The owner of that lodge that said he cleared the road certainly should be in trouble. The guy was covering up for the fact that a road on his property that should have been clearly marked as dangerous was not.
I don't know if you saw that a lock on a gate on that road had been cut by vandals.
The gate was not in place.
The owner of the lodge never said he cleared the road. In fact he was the one that was upset because they didn't clear the road effectively.
Also from what I understand they used to have signs directing people to the lodge but vandals did a lot of damage over the winters where they finally had to remove to the signs.
In addition the Kim's car was not 1 mile from the Bear Lake Lodge - LE incorrectly reported the position. They were close or over 7 miles away from the lodge.
Bottom line is the locals all knew this area was a problem and people have been lost in this same exact area. The shame here is no one is learning from past mistakes - they keep making them.
Also LE nor SAR didn't find any of the Kim's...the Kim's - all of them were found by private citizens. How is that possible?
I doubt if there is any private roads in that area. Those lodges could be on Forest Service land with a lease but even if they sit on deeded land the roads are Forest Service and BLM.