STATE & NATION TRAVEL · alerts
Cactus Rock Fire closes a network of Big South Fork multi-use and horse trails
By Staff Writer · Published October 31, 2026
Vehicle, horse and foot traffic are barred from five Tennessee-side trail approaches while the National Park Service manages the fire area.
Official announcement: National Park Service · October 30, 2026
Source: National Park Service Big South Fork alerts and conditions
Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area has closed a connected group of multi-use and horse trails around the Cactus Rock Fire. The National Park Service order applies to vehicles, horses and pedestrians; it is not limited to motorized travel.
At Darrow Ridge, the restriction begins east of the junction with Tar Kiln Road and also blocks the access from Proctor Ridge Horse Trail. The Little Cliff and Christian Cemetery multi-use routes are closed where they meet O&W Horse Trail, and the entire Upper Panther Branch Horse Trail is included.
Those routes sit within the Tennessee trail network near Oneida and the O&W corridor. The alert does not close the entire 125,000-acre park, but several junction closures can break longer equestrian and multi-use loops even when a planned trailhead remains reachable.
NPS has not supplied an end date in the active alert. Travelers should treat the order as open-ended until the park removes or revises it, rather than assuming that a change in weather or the visible absence of smoke means the trails are available.
What Travelers Need to Know
Do not enter any listed trail segment by vehicle, horse or on foot. Check each junction on the official Big South Fork trail map before starting, because the closure can interrupt a loop from more than one direction.
Confirm the alert on the day of travel and ask the Bandy Creek Visitor Center about a route that remains outside the fire closure. The notice gives no reopening date.
Do not rely on the park's normal 24-hour, fee-free access as permission to enter the closed zone. Emergency and fire orders override ordinary hours and entrance terms.
Carry a current map and plan a turnaround. Smoke, fire traffic or changing operations can affect nearby travel even if a route is not named in the original list, and mobile service is unreliable in parts of the plateau.
About the Location
Big South Fork protects a free-flowing reach of the Cumberland River and its tributaries across the Cumberland Plateau in Kentucky and Tennessee. Congress authorized the unit in 1974, combining the national-river and national-recreation-area concepts for the first time in the National Park System.
The park's gorges, sandstone bluffs and long-distance trail system support hiking, horseback riding, paddling and backcountry travel. NPS lists more than 200 miles of horse trails, which makes the closure's effect broader than a single short footpath even though the fire area is on the Tennessee side of the park.