Ayres Natural Bridge Park gets makeover thanks to unconventional approach

Scrubby plains and strafing winds dominate the landscape of central Wyoming. But from an Interstate 25 exit west of Douglas, a narrow road leads down a lush canyon where a natural stone bridge spans a serene creek. 

“It is a gorgeous park,” said Ayres Natural Bridge Park caretaker Christy Smith. “It is very, very tranquil.”

With red rock walls hugging a green expanse of lawns, campsites and leafy trees, the park attracts local visitors as well as tourists who marvel at Ayres Bridge — one of only three natural stone bridges in the U.S. that spans running water. But in recent years, the park facilities were showing their age, said Smith, who lives in the park and manages it with her husband, Traves. 

Cracks and rust appeared on decades-old playground equipment, and picnic tables weren’t up to Americans with Disabilities Act standards. The sprinkler system was ancient and the grills were run down. The Smiths started looking around for funding to help bring the park up to date, but funding isn’t easy to come by, Smith said. Grants are hard to get for established parks, she said, and the county has its own budget constraints. 

“And then I get this email,” Smith said. 

The missive proposed a grant to fund the park rehabilitation project. Smith was incredulous, she said. “At first I thought it was a scam.”

It wasn’t a scam. The author of the email was Lori McCullough, founder and CEO of the Great Outdoors Fund. The national organization is dedicated to expanding access to the outdoors and improving recreation opportunities through public-private partnerships. And she had zeroed in on the Ayres Natural Bridge Park as a candidate. 

Fast forward to June, and crews with project sponsor Occidental Petroleum, or Oxy, as well as Converse County commissioners and others spent two days pouring cement, installing playground equipment, replacing grills and building a new fire pit. 

The project has substantially improved the park, Smith said. 

It also sets out a model for alternative funding for outdoor recreation infrastructure and access in an era when government resources are challenged, inconsistent or in flux. 

“As these other funding sources become in jeopardy, it just makes more sense” to look to alternative ways to fund the projects, McCullough said. Across America, she added, “the need makes for limitless opportunities.”

Creative solutions

Wyoming’s outdoor recreation crowds have been growing for decades, and the COVID-19 pandemic fueled the trend when it fueled new interest in getting outside. 

Federal land management agencies like the U.S. Forest Service have been unable to keep staffing levels up even as maintenance and infrastructure backlogs have grown. Federal job layoffs and funding cuts in 2025 further limited their bandwidth, and nonprofits have attempted to fill the gaps with measures like hiring personnel to assist forest crews. 

The model used for the Ayres Natural Bridge Park project is another untraditional strategy. 

McCullough’s Great Outdoors Fund acts as a facilitator between private donors and outdoor projects that need resources. The end goal is to make the outdoors accessible to all, she said. Oxy, an energy company that has a significant presence in Converse County, went to her looking to fund a project in its target area, she said.

When she started researching potentials, she discovered the Ayres Natural Bridge Park. “And it just so happened that the county had decided on a significant investment in the irrigation system … and they didn’t have funding for any other upgrades,” McCullough said. 

She got in touch with the county, and soon after, sent the email that Smith suspected was spam. Agreements were drawn up, and with Oxy’s donation, the Great Outdoors Fund provided more than $100,000 for concrete pads, picnic tables, grills, a new four-way teeter-totter and a playground set, among other things.

Over two days in June, work crews and volunteers gathered in the park to complete the project.

The county is “thrilled” to be a beneficiary of the project, Commissioner Robert Short said, “because we want everyone to have the opportunity to enjoy this park.”

Along with addressing backlogs, Short said, he sees the project as an example of industrial development folks giving back to the communities where they work. 

Benefits

“It has completely changed the look of that area, and we are so happy with it,” Smith said. 

Smith has spent time in Ayres her entire life; her grandparents ran the park when she was a child. When she and Traves became caretakers four years ago, their priority was improving it for users, she said. This project took care of a lot of that work.

The benefits of natural spaces like Ayres Natural Bridge Park are immeasurable, McCullough said. “We can calculate the economic impact of recreation, but the impact on our health and well-being is incalculable,” she said. 

The county has plans to continue Ayres improvements. Phase two will entail redoing the walking path that encircles the park.