New to the area

coloradoman

New Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2023
Location
Knoxville
I moved from colorado and sold my Jeep before I came out to Eastern TN because I thought, they don't get any snow and all their roads are paved.... Which seems to be somewhat true lol. I do have that 4wheeling itch and I know of a few places near knoxville, but I am missing the good ol public land with forest service roads that go through beautiful areas.
There are all sorts of books for off roading in colorado, and utah and california.... but the off roading material is limited out here. I am just looking for a good book that shows all the off roading trails in the area whether its NC or TN or even Kentucky.
I have books like this from colorado
Amazon product ASIN 1934838268I am just looking for some kind of resource, whether its a book or a website that shows these trails like this book does. Anybody know of a resource? I mean it took me forever even to find a forum, idk if TN even has one for it.
Even searching online it seems like trying to find a neetle in a haystack on documentation of off roading trails and the difficulty of them and the location of where they start.
 
East coast off road is mainly private parks IMHO. Best resource? You found it. We have Uwharriee in Troy, NC. Land Between the lakes north of Nashville. Those are the main two Forrest I can think of. There are all kinds of drives in East TN and West NC but most are paved. Personally I love Harlan, KY. Other may chime in but that is my .2
 
Now you know why we all dream of wheeling out west. There aren't really guide books like that here. I know of people who will pull out ye old Atlas and Gazatteer and start looking for gravel. There are also "adventure routes" that are fairly well documented.
 
I saw youtube videos of Hurricane Creek road and things like this.

I just wish there was a map of all things unpaved and 4wd required around here.
 
ghost said:
East coast off road is mainly private parks IMHO. Best resource? You found it. We have Uwharriee in Troy, NC. Land Between the lakes north of Nashville. Those are the main two Forrest I can think of. There are all kinds of drives in East TN and West NC but most are paved. Personally I love Harlan, KY. Other may chime in but that is my .2
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I don't even know what its like to pay to off road on private land. Its probably the main reason I haven't tried it because it seems pricey... and seems different. Its like an adventure to go on some of the trails in colorado where cell phone signal is spotty at best and its just you (an hopefully a friend) and nature for miles and nobody else even around.
 
coloradoman said:
I don't even know what its like to pay to off road on private land. Its probably the main reason I haven't tried it because it seems pricey... and seems different. Its like an adventure to go on some of the trails in colorado where cell phone signal is spotty at best and its just you (an hopefully a friend) and nature for miles and nobody else even around.
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LBarr2002 said:
Now you know why we all dream of wheeling out west.
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Again.
 
Harlan is pretty cheap, like $30 for a month pass or something. Windrock is pricey at like $30 per person per day. Still worth it.
 
Are you looking to drive in woods or wheel? Out here wheeling is driving over rocks for most of us. Harlan also also offers a yearly pass for $55 I believe it is. they have about 200 miles of roads too. Pay to play is an East Coast thing I guess. Never been further west than TN and KY. I'll be in Harlan about the 4th with a bunch of my xj nuts. Come on up and watch the fun. You also have AOP in Chattanooga and 3 or 4 parks around Nashville. What are you going to wheel around here?
 
ghost said:
Are you looking to drive in woods or wheel? Out here wheeling is driving over rocks for most of us. Harlan also also offers a yearly pass for $55 I believe it is. they have about 200 miles of roads too. Pay to play is an East Coast thing I guess. Never been further west than TN and KY. I'll be in Harlan about the 4th with a bunch of my xj nuts. Come on up and watch the fun. You also have AOP in Chattanooga and 3 or 4 parks around Nashville. What are you going to wheel around here?
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I was looking to rent. I called Harlan, it appears there is no jeep rentals around there. It would probably be a good place for a business.
I also saw this, seems like its still all public roads.
 
coloradoman said:
I was looking to rent. I called Harlan, it appears there is no jeep rentals around there. It would probably be a good place for a business.
I also saw this, seems like its still all public roads.
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If you see harlan, you'll understand why there's no jeep rentals. I believe windrock has sxs rentals.
 
DBBB is a good time. Hurricane Creek used to be, I haven't been in years. There's the Georgia Traverse, SCAR (SC Adventure Route), and I'm sure there's more stuff in north GA and Western NC.
 
LBarr2002 said:
DBBB is a good time. Hurricane Creek used to be, I haven't been in years. There's the Georgia Traverse, SCAR (SC Adventure Route), and I'm sure there's more stuff in north GA and Western NC.
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I wish it was all documented somewhere, it seems like most of the off roading seems to be from word of mouth unless you are going on the paid trails and even Harlan I didn't even know about.
 
Just so we're clear on your intentions: you're looking to rent something 4wd and do some wheeling like overlanding/trail riding/fire road type stuff, correct?

Duane
 
coloradoman said:
I don't even know what its like to pay to off road on private land. Its probably the main reason I haven't tried it because it seems pricey... and seems different. Its like an adventure to go on some of the trails in colorado where cell phone signal is spotty at best and its just you (an hopefully a friend) and nature for miles and nobody else even around.
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Welcome!

Park passes are by far the cheapest part of this hobby, yea it would be nice to not have to pay, but it is what it is. Windrock would be the closest type of wheeling to what you are used to, again you have to pay and it's not the cheapest, but the place is huge. Harlan is also huge.

