Nationwide? We are wanting to do some camping but i only know a couple local places that i can fit down the trails. I’ve googled for it, but only coming up with some individual places, most of them being private barns.
Thanks!
Boy, great idea! Something that should be done, certainly, if it isn’t already available.
ADS started doing such a list through the recreational driving committee some time ago. Try there
I think I saw CAA trying to do the same thing recently so try there as well.
Problem with this is people need to send in input on trails in their area to build the list and keep it current.
You may want to contact both groups and offer to build the list from your area.
I think there is still a form asking for miles of roads, type of terraine, price or permission needed (if any), facilities, best if it includes places to stay over too.
There was info on Mohonk, Rockefellers and Stewart in NY. I think Garden State Club was doing some of the trails in NJ’s Pinelands
http://horse-n-driver.com/blog/?page_id=343
Has a map that I’ve added NC driving friendly trails to. He wants to have that as a resource for all sorts of driving.
I’m also a member of NC Horse Forum and have updated their “sticky” list of trails with what locations are “driving friendly”. You can go to http://forum.nchorsenews.com/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=5 to look for the “sticky” at the top of the forum. Membership is free and necessary if you want to post a question.
If there is a similar forum in your area, you could post to ask what trails are suitable for driviing. I’ve gotten far more information about driving friendly trails from NC Horse Forum than any other place.
Also, call the popular trail riding locations. My standard is if a 4-wheeler, a “mule” (non-equine), or tractor could be taken on the trails, then a horse can be driven on it. Many people just don’t know where a driving horse can go. I’ve been very pleased with the number of places in NC that we can drive at … and I’ve by no means explored all of them in the Triangle area.
The places that are always mentioned are H Cooper Black in South Carolina, Moses Cone in Blowing Rock, NC, and the New River Trail in western Virginia. I believe it starts in Galax, Virginia.
There is an awesome rail trail in West Virginia. The North Bend Rail Trail has 72 miles of wide, well-maintained old railroad bed complete with 13 tunnels and 36 bridges. It also passes through the North Bend State Park. It is open to pedestrian, bicycle, and equestrian traffic. The only problem is, in order to keep motorized vehicles off the trail, they have locked gates at the crossroads. Not a problem for riding horses, as there are paths around the gates. I have e-mailed to try to find out how one would go about getting a key to open and close the gates for horse-drawn vehicle traffic…no word back yet…
Details at this website:
http://www.wvparks.com/northbendrailtrail/
http://www.horseandmuletrails.com/index.html
Just look for horse trails like this site I have posted above. In the description of the trail sometimes you will see mention of wagons. They don’t tend to designate a trail for driving but just as horse trails, some are suitable for driving.
wagon trails in MS:
Longbow Trails - public
Cane Creek Bottom Trail Ride and Cookout, LLC. - private
Cowhorn Trails : Pheba MS - private
I know there are more I have found on sites in the past but yup it would be nice to have one site dedicated to driving trails across the country.
[QUOTE=selah;5057710]
There is an awesome rail trail in West Virginia.
http://www.wvparks.com/northbendrailtrail/[/QUOTE]
There is the Greenbrier River Rail Trail as well in WV.
http://www.greenbrierrivertrail.com/top-header.htm
For Va the ADS site mentions the New River area.
[QUOTE=NRB;5058484]
There is the Greenbrier River Rail Trail as well in WV.
http://www.greenbrierrivertrail.com/top-header.htm
For Va the ADS site mentions the New River area.[/QUOTE]
The New River trail would be fantastic. We have hiked on it. We would have to have a word of prayer with our horses as the railroad tunnel is very long and VERY dark. The trail is 50+ miles long.
the rail road trails sound awesome, will have to look into that more.
Thanks for the info thus far, some good sites, though some places “i” know i can drive arent listed as such, so i wonder how many good places we are missing out on because we dont know we can fit or not!
it would be nice to have them all in one place, but i’m sure it would be quite difficult to do so!
If you’re thinking about heading to North Carolina, let us know. We might be able to point you to some good places to drive.
Enjoy your trip!
[QUOTE=butlerfamilyzoo;5058947]
the rail road trails sound awesome, will have to look into that more.
Thanks for the info thus far, some good sites, though some places “i” know i can drive arent listed as such, so i wonder how many good places we are missing out on because we dont know we can fit or not!
it would be nice to have them all in one place, but i’m sure it would be quite difficult to do so![/QUOTE]
BFZ,
there are a ton of cart friendly trails down here in Central Florida–
very few are designated wagon trails and to be honest the ones I hve seen the powers that be tend to disk them up–for fire breaks. So I just use the regular horse trails. There are very few places down here a cart can;t get through.
Just to name a few–
Oleno State Park, River Rise section, nice camping, wide shady trail
San Felasco SP–just north of Gainesville, very nice
The Florida Greenway has several trail heads, some parts of it are more cart friendly than other, many offer camping,
I just returned this morning from a weekend campout (stalls and paddocks available as well as picket poles under the big oaks) at Lower Wekiva SP–they have many miles of trail all cart friendly. It connects up to Seminole Woods (no camping there) but there are miles of trail there all cart friendly.
Rock Creek Run SP has camping with stalls if you want first come first serve.
Goethe Forest offers 100s of miles of trails all wide and open to carts. Black Prong EQ center has apartments and stalls that can be rented, great facility. There are also many private homes that offer a RV hookups or have guest cottages.
Withlatcoochee Forest–Renab Ranch over in Lecanto does a big business.
There are private facilities I am hearing about through some local forums–7 L Bar or somehting of that nature , the R. O Ranch up above Gainesville, the McCauley Ranch up in Jasper FL, the Sea Horse Ranch up above Palatka FL.
Just a note–if you were to come south, I would do it between Oct and Mar, best time of the year down here.
http://www.americandrivingsociety.org/TG_main.asp
May I respectfully request that all you guys with trails info check to see if its on the ADS Trail guide. Love to have one place to go to check on trails in areas we may visit. Regional info is great, but somewhat harder to find when looking.
I just checked out the work that’s already been done and its pretty nice.
