Cherokee NF Ocoee / Tanasi OHV

Adventure Off Road Park is a 500-acre private riding facility in Marion County near South Pittsburg, Tennessee, positioned in the southern Cumberland Plateau foothills approximately 30 miles west of Chattanooga and 5 miles north of the Georgia state line. The park claims 120+ trails across its acreage, ranging from mild family-friendly loops through forested terrain to advanced technical routes with significant elevation change, exposed rock, and creek crossings consistent with the region's Cumberland sandstone geology. ATVs, side-by-sides, and dirt bikes are permitted across corresponding trail networks; 4x4 access is available on select routes. On-site amenities include primitive camping, RV sites, and a general store. The park hosts organized events and group rides throughout the riding season. Its location in the southwestern corner of Tennessee — near the junction of I-24 and US-72 — makes Adventure Off Road a natural destination for riders from Chattanooga, northern Georgia, and northern Alabama. ATV and UTV rentals are available for those visiting without their own machines.

Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area spans 125,000 acres of the Cumberland Plateau across Scott, Fentress, Morgan, and Pickett counties in Tennessee and the adjacent Kentucky section — a National Park Service unit built around the dramatic gorge of the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River and its tributaries. Unlike most NPS units that restrict OHV use, Big South Fork maintains 100+ miles of designated OHV roads and trails on the plateau surface above the gorge rim, specifically on the ridge-top terrain where the sandstone geology and former coal road infrastructure combine to produce genuine off-road driving opportunity without conflicting with the scenic river corridor that defines the park's protected character. ATVs, off-road motorcycles, and dune buggies are permitted on the designated OHV routes; the river gorge and adjacent sensitive areas are closed to motorized vehicles. There is no OHV permit fee or entrance fee for Big South Fork — one of the rare cases where major OHV access to a federally managed area is entirely free. Camping is available at the Bandy Creek Campground near the primary Tennessee access point outside Oneida. The Bandy Creek Visitor Center serves as the Tennessee staging hub and provides maps, condition information, and ranger contact. Kyle is the Kentucky access community. Season is year-round; trails may close temporarily after severe weather (423-569-9778).

Brimstone Recreation in Scott County, Tennessee, occupies 19,196 acres of the Cumberland Mountains and offers 300+ miles of marked and rated trails — a scale that rivals any OHV park in the eastern United States. The Cumberland Plateau setting is essential to understanding the Brimstone experience: the plateau's geology produces the kind of sandstone-outcrop, narrow-holler, steep-ridge terrain that makes eastern OHV riding distinct from western desert systems, and Brimstone has developed a trail system that uses every variation the landscape offers. The park's vehicle policy is a key differentiator: full-size street-registered 4x4 trucks are explicitly not permitted, making Brimstone an intentionally optimized environment for the dirt bike and side-by-side crowd. The trail system rewards machines that are purpose-built for the terrain rather than dual-use street vehicles. Day permits run approximately $29/rider and must be obtained at the Brimstone registration office in Huntsville, Tennessee — a requirement that means riders should plan for the registration stop before heading to the trail property rather than showing up at the trailhead. On-site ATV/UTV rentals are available for visitors who arrive without machines; primitive camping, RV hookups, and cabin rentals support multi-day stays. The park operates Sunday through Friday 9am–5pm, Saturday 8am–5pm, 365 days a year (800-274-6786).

Catoosa Wildlife Management Area is a 79,000-acre Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency WMA spanning the Cumberland Plateau across Cumberland, Fentress, Morgan, and Putnam counties — a massive contiguous block of state-managed land centered between Crossville and Jamestown on the upper Cumberland Plateau. The WMA contains the headwaters of the Obed Wild and Scenic River system and the upper drainages of the Clear Fork and New River watersheds that define the plateau's western edge. At this scale, Catoosa is a significant OHV riding resource for plateau-country riders in the central Tennessee market: the TWRA manages designated ATV and off-highway vehicle trails on portions of the WMA, providing access to isolated plateau terrain that would otherwise be closed to motorized use. The plateau landscape is the defining character of Catoosa OHV riding: the flat-to-gently-rolling sandstone plateau surface, the steep-walled gorge edges where the Obed drainages cut through to expose the lower coal-bearing strata, and the second-growth hardwood forest — oak, hickory, tulip poplar, and red maple — that has recovered from decades of coal mining and timbering activity that shaped the WMA's current land base and trail infrastructure. OHV trails in Catoosa connect the WMA's riding system into the broader Cumberland Plateau OHV corridor that includes private parks to the north (Brimstone, Royal Blue) and the Big South Fork national park unit. TWRA requires a high-impact habitat conservation permit for OHV use in designated zones. The TWRA Crossville regional office (931-484-9571) manages current permit requirements, OHV zone maps, and seasonal closures — Catoosa's autumn and winter hunting seasons impose periodic full-closure periods that OHV riders must plan around.