Pisgah National Forest OHV

The Pisgah National Forest encompasses 516,000 acres of the North Carolina Blue Ridge in Transylvania, Haywood, Henderson, Burke, McDowell, Avery, Mitchell, and Yancey counties: the western North Carolina mountain terrain surrounding the Asheville metropolitan area, Brevard, and the French Broad River corridor, covering a distinctly different section of the southern Appalachian mountains from the Nantahala National Forest to the southwest. The OHV trail system operates on designated routes across the forest's Pisgah, Grandfather Mountain, Appalachian, and French Broad Ranger Districts, with the Pisgah District west of Brevard and the Appalachian District near Burnsville providing the primary riding terrain. The Pisgah District occupies the Blue Ridge escarpment at its most dramatic: the mountain wall where the southern Appalachian plateau drops abruptly to the South Carolina Piedmont, with the Davidson River, Mills River, and South Fork Mills River drainages carving deep gorges into the Blue Ridge face and creating a landscape of waterfalls, swimming holes, and forested hollows that makes the Pisgah one of the most recreationally intense districts in the entire national forest system. OHV designated routes thread through the forest terrain above the river gorges, climbing from the 2,000-foot valley floors to the 6,000-foot ridges of the Black Mountains and Great Craggy Mountains above Asheville. The Black Mountains (home to Mount Mitchell at 6,684 feet, the highest peak east of the Mississippi), provide the most dramatic Pisgah OHV terrain, with forest roads and designated routes on the lower slopes of the Black Mountain massif accessible from the Burnsville and Marion gateways. Asheville's booming outdoor recreation economy and the growing Brevard and Hendersonville markets drive significant demand for the Pisgah system. Pisgah Ranger District at Brevard (828-877-3265) manages current OHV route conditions.