Hillbilly Trails

Hillbilly Trails is Pike County's motorized trail system in eastern Kentucky: the largest county in Kentucky by geographic area, occupying the far southeastern corner of the state on the Virginia border, with the Appalachian ridgelines of the Breaks Interstate Park country defining the eastern edge. The system crosses private landowner leases across Pike County's hollows and ridges and into the Jenkins area, using the road infrastructure legacy of Pike County's coal-production era: former haul roads, mine access corridors, and logging paths converted to recreational riding routes. The permit system operates under Kentucky state law with a tiered structure: $10/year for Pike County residents, $25/year for adjacent-county riders, and $50/year for out-of-county and non-resident riders, an approach that deliberately supports local riders while remaining accessible to the broader OHV tourism market. The park markets night riding as a differentiator: Appalachian mountain riding after dark, on certain trail phases, is a specific experience marketed to riders who want something beyond standard daylight trail riding. The system is growing in phases as additional landowner agreements are secured, expanding the rideable network. The eastern Kentucky trail ecosystem (connecting Hillbilly Trails with the broader First Frontier network and the major destination parks of Knott, Letcher, and adjacent counties), creates multi-day riding itineraries from a Pike County base (606-432-6247).