Low Reviews, More Guests Push Cummins Falls to Permit Plan

Officials at Cummins Falls State Park are looking to implement a proposed permit plan following poor reviews and high guest attendance this year.

Park Manager Ray Cutcher said online reviews declined after more and more people visited the park over the summer months.

“The ratings on TripAdvisor and other websites about people’s visit to the park, they were all really high [last year] with really high remarks,” Cutcher said. “This year they’ve all been low and almost always it’s because of the big crowds they encounter when they got there. It wasn’t what they expected. They didn’t expect to be there with thousands of other people shoulder-to-shoulder down at the bottom of a waterfall or on the trail.”

Cutcher said the large crowds effects the park employees as much as the guests who visit.

“It also impacts our resources as far as personnel. It’s almost unbelievable how busy we are and how much we have to deal with in a day’s time,” Cutcher said. “[Myself] and some of the other management decided we have got to do something. We’ve got to figure it out and get a handle on this because it’s just going to keep growing, and the impact on the area is just too great.”

The new permit plan would allow the park to limit the number of guests who visit the gorge on a daily basis. Cutcher said he and other members of the Cummins Falls management team visited a park in Georgia recently that uses a similar system.

“They can still come visit the park, they can walk to the overlook and view the waterfall from there, the picnic area, and the hiking trails above,” Cutcher said, “They just won’t be able to access the water without a permit. I know there’s going to be a bunch of headaches dealing with it the first couple of years and we don’t know what those numbers are going to be yet, how many we can accommodate down there reasonably.”

While the idea is still being worked out behind the scenes, Cutcher said the park could use both a physical and online permit system if needed. Management is still discussing whether a fee will be associated with the permits as well.