Virginia's Spearhead Trails is an initiative of the Southwest Regional Recreation Authority, a state organization that develops and manages recreational trails throughout the southwestern part of VA. The Spearhead Trails banner manages all types of trails and trail development in the region, with OHV trails being the major focus for now. The OHV trails are organized under individual trailheads much like the Hatfield-McCoy Trails in West Virginia. Here’s a list and links to the trailhead information pages:
Ridgeview - Haysi, VA
Stone Mountain - Pennington Gap, VA
Coal Canyon - Grundy, VA
The Original Pocahontas - Pocahontas, VA
Mountain View - St. Paul, VA
Jawbone - Richlands, VA - Allows street legal 4x4s
Quick Info for the Mountain View Trails System:
Addresses:
Saint Paul: 3461 Hidden Acres Rd., St Paul, VA 24283
Information:
Permits:
Lodging: A full list of lodging options is available at the Mountain View Trail page, here.
Trail Maps:
Paper trail maps can be found at any of the select retailers where permits are available.
The Spearhead Trails website offers downloadable PDF maps, interactive Google Maps, and downloadable KML/KMZ files that can be used with any GPS or GPS application on your phone. Click Here for the Mountain View trail maps.
Fisher’s Offroad (formerly Fisher’s ATV World) visited Mountain View Trails prior to it’s official opening in 2013. See the full episode below:
Blog
The Mountain View trails can be accessed from the towns of Coeburn or St. Paul with St. Paul being the easiest to access most trails and amenities. I booked a room and bought my trail pass at the Western Front Hotel. I could have ridden to the trails from the hotel but I decided to just drive to the parking lot by the trailhead and unload there.
Spearhead gives you extremely nice access to their trail maps via Google Maps. I use a small handful of trail and GPS apps that work incredibly well, but to me it's hard to beat the power of Google and I was thoroughly impressed by their implementation of it. It does appear that since my trip in late December 2018 they've filled out the map more.
It's hard to rate singletrack because, at least in my experience, trails vary drastically depending on which way you stumble upon them. This is obvious when put into words but not so much when looking at a map and picking a trail to go ride, even with topo and elevation information.
I thoroughly enjoyed the trails at Spearhead’s Mountain View Trails. This place has massive potential and the state of Virginia is putting an incredible amount of time and money into their trail system overall. If you're looking for an alternative to Hatfield-McCoy, I definitely recommend a trip just a short drive away.
