They've been trying to shut the place down for years....the Ranger patrols go in spurts, when there's lots of money being thrown the right way you'll see Rangers fairly regularly, but when the cash flow isn't going the right way you'll never see any. Technically, alot of the old Sun Oil Company roads are unmaintained but are still shown on some maps...so as long as you are tagged and insured theres nothing they can do about riding those trails anyway. They did manage to shut off the 'Narrows' (the Natural Bridge trail)....the'yre brilliant solution to that was to go in with heavy equipment and cut huge trenches at each end of the trail and then cut trees and let them fall to baracade the trail off. Way to be enviromentally friendly huh.
Anyway, there is still alot of kick ass trail riding that can be done down there.
When the Rangers are around hassling people, they go in and out mainly through the Southfork trail head. If your licensed and insured (no atv's or dirt bikes) there's nothing they can say to you (just hide your beer...it's a dry county and they'll hassle you about it).
We've started staying at Pleasant Valley (
http://www.naturalbridgekentucky.com/pe ... valley.htm)
John is a great guy and he supports the local riders. He'll rent you a cabin, or he'll let you throw up tents on the main grounds. Best thing is, the campground is gated and is private property so there's no one to hassle you. It's on the east side of Zachariah Rd too and if you know your way around you can ride alot of the trails and not have to worry about Ranger patrols (they mostly stay on the West side and drive around in stock Jeep Cherokees). Main thing to keep in mind is if you run into a decent gravel road, slow down and keep your group from chewing up the gravel.....alot of people who live in the area pay for their own gravel that leads to their driveways, and they will get thouroghly pissed when somebody comes through sideways grabbing gears.
Been going to Slade for over 25yrs....still one of my favorite places to ride.