There are tons of places to wheel down here, but they are parks and primarily obstacle driven type stuff, rather than we are all loading up and going somewhere remote type wheeling.

You are also right it's all word of mouth. I'm also a transplant down here in 2020, but have wheeled in the SE since 2001, and i knew of like 5 parks. After moving here and talking with people, there is plenty to keep one occupied for a few seasons and not hit the same park twice.
 
coloradoman said:
I was thinking of just doing a day trip with a jeep rental or a razor.
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I'd suggest finding local a 4x4 club, meet with them maybe find an open seat, wheeling here is so very much different from out west. If you rent I'd advise going with someone who also has another vehicle, while the parks are private, you still can get in a sticky situation quickly, another vehicle is always safer.
 
Book? These parts could be covered by a three page article.
Double spaced in number 12 font with one inch margins.

These fellas have pretty well covered it with a few other pay to play locations. Welcome to the "wheeling desert of the east". We got bout as much sand as we do wheeling. Little to none.
 
WARRIORWELDING said:
Book? These parts could be covered by a three page article.
Double spaced in number 12 font with one inch margins.

These fellas have pretty well covered it with a few other pay to play locations. Welcome to the "wheeling desert of the east". We got bout as much sand as we do wheeling. Little to none.
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You are sure? In such a mountainous and large area (East Kentucky, East TN, and East NC) you would think there would probably be at least 10 public trails of differing difficulty that all require 4wd. Maybe not the 50ish trails in Colorado, but still thats a decent amount.
 
No fries said:
I'd suggest finding local a 4x4 club, meet with them maybe find an open seat, wheeling here is so very much different from out west. If you rent I'd advise going with someone who also has another vehicle, while the parks are private, you still can get in a sticky situation quickly, another vehicle is always safer.
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lol yes I found out that another vehicle is always safer the hard way. In one of the most remote places in Colorado, I was on my way to enter the Sand Dune National park (which IMO is the best national park in colorado). I was coming from the less known back entrance. I was going down hill and just went over an obstacle that there was no way I'd be able to go back up, and then just right around the turn a beaver built a dam and flooded the road. It was flooded so high that I couldn't even tell where the other side of the road was with the vegetation being so high and flooded. It looked like the road just went into a pond and stopped. I waded into it a bit to try to figure it out and the water was about mid thigh at the deepest part but most of it was pretty shallow. So I went for it and drove into it, my jeep started to float and I lost traction on the back wheels, I managed to float for about 3 feet and then got traction again and somehow the engine didn't flood even with water coming over the front of the hood for a second. It would have been nice having someone winch me out of that situation.
 
coloradoman said:
You are sure? In such a mountainous and large area (East Kentucky, East TN, and East NC) you would think there would probably be at least 10 public trails of differing difficulty that all require 4wd. Maybe not the 50ish trails in Colorado, but still thats a decent amount.
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I'd be surprised if there were 10 public trails east of the Mississippi lol. Most of the land on the east coast is owned by someone other than the gov, and most of those people don't want you on their land.

Duane
 
CLRracer said:
I'd be surprised if there were 10 public trails east of the Mississippi lol. Most of the land on the east coast is owned by someone other than the gov, and most of those people don't want you on their land.

Duane
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Add to this most forest service roads that are 4wd required are still just gravel roads. Even Hurricane creek they have tried to smooth out and flatten to a point
 
CLRracer said:
I'd be surprised if there were 10 public trails east of the Mississippi lol. Most of the land on the east coast is owned by someone other than the gov, and most of those people don't want you on their land.

Duane
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There are some terrible things also about having so much government land out west. The problem is they have been using imminent domain to just take huge portions of land. Most of the land the government takes is really nothing special other than being remote, but I don't think its right, even if it means more 4x4 trails to drive on. The federal land out west has increased a huge amount over the past 20 years. Its just a land grab and it sucks.
 
coloradoman said:
You are sure? In such a mountainous and large area (East Kentucky, East TN, and East NC) you would think there would probably be at least 10 public trails of differing difficulty that all require 4wd.
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There's a reason why most of us that (ACTUALLY) wheel our rigs, have a trailer; Because you have to leave the state to go anywhere LEGAL to do anything offroad that isn't just a fire trail in a national forest.
coloradoman said:
I was looking to rent. I called Harlan, it appears there is no jeep rentals around there. It would probably be a good place for a business.
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If you go down that hole, visit Harlan and Evarts FIRST. The average income of the surrounding 3 counties is "Disability or Welfare Check" While it SEEMS like a great idea, you'll change your mind when you pass that 19-oh-God singlewide next to the river with no windows or doors with a single candle lit on a cardboard box with 2 kids warming their hands from the flame.
And I'm not exaggerating
 
Loganwayne said:
Add to this most forest service roads that are 4wd required are still just gravel roads. Even Hurricane creek they have tried to smooth out and flatten to a point
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This has been happening in Colorado too! A lot of the rough roads are being smoothed out or just closed because of environmental damage. Some famous 4x4 roads near boulder are permanently closed. Its really sad. I really don't think its fair to block the public from going on public land.
They recently paved cottonwood pass. I understand it makes things more accessible for everyone, but sometimes I would rather just have it as it is.
 
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