and involves more conversations as park staff compile an oral history of the park and its surrounding areas."We're trying to find these old-timers… and get them to tell us how they did it," said Pharis.Pharis expressed interest in working with ETSU on the oral history project.An astronomy field is also in the works while the park has "picked up the torch again" to get certified as an International Dark Sky Park. The certification would come from Dark Sky, an international nonprofit that advocates for reducing light pollution and promoting "responsible" outdoor lighting, which would make stargazing more accessible at the park."[The astronomy field] would be a spot where people could go set up some astronomy equipment and get a big clear view of the sky," Pharis said.Using the astronomy field would likely require a permit. It could also be rentable, "hopefully" without a fee, Pharis said.Part of the park's vision for accessibility includes creating a fully accessible backcountry campsite. It also means highlighting low-intensity activities and stationary programs that visitors can participate in aside from long, strenuous hikes."There's lots of 10, 12-mile hikes, you know, up to the top of the ridge to see the sunset, but that's hard to do," said Park Manager Tim Pharis. "I'd say most folks couldn't go on a 12-mile hike to the top of the mountain at the drop of a hat."Connector trails may get incorporated into some of those hiking areas.The public can submit written comments through February 7 with feedback about the state park management plans at: https://stateoftennessee.formstack.com/forms/stateparks_mgmtplans_2025"The public participation is such an important part," Jan Compton, Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Regional Director of External Affairs said at the meeting."Public participation is important for the planning process, so we appreciate your interest in protecting our shared environment and our beautiful Rocky Fork State Park."