It's Virginia Route 601 that runs right up to the gates of Mount Weather. At one point, the government asked the local paper not to print any articles about the facility. But it is all but impossible to keep such a place secret. The Appalachian Trail runs right by Mount Weather, and hikers can get close enough to see signs and flashing lights. Photographing, making notes, drawings, maps or graphic representations of this area or its activities are prohibited.
Residents also tell of the time a hunt club chased a fox onto the site and triggered an alarm.
The club had to go to the main gate to get the dogs back. The POST published a picture of the facility, citing far-fetched speculation that Mount Weather's radio antennas may have interfered with the jet's radar and caused the disaster. You don't get into Mount Weather without an invitation. The entrance is said to be like the door to a bank vault, only thicker, set into a mountain made out of the toughest granite in the East. It is guarded around the clock